This is policyholder advocate's original website which was launched on 21 November 2006.

This site has been regularly update during the reattribution negotiations but was closed to new information on 31 May 2009. We have kept it open as reference site.

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March 2009 Update

Dear Policyholder

You may have seen reports in the media of Aviva's preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2008.

There was relatively little commentary about the reattribution and I thought you might like to see the company's statement about that aspect of the business. The quote below confirms that the inherited estates have suffered significant falls, as announced in February this year.

'Our plans for a potential reattribution of two of our with-profits funds continue. Following substantial reductions in the value of equity and property investments, the inherited estate was £1.4 billion at the year end compared to £2.1 billion at the 30 June 2008. On this basis our original offer no longer meets our criteria of being fair to both policyholders and shareholders. Our negotiations with the Policyholder Advocate to create a restructured offer continue and we hope to be in a position to update policyholders in the next few months. This is in addition to the special bonus of £2.1 billion to policyholders, of which two-thirds has already been added to policies.

We are continuing to work intensively with Norwich Union/Aviva to restructure the deal that was announced in July 2008 when the estates were valued at £2.1billion.

Clare has commented: 'While more work remains to restructure the deal, I am very confident that we will succeed. I am aiming to keep the main planks of the July deal. That is, policyholders will have their own individual choice about whether to take cash, or turn down the offer, keep all their rights and be secure in the knowledge that they will be in much the same position as they are now, against a wide range of economic circumstances.'

We will keep you informed as soon as we have an outcome.

Yours faithfully

Jonathan Haslam
director of communications

 

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