The offer to distribute the Estate of the Royal Liver Sub-Fund sooner

As the UK High Court approved the UK Scheme at the Sanction Hearing held on 5 December 2022, we intend to implement the Irish Scheme on 31 December 2022. We’ll write to you early in 2023 to confirm the effect of the Irish Scheme on your policy.

The Irish Scheme was approved at the Sanction Hearing held on 23 November 2022 at the Irish High Court.  

Royal London UK will now go to the UK High Court and ask it to approve the UK Scheme at the Sanction Hearing, scheduled to take place 5-6 December 2022. If the UK High Court approve the UK Scheme we intend to implement the Irish Scheme on 31 December 2022, and we’ll then write to you early in 2023 to confirm the effect of the Irish Scheme on your policy.

The Policyholder Meeting was held on Thursday 20 October at 11am at The Morrison Hotel, Ormand Quay Lower, Dublin 1, D01 K5X5. A number of Eligible Policyholders attended the meeting either virtually or in person and were able to put questions to the panel and cast their vote on the Irish Scheme, if they hadn’t already done so.

The independent voting scrutineer, Civica Election Services (CES), has now confirmed the final results of the policyholder vote on the Irish Scheme.

The vote passed with 95.9% of those policyholders who voted, voting in favour of the Irish Scheme; and those who voted in favour held 96.9% of the total Voting Value of everyone who voted.

If the vote on the UK Scheme is also passed, we’ll go to the Irish High Court and ask it to approve the Irish Scheme at the Sanction Hearing. This is scheduled to take place on 23 November 2022.

In October, the UK postal service has scheduled further strikes which may delay delivery of postal votes. As your postal Voting Form will be returned to our independent registrar, who are based in the UK, there may be delays in them receiving it.

If you would like to vote, we would encourage you to do this online. If this isn’t possible don’t worry, please just post your voting form as soon as you can to ensure that we receive it by 12 noon on 18 October 2022.

At the Convening Hearing for the proposed Irish Scheme held on 21 June, the Irish High Court approved the convening of a Policyholder Meeting for the relevant Royal London Ireland policyholders.

At the Convening Hearing for the proposed UK Scheme held on 28 June, the UK High Court approved the convening of a Policyholder Meeting for the relevant Royal London UK policyholders.  

As this approval has been given, we’ll write to you during August/September with a formal offer and ask you to vote on it.

We applied a one-off Uplift of 23.1% to your eligible policy values at 11.59pm on 31 December 2022. We’ll write to you throughout January 2023 to March 2023 to confirm that the changes have been made. If you have a policy with a With Profits investement we will also top up your Eligible Policy Value by applying the same Uplift for any Eligible Payments you make into your policy after the offer has been implemented as and when you pay them. The amount or the frequency of the Eligible Payments you make won’t be affected by the offer.

Non-Eligible Payments are any payments that are made into your With Profits investment after 31 December 2021 and that are in excess of the level of payments that were due to be made into your With Profits investment at that date. Please note that any Non-Eligible Payments you make would still be applied to your policy and invested as you wish. They just wouldn’t be eligible for the Uplift under the offer.

The vote passed with 95.9% of those policyholders who voted, voting in favour of the UK Scheme and those who voted in favour held 96.9% of the total Voting Value of everyone who voted.

Your policy entitled you to share in distributions from a pot of money called the Estate which was held in the Royal Liver Sub-Fund, and which helped to protect your policies against future risks and to meet rules set by our regulators.

Previously some of the Estate could be distributed by increasing your policy value each year and by potentially adding an extra amount when your policy is claimed. However, the amount which could be distributed to you was uncertain because it depends on the size of the Estate when the policy is claimed.

The offer is to distribute more of the Estate to policyholders like you sooner than would otherwise be the case. This increased the current value of your policy and gave you more certainty over the amount we’ll pay to you or your family when your policy is claimed.

In exchange, you were asked to give up an amount from the Estate (known as the Scheme Contribution). So, the offer involves you giving up some of the Estate to gain certainty over your distribution from the Estate.

The offer affects you and certain other policyholders holding policies managed in Ireland, as well as certain other policyholders holding policies managed in the UK. Both groups of policyholders voted on the offer under separate legal processes.

• In Ireland, we’re following a legal process called a Scheme of Arrangement (the Irish Scheme). This process gives you and certain other policyholders the right to vote on the offer.
• In the UK, The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited (Royal London UK) is following an equivalent legal process. We call this the UK Scheme.

The offer can only go ahead if both the Irish Scheme and the UK Scheme receive enough votes in favour, and legal approval is given. In Ireland, we asked the High Court of Ireland (the Irish High Court) to approve the Irish Scheme.

Both the Irish Scheme and UK Scheme votes were passed, and the offer received the necessary legal approvals. We implemented the changes on 31 December 2022.

A pot of money called the Estate is held back in the Royal Liver Sub-Fund to protect you and other policyholders against future risks and to meet regulatory rules. Whenever there is more money in the Estate than required (for example, if these risks don't materialise), the excess is distributed to policyholders who are entitled to share in distributions from the Estate. You can think of the Estate as a ‘rainy day fund’.

We understand that some of this information is technical. Please read your Voting Pack carefully and consider discussing it with a trusted friend or family member.

