Editor was right - NO MORE TB at Standard Life!

Compensationitis

I am shocked but not suprised, if that is possible.

They short-changed us with the use of LAUTRO 'assumed expenses' and now they want their flipping ball back too!!

What a bunch of bandits, I expect a claim for defamation will be on the way soon but I really don't care.

EdInvestor

Not sure it had much to do with the Lautro projections in Standard's case Comp.

Basically, the TB money's gone because the markets crashed and Standard's WP fund was very heavily in equities ( that's why returns had been so good), plus the management left the fund in equities far too long and thus lost 80% of the free assets as well :( :mad: I would say the latter is the real problem.

Then the FSA said, after the Equitable drama, that all guarantees had to be reserved for properly in bonds, no mucking about, and any "promises" ( eg mortgage promises) had to be reserved for too or withdrawn and things like "the benefits of mutuality" also had to be reseved for or withdrawn - these things were also part of the TB and they've had to go as well. The FSA was right - in that you can't have insurance companies flinging guarantees around and then not being able to meet them because they've lost the money.But the timing was a bit unfortunate.

So the net result of all this is that the TBs have almost disappeared now.But I think we've probably reached the end of the period of really bad news. I doubt it will get worse than this for most people.

And it should start to improve from now on

The new capital that will be raised at the demutualisation should make up some of the loss.It's too early to say how much. It depends on how the stockmarket does over the next year and if the management does a good job of reorganising the company.They've sacked 2,200 staff already and closed the expensive free staff pension scheme and stopped selling unprofitable products, so they are saving money like mad.Their funds have improved a lot,and they have a new SIPP which is doing well, so I'm quite encouraged.Overseas biz has also done well and they've hired some excellent new senior staff

We'll just have to wait and see, but fingers crossed, I think there's now light at the end of the tunnel and they're on track for a turnaround.

Compensationitis

There will be no light at the end of this infernal tunnel if what I saw today comes out.