EQUITABLE LIFE MEMBERS

ANNUITANTS AND RECTIFICATION

Equitable Life RECTIFICATION - BULLETIN 4 - 24 October 2004

 

Equitable Life RECTIFICATION - BULLETIN 3 - 19 July 2004

 

Report to the FSA - 6 July 2004

 

Equitable Life RECTIFICATION - BULLETIN 2 - 4 April 2004

 

Equitable Life RECTIFICATION - BULLETIN 1 - 28 March 2004

NB In Equitable's 2002 accounts they mention that they are now going to review the Rectification Scheme and will be contacting those involved in the future.  This is a quote from the Accounts.

"At the time of the publication of the Interim Report last November, we announced that we were carrying out a review of the overall administration of the GAR rectification scheme. It became increasingly obvious during 2002 that the original proposals, launched by the Society’s former Board, to compensate holders of GAR policies who retired before the House of Lords’ ruling in 2000, needed to be changed. This review is now well advanced and has revealed that the original scheme is very complex, time-consuming and may not be fair to continuing members. As a result, we have decided to withdraw the current scheme and are now assessing alternative approaches that will speed up and resolve the longstanding need to provide appropriate, fair compensation for eligible policyholders in a sensible time scale. We will send details to those affected as soon as the proposals for the alternative scheme are completed, which will be within the next several months. We are aware that progress has been painfully slow and for that we are very sorry. We recognise that we do have a responsibility to meet the expectations of genuine claimants, but we also have a duty to all continuing policyholders in the fund."

You may like to contact Robert Morfee a lawyer who works for Clarke Willmott in Bristol 0117 916 9566
rmorfee@clarkewillmott.com. Their website is www.clarkewillmott.com. Robert has taken a great deal of interest in the Rectification Scheme and did write a report on the subject (click here) which was commissioned by EMAG.

N.B. THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS FOR HISTORICAL INTEREST ONLY

Rectification Questionnaire Update

There have been many queries from policyholders of Equitable Life regarding the Rectification Scheme that was ordered by the House of Lords in 2000. We now understand that Equitable are hoping to complete this by mid 2003.  We have also asked Equitable to either supply a statement regarding this that we can place on our web site and/or have information posted on their website.  So far we have not had a reply.

For the purposes of Rectification, the HoL ruling is deemed to apply retrospectively as if the client had access to the full fund vale (including final bonus) at the time of taking benefits. Also, it will look at what annuity he (or she) was offered and how it would have compared to a Guaranteed Annuity. Also, if the client took benefits before 60 without being aware of the GAR, would they, based on circumstances at the time, have acted differently.

Some comments received by policyholders from Equitable:

The young lady I spoke to told me that cases are taken at random and that retirement date is not taken into account!!

I have telephoned, always speaking to a different individual, about every 4 months since July 2000. I was originally given date BY Dec 2000 when the process would be well under way and would be completed by June 2001. The date moved when I next called to Dec 2001, then June 2002, then Dec 2002 and now the new date is June 2003.

My feeling is that they are trying to avoid dealing with these cases at all as I am always told that the systems "are not fully in place" and that "every case is different" etc. They do not know or will not tell how many cases have been dealt with or how many are still pending. I do not expect to see anything in my lifetime and have told my wife not to expect it after my death.