If you still need help, please feel free to call us on 1800 00 11 52 (or 00 353 1 429 3301 if you’re calling from outside Ireland) between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

We can explain the offer and do our best to answer any questions you may have. However, we can’t give you financial advice.

If you’d like to receive financial advice and you don’t have a broker, you can find a professional in your area. Brokers may charge for their services, but they should agree any costs with you upfront.

The offer would give you and other policyholders a known distribution from the Estate. This means you’ll have more certainty over the amount we’ll pay you or your family when your policy is claimed. The offer is being made now so as many policyholders as possible can benefit from it.

The offer is also part of our plan to simplify and modernise the way we do things for the benefit of our longstanding customers. The offer will help us become a more efficient business.

The changes were implemented on 31 December 2022. We'll write to you in early 2023 to confirm the impact on your policies.

In order to make sure that the Irish Scheme is fair to our policyholders: 

• We've considered the interests of our policyholders internally within Royal London Ireland. 
• We've shared information about the offer with our Regulator. 
• An Independent Expert has reviewed the offer and provided a report to the Irish High Court on the fairness of the offer. 
• Policyholders like you will be asked to vote on whether the offer does or doesn’t go ahead.
• The offer must get Irish High Court approval, even if enough policyholders vote in favour of the offer. 

As the offer would also affect certain policyholders with policies managed by Royal London UK, they're separately following a similar process in the UK to ensure that the offer is fair to its policyholders. Even if the Irish Scheme is approved by the Irish High Court, the offer cannot go ahead unless the UK Scheme is also approved by the UK High Court. 

Yes, please don’t worry. Nothing is going to change to how your policy is administered and we will still pay out your policy to you or your family when it’s claimed.

The Royal London Open Fund, just like the Royal Liver Sub-Fund, is in a healthy financial position and is well-equipped to protect the Eligible Policies against future risks and to meet regulatory rules.

We understand that everyone needs to be cautious these days. You may not recognise Royal London Insurance DAC. We are a subsidiary of The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited (Royal London UK) registered in Ireland. Royal London UK is the largest mutual life, pensions and investment company in the UK. Your policy transferred from Royal Liver to Royal London UK in 2011, and then transferred to us in 2019. We’ve been looking after your policy ever since.

To help you feel safe, you can find us registered with the Central Bank of Ireland at registers.centralbank.ie.

The amount or frequency of the payments you make won’t be affected by the offer.

No. We’ll continue to administer your policy in the same way.

The Irish Scheme won’t apply to you if you are not an Included Policyholder for the purposes of the Irish Scheme. This might happen, for example, because of one of the following occurring before 11.59pm on 31 December 2022:

Pension Policy

• You take your retirement savings; or
• Your policy becomes payable as a death benefit to your beneficiaries; or
• You transfer your policy; or
• You switch out of your With Profits investment.

Endowment Policy or Whole of Life Policy

• The Life Covered dies; or
• You cash in your policy early; or
• Your Endowment Policy reaches the end of its term; or
• You switch out of your With Profits investment; or
• You choose to stop making Payments into your Contingent Bonus Policy early; or
• Your policy ceases to entitle you to share in distributions from the Estate

You should read Section 8 of Part B of your Explanatory Booklet for further details on tax implications of the offer. If you are unsure how this impacts you, you may wish to talk to a Financial Broker.

Please complete the update your details form or give us a call on 1800 00 11 52 (or 00 353 1 429 3301 if you're calling from outside Ireland) between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays). There may be certain documents we need to update your details.

If you’ve told us about the person that you’ve appointed under your power of attorney or further to a Ward of Court application this Voting Pack has been sent to them to act on your behalf. The person appointed under a power of attorney or Committee appointed further to a Ward of Court Order will be able to vote on the offer on your behalf.

If you’ve appointed a person under a power of attorney, but haven’t told us yet, please contact us by post at FAO Legacy Team, PO Box 12995, Dublin 2.

Please ensure they include the full power of attorney document, their date of birth and their contact number. You should then tell that person about the offer and discuss this Voting Pack with them.

If your power of attorney has any questions about registering the power of attorney with us contact us on 01 429 3440 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

If you've been declared bankrupt, ownership of your relevant eligible policies may have automatically transferred to the official assignee. This may mean that the official assignee will be entitled to vote in your place. This is because they have been appointed to administer your affairs by the court. If this applies to you, you should share the Voting Pack with them.

If you’ve been declared bankrupt recently or you think we may not be aware of your bankruptcy, please contact us on 01 429 3440 between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

If you’ve been declared bankrupt, you may continue to be the Eligible Policyholder and the person entitled to vote on the Irish Scheme in relation to your Eligible Policy. If our records indicate that this is the case, we’ve sent the Voting Pack to you. If our records indicate that your Pension Policy automatically transferred to the official assignee, we’ve sent the Voting Pack to the official assignee. If your Eligible Policy provides retirement benefits and your official assignee may have an interest in it, you should share this pack with them.

We’re sorry to learn that the policyholder or Life Covered has passed away. Their executor or next of kin should call us on 01 429 3440 and we’ll talk them through what they need to do.

We’re happy to provide your documents in a different format, such as Braille, large print or audio. Just call us on 1800 00 11 52 (or 00 353 1 429 3301 if you’re calling from outside Ireland).