News Update for With Profits Annuitants - 29 January 2011

There have been two major announcements in the last few days that affect With Profits Annuitants.

a)    The Independent Commission has produced its report and whilst this is not directly relevant to WPAs, its report is linked to other documents produced by the Treasury. The links to those documents are set out below.

b)    EMAG announced at their AGM that, on legal advice from their solicitors and counsel, the board has decided not to proceed with the Judicial Review. On the EMAg web site, they state:

“The EMAG board voted unanimously to drop the action and concentrate on a long-term regional-led political campaign. The board would like to assure the pre-1992 with profits annuitants that we went the extra mile on their behalf and thoroughly stress-tested the legal advice.

But this does NOT mean we are giving up! Natural justice is on our side and we will pursue every worthwhile avenue open to us.”

There is a possibility that EMAG will pursue the campaign through Europe but that will be both expensive and extremely lengthy.

The conclusion that flows from this decision and the decisions made by the Government means that there is no possibility of any With Profits Annuitant who took out a policy before 1^st September 1992 will receive any compensation in the foreseeable future.

I realise that this will be a great disappointment to those WPAs but irrespective of your opinion of result of 10 or more years of campaigning, the Government has made its decision, a decision supported in both Houses of Parliament.

Some have argued that the Government misled Parliament in its statement to the house. The Government will disagree but in any event that is not subject to judicial review as it falls within Parliamentary Privilege.

For the other WPAs who will receive compensation, I have informed the Treasury that if they require any assistance from me in the implementation of the payment scheme I am at their disposal

Also at EMAG AGM Colin Slater announced that he was stepping down from his role as Chairman.  I cannot say that we have always been in agreement but we should never forget that without EMAG we would probably have got nothing at all and that in part is down to Colin’s hard work and dedication to the cause of ALL policyholders and we all owe him a word of appreciation for his efforts.

I will keep you updated from time to time of any developments regarding the implementation of the Payment Scheme.

Peter Scawen

29 January 2011

A) The Treasury

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/fin_equitable_life.htm

This leads to the Treasury’s main web site relating to Equitable Life within which you can navigate to other pages.

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/fin_equitable_life_faq.htm

This provides responses to Frequently Asked Questions, and covers all the questions and queries that have been addressed to me over the last year or so.

This is a letter sent by Lord Sassoon  to Lord Willoughby de Broke and is interesting as it is a clear exposition of the Treasury position on the whole Equitable Life payments scheme.

B) The Independent Commission on Equitable Life Payments

This links to the ICELP’s report page on their web site and which includes 15 separate documents including the main report and amongst others ELTAs submission.

http://equitablelifepayments.independent.gov.uk/publications.html

This provides responses to Frequently Asked Questions

http://equitablelifepayments.independent.gov.uk/faq.html

C) EMAG’s legal advice

http://www.emag.org.uk/documents/BindmansAdvice21Jan11.pdf