The voting packs that will decide Standard Life's fate have been sent out to members and are encoura...
The voting packs that will decide Standard Life's fate have been sent out to members and are encouraging its 2.3 million members to vote against demutualisation.
The Standard Life Members Action Group has been given around 500 words of the eight-page pack to provide it the opportunity to put forward its case for demutualisation.
Addressing Standard Life members, Scott Bell, group managing director at Standard Life, said in the document: "Our mutual status puts you, our members, first and enables us to focus solely on your interests.
"We are proud of our record over many years of providing our members with market-leading returns and a high quality of customer service. We believe these stem directly from our mutual status."
As the campaign heats up, the insurer's feud with independent insurance analyst Ned Cazalet has been put on hold. However, a spokesperson from Standard Life confirmed that it will be issuing a writ against him following his release of a document criticising the life office's figures as it attempts to retain its mutual status.
In the document, Cazalet said that Standard Life has 530,000 endowment policies that are off target and believes that with the prospect of having to increase their mortgage outgoings, most policyholders are likely to be grateful of any available windfall benefits to help address shortfalls.
Standard Life is contesting this charge on the basis that all its policies have grown at a higher rate than projected when taken out. The insurer is also trying to demonstrate that demutualisation would not be in the interests of members.
Gordon Arthur, director of communications at Standard Life, said: "The history of recently demutualised life offices shows that bonus rates and pay outs have fallen significantly on maturing policies post-demutualisation."
The life office has predicted that its campaign to preserve its mutual status will cost in the region of £10m.
