The action group acting on behalf of Equitable Life members has accused the company of dishonesty regarding the solvency claims of the firm. At Equitable's Annual General Meeting, short of 1000 policyholders were told that the Society was solvent by Mr Bellringer, the Chief Investment Officer.
The board of directors also approved the Chief Executive's bonus of £250,000. The directors of the firm told policyholders that the with profits fund was to reduce its exposure to equity investment, moving from 44% to 38%.T he question of solvency was raised when Equitable included £500m of future profits in its accounting to the FSA.
Apparently, the company now has £566m in excess of that required by the regulators. Take the £500m away and only £66m is left. A spokesperson for Equitable Life said that the figures submitted to the regulator were complete and using future profits when reserving is an industry-wide practice.
The spokesperson went on to say that Equitable have halved the amount of future profits used.