Check if Standard Life have received your voting form

JCL

cauley1 wrote:

This is not true - you will still receive your shares regardless of whether you have returned anything.

Not correct. Maybe I didn't word my previous post correctly.

Standard Life have stated that they will only issue shares to those who they are satisfied they have correct address etc. for.

This was why they asked members to confirm their details last October. Alternatively, by voting you confirm your details are correct.

If they do neither then they ain't going to be receiving their shares until they take some action.

This is covered on their website:

An eligible member will not be sent a demutualisation entitlement unless we are satisfied that we have a valid address for that eligible member recorded on our systems. This is for security reasons so that we can be satisfied that demutualisation entitlements are being sent to the right people.

We have written to people who, according to our records, are expected to be eligible members asking them to confirm or update their address and policy details. Eligible members who complete and return a voting form will also be treated as having confirmed their details.

Where we have been unable to satisfy ourselves that we have a valid address for an eligible member recorded on our systems, the demutualisation entitlement of that eligible member will be held for and on behalf of the relevant eligible member in the Unclaimed Assets Trust described in the proposal document (except in the case of shares provided by way of demutualisation entitlement to eligible members in respect of Pension Scheme Member Policies which will, unless we otherwise receive timely instructions, be automatically sold on the flotation of Standard Life plc to provide policy enhancements).

unsure - are you eligible to vote?

unsure

JCL,
what you is saying is at odds with my advice their helpline this afternoon. I had not registered and therefore was inelgible to vote. Having read this thread and gone back through the documentation it did indeed appear to say what youa are suggesting...that unless one has confirmed one's details in order to register to vote there will be no windfall. That's why I called the helpline. Their up-to-the-minute version is that there will be an opportunity to confirm details and receive windfall payment AFTER the vote (June). Going back over the documentation I would now say their is an ambiguity which allows for 2 possibilities which are not incompatible:

1. You have to confirm your details and register then vote to receive a windfall payment.
2. In the event of a dm payments will only be made to those who have confirmed their details.

In answer to my specific question "So, are you saying that if I do nothing now I can still get a windfall? the reply was...
"Yes. But you'll have to confirm your details when we send out information after the vote."
Q: "So I don't have to do anything now to qualify."
A: " No, it's easiest at this stage to just wait till we send out paperwork in June and then confirm your details then."
He seemed pretty sure of himself and I can't see why he would lie in the circs...on the other hand a cynic might say that Standard Life had a vested interest in encouraging as many policy holders as possible into reigistering and voting for the dm and might just have used a bit of a scare tactic to achieve that.

JCL

So let me get this straight:

1. Are an 'eligible member' entitled to vote?
2. Did you receive the confirmation of details form last October?
3. Did you receive a share allocation statement and proposal last month?

If so, then why didn't you confirm your details and/or vote? Still got time as deadline for voting by post is midnight this Sunday.

JCL

More on this in today's press:
http://business.scotsman.com/banking.cfm?id=766792006

unsure - would be interested to hear the answer to my questions? Just that you 'register to vote' as you say by being an eligible member and holding a suitable with profits policy. If you are an eligible member then you would have received both the confirmation of details form and your voting form (assuming you kept your address up to date).

There is no "registration to vote" as such - it's by virtue of the policy you have.

unsure

jcl
Been offline. I'm touched at your concern for my well-being.
1. Yes I recieved the Oct pack. I did not complete or return it like the other 499,999 crazy people you mentioned....so
2. No
3. No
However on seeing your post implying that those who did not confirm details and vote would not receive a windfall payment I read the docs which seemed ambiguous as is the website quotation you provided. I have suggested, and on reflection remain convinced, that it is intentilonally worded to lead to the inference you drew...that not confirming details and voting would lead to non-payment of dm windfall. However, on closer inspection all it really says is that they will not pay out any wf until/unless details have been confirmed.

So I called Standard Life. They confirmed that I held a qualifying policy and told me directly that not voting..or confirming details in order to vote (what I loosely called "registering" --apologies if that made anything unclear) would not affect any windfall arrangements. They said there would be an opportunity to confirm details in June after the vote if a dm was agreed and wf resulted and suggested waiting until then would be the simplest thing.
As you say, for those eager to vote, there is still time to do so.

That satisfies me and seems to be the understanding of several other posters.Obviously, you see it differently. Do you have any reason other than the quote you offered (which I do not believe precludes my viiew) for thinking the situation may be otherwise?
Since we can't both be right perhaps it would make sense for any concerned SL policy holders to check their position with the company as I have done in my own case.

JCL

So you will still need to confirm your details in June to get demutualisation entitlement if the vote goes through.

Seems mad to me that you couldn't be bothered to complete a simple form or vote but each to their own. Just that if everyone else had taken the same stance then you wouldn't have any demutualisation entitlement to receive.

