Standard Life still has £261m unclaimed

Standard Life still has £261m unclaimed

Three former members of Standard Life have been reunited with shares worth more than £100,000 each since the start of the year, but a further 222,000 members are yet to claim shares worth £261m due to them when the former mutual insurer floated last year.

The three policyholders in Colchester, Bristol and County Kildare have received their windfalls of more than £100,000 since Standard Life published its last tally of unclaimed shares in January.

Its latest list of unclaimed shares is topped by two customers in Derby with 36,923 shares worth £116,123 and 34,793 worth £109,424 and a policyholder in Glasgow with 36,614 shares worth £115,151.

Although about 7,000 people are coming forward each month to claim their shares and cash, Standard Life is trying to accelerate the uptake. The unclaimed shares sit in the insurers' unclaimed asset trust which will exist until 10 July 2016 when it will be distributed in a number of ways, including to charities.

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Standard Life floated last July at 230p. Its shares have risen steadily and closed last night at 316.25p, up 1.75p on the day.

The insurer believes that 20,000 former members - who are probably abroad - have failed to take up cash entitlements worth £18m.

The total of unclaimed shares amounts to almost 4% of the share register for the insurer.

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