Government plans to fund charities with dormant financial assets

To help customers find unclaimed assets, the ABI is launching a Register of Consolidations to assist customers in locating long-term savings assets following mergers and acquisitions of companies.

The Commission reports there is up to £2bn in untapped assets including £715m from investments and wealth management, £550m from pensions and insurance (approximately 0.03% of total assets under management), £150m from securities and £140m from banks and building societies.

Responding to the recommendations of the Dormant Assets Commission the ABI says the insurance industry is always exploring new ways to keep customers engaged and prevent assets from being unclaimed in the first place, such as through the Pensions Dashboard project currently in its prototype phase. a

Yvonne Braun, Director of Policy, Long‑Term Savings and Protection at the ABI, said: “We welcome the Commission’s recommendations to expand the scope of the Dormant Assets Scheme to certain assets within the long-term savings industry. The industry is committed to staying in contact with its customers and in addition to funding good causes we hope the expanded Dormant Assets Scheme will also lead to more customers being reunited with their assets.

“The launch of the ABI’s new Register of Consolidations will make it much easier for customers to find out which company now looks after their lost assets. In future, the pension dashboard infrastructure should ensure consumers don’t lose track of their pension assets in the first place.”

Andy Parsons, Managing Director in Life, Pensions and Investments at Scottish Widows and Chair of the ABI Longstanding Customers Committee, said: “On behalf of the ABI Longstanding Customers Committee, I would like to welcome the proposed extension of the successful Dormant Assets Scheme in Banking to include unclaimed Insurance customer assets. Our members make considerable efforts to trace customers, but where these are unsuccessful, the Dormant Asset Scheme will provide an alternative route to help towards the constructive return of these assets.”