Asset reunification is the process through which people are located, contacted and reunited with unclaimed or ‘lost’ entitlements as a result of forgotten investments, savings or matured policies. A lost asset can take the form of a dormant bank account, unclaimed shares or a matured life assurance policy that has not been claimed.

Georgeson has developed a fully managed bespoke service, designed to maximise reunification response rates, plus make the process as simple as possible for our clients and programme participants.

The key steps for any Georgeson Asset Reunification programme are the following:

• Data cleansing and enhancement to improve the quality of customer records
• Research and tracing using specialist tracing software linked to our proprietary research database or at the probate office to locate individuals
• Initial contact using verification letters to positively identify individuals traced during research
• Claim form mailings to enable individuals to claim entitlements where applicable
• A dedicated inbound and outbound contact centre to complete identity verification and help individuals through the claim process
• Processing and back office administration including management of any programme documentation
• Customer fulfilment (e.g. cheques, address updates and welcome packs).

Following a merger, acquisition or demutualisation, shareholders often fail to exchange or claim shares or cash due to them (dissenting shareholders). Companies can waste time and money maintaining dormant accounts for dissenters, and strict regulations governed by the Companies Act 2006 can create new compliance issues. 

Our PostMerger CleanUp™ programme is an essential tool for companies wishing to locate individuals who have yet to claim their entitlement after an acquisition. These accounts often remain on an unclaimed or dissenter register due to the individuals having moved, changed names, or forgotten about their original holding. In the case of those that are deceased, the share certificates can be lost within the estate or may even be intestate. Commonly, shareholders will be on the unclaimed register because they are unaware as to what happened to their holding.

Many companies lack the in-house resources required to reach thousands of shareholders. However, our PostMerger CleanUp™ solution can reunite as many as 75% of ‘missing’ shareholders with their rightful assets within just two to three months, at no cost to you. 

Our programme can help you reduce your servicing costs and avoid negative publicity.

The first stage of any successful programme is to cleanse and enhance the data. Our data cleansing solution screens customer data against a variety of DPA compliant databases allowing you to enhance your consumer database through data de-duplication and appending additional information (e.g. phone numbers).

Data cleansing provides you with positive identification of individuals whose registered address has changed, enhances your consumer database and helps to ensure that you meet the minimum standards required to comply with DPA obligations and FSA requirements to Treat Customers Fairly.

Mortality screening enables you to screen your consumer database and identify customers that have deceased. This can be completed as a one off exercise or as a regular (monthly or quarterly) health check to ensure your customer records are accurate and current.

Mortality Screening significantly reduces the risk of fraud against your consumer databases and reduces direct marketing costs by ensuring that your customer details are current and up to date.

Research consists of using a number of DPA compliant databases to trace lost individuals in conjunction with sophisticated investigative research methodology, outbound calling and direct mailings to encourage response. The process includes ordering legal documentation such as probates on behalf of claimants through our Probate Officer.

Our specialised and experienced research division will run a thorough search campaign to determine the accuracy of customer addresses. In the event that a research lead is generated, data is uploaded onto our research database and a contact or verification letter is mailed requesting further information to facilitate contact with the individual on behalf of our client.

Georgeson offer a fully managed research and tracing solution. You can be confident that our results are some of the best in the business, your data will be held in the utmost confidence and that our team will always represent your company in a professional and courteous manner.

Organisations will typically not have been in touch with ‘missing’ or disengaged customers for a long period of time. It is imperative that identity verification is completed to positively identify individuals and protect the organisation from fraud.

To facilitate identity checks Georgeson will mail verification letters to all individuals located via our services to positively identify that we have traced the correct individual to a new address.

Georgeson offer a fully managed Identity Verification solution, allowing you to update your customer records with confidence.

We have the knowledge and experience in stakeholder communication to increase programme responses. Our programme documentation is designed to be simple and effective and can be built to your organisations specifications to enable you to communicate your own corporate messages.

All our communications are designed to be:

• Simple, clear and concise
• Easily responded to, with clear contact details
• Dual branded for validity where appropriate
• Legal & compliance approved
• Scannable, using templates set up for automated verification of high response volumes.

Throughout the programme our research team is supported by an inbound and outbound contact centre. Our dedicated contact centre team is highly trained on all Georgeson projects and offer a wealth of experience, such as inbound help line support, identity verification as well as undertaking outbound call campaigns to generate a higher level of response.

We can assist individuals in completing their claims through various ‘hand holding’ techniques that makes us stand out in the eyes of the individuals we deal with.

Back office support for Georgeson programmes are efficiently carried out through the processing of our fully scannable documentation, allowing rapid reconciliation and, where applicable, payment of entitlements. This has three key benefits:

1. It provides us with a full audit trail
2. It enables us to rapidly process large volumes of claims rapidly
3. It allows claimants to receive their entitlements within a short space of time.

Having a fast and efficient system allows us to allocate more project time and resource to researching goneaway or lost accounts.

As part of our end to end solutions we manage all print and fulfilment in house. This includes, where applicable, cheque fulfilment and payment services.

Under the Companies Act 2006, companies have an obligation to maintain a dissenting register of former shareholders for a period of 12 years after a takeover. When 12 years have elapsed, any unclaimed consideration should be paid into Court.

“If the shareholders cannot be found within 12 years of a takeover, any monies or securities due (including any interest accrued) should be paid into court.” The Companies Act 2006, Section 982.

The Georgeson Payment to Court solution enables companies to pay any outstanding funds into Court. Our solution ensures that you are fully compliant with the Companies Act 2006 and includes:

• Drafting a witness statement or affidavit on your behalf so that funds can be paid into Court
• Completion and lodgement of Court forms on your behalf
• Preparation of outstanding dissentient shareholder records
• Calculation of individual shareholder entitlements and allocation of the proceeds from the sale of the shares to the remaining holders
• Provision to the Court of a full breakdown of any dividend payments due to the outstanding shareholders
• Financial reconciliation of the individual dissentient shareholder consideration and interest
• Provision of records to the Court in a way which complies with The Data Protection Act
• Pay the funds in to the Court Funds Office, in accordance with their directions
• Liaison with the High Court Chancery Division and Court Funds Office on your behalf.

To find out more about the Georgeson Asset Reunification Services please contact us using the details provided below.

James Devon > Head of Business Development, Georgeson Asset Reunification

james.devon@georgeson.com
+44 (0)870 7020316
+44 (0)7789 205 104

Alternatively, you can email us at assetreunification@georgeson.com.

Or if you prefer you can write to us at our main office address:

Georgeson Asset Reunification
2nd Floor, Vintners Place
68 Upper Thames Street
London
EC4V 3BJ
United Kingdom