Remember that even if >75% vote in favour the Court can still knock it back if the turnout isn't deemed to be high enough. Sure that won't be the case but seems incredibly lazy to me.

Interesting that you received the confirmation of details form in October but not the voting form and share allocation details in April. My understanding was that even if you didn't fill in the form last October you still had the opportunity to do so by voting.

As I said it's a free world but as you point out ultimately you will still have to confirm your details so in my opinion it would be better to confirm those details at the same time as having your say on the outcome.

unsure

JCL
Would that be your way of acknowledging that you may have misunderstood the situation and alarmed people unneccessarily?... in which case you might want to clarify that so that everybody knows where they stand, or do you still have some reason to assume thaere is any validity to your earlier somewhat alarmist ( and, I beliieve, inacurate) statement?

JCL

You mean the "alarmist statement" that is contained within Standard Life's own questions and answers section on their website. I would be inclined to take that as concrete rather than one person on their helpline and besides they also stated you will have to confirm your details before you get any demutualisation entitlement.

As stated in the answer you provided as being given by the helpline:
A: " No, it's easiest at this stage to just wait till we send out paperwork in June and then confirm your details then."

Thus members will have to take some kind of action before getting their entitlement. If they didn't confirm their details, vote or reply to the suggested June mailing with further details re: shares then they will not receive their entitlement.

unsure

JCL
you wrote in your original post:

" if you didn't complete the validation form last October and don't vote in the SGM you won't get any windfalls subject to the demutualisation being approved."


I and several other posters believe that to be incorrect. The SL helpline says it is incorrect. The only piece of evidence you have provided does not support your statement that those who have not already confirmed their details and voted before the deadline will receive no windfall. It does support the view held by others and confirmed by the SL helpline that it will be possible to claim a windfall payment AFTER the vote by confirming details later. That is in direct contradiction to what you have said.

When I told you that was their advice you said it was incorrect.


It is not the fact of having to confirm details that is problematic, it is your assertion tha those who have not done so and do not vote by the deadline will not recive a dm windfall that is at issue. Since you may have alarmed people unneccessarily, albeit while attempting to be helpful, isn't it incumbent upon you to either:

1. Provide convincing evidence that your view is correct and that people do indeed NEED to act promptly and confirm details or lose any potential windfall.
or
2. Acknowledge that that is not the case and that policy holders may indeed collect a windfall, if one becomes due, by confirming details later. ??

It is the simple matter of fact that needs to be establsihed for users of the site. Having raised the issue, don't you want to allay any fears you may have unduly ,and I'm sure, unintentionally, raised? If you can provide evidence that my reading of the situation is wrong I will happily accept it and apologise. Surely the important thing is for SL policy holders and users of this site to have the correct information, isn't it?

Obviously you want to encourage people to vote, fair enough, but I presume you wouldn't want to mislead people into doing so or to worry and upset those who have not done so.

I am not seeking a row. When I found out that your original remark might not be correct I passed on the information so that MSE'rs needn't worry if they were among the crazy half million who didn't confirm details. If I am wrong please tell me, and them, why.

JCL

You've quoted but missed out the most pertinent bit which I have said all along and you have had confirmed by the helpline - you need to confirm your details with them in order to get your demutualisation entitlement.

I did state in my post following that I may not have worded it clearly initially.

Eligible members will have 10 years to claim their shares. All I'm saying is that if you didn't complete the form last October and/or vote then you will need to take action following the demutualisation to get your shares. If you are lazy, sit back do nothing and don't reply to anything Standard Life send then you won't get them.

Will post the following taken directly from the Q&A on Standard Life's website. This also suggests you should have still got your 'vote and proposal' pack even though you didn't complete the form last October.

We have written to people who, according to our records, are expected to be eligible members asking them to confirm or update their address and policy details. Eligible members who complete and return a voting form will also be treated as having confirmed their details.

Where we have been unable to satisfy ourselves that we have a valid address for an eligible member recorded on our systems, the demutualisation entitlement of that eligible member will be held for and on behalf of the relevant eligible member in the Unclaimed Assets Trust described in the proposal document (except in the case of shares provided by way of demutualisation entitlement to eligible members in respect of Pension Scheme Member Policies which will, unless we otherwise receive timely instructions, be automatically sold on the flotation of Standard Life plc to provide policy enhancements).

Q&A available here:
http://ukgroup.standardlife.com/content/demutualisation/qanda/de_qanda.html

I stand by my original assertion that eligible members must confirm their details to Standard Life or they will not receive their shares. By no means am I saying it has to be done by the SGM. As per their proposal document entitlement will be held in the above mentioned Unclaimed Assets Trust for 10 years.

If you do absolutely nothing, you will get nothing. Eligible members must take action be it now by voting or at some point during the 10 years after the SGM.