It has been reported that Prudential are having second thoughts about distributing any of their £8.7 inherited estate. With all of the rest of the financial market place in a complete state of disarray why take a chance of rocking the boat, and as they say the surplus funds underpin the "with profit" funds, which have shown above average returns in the past few years, and as such remain one of our favourite fund managers. All other orphan payouts have followed the traditional line of adding windfalls on to existing bonuses with very little cash here and now, so Prudential by achieving above average results for policyholders seem to be doing the same thing, and that's what counts at the end of 25 years.
Furthermore, are the existing crop of policyholders really entitled to participate in an orphan fund built up over the past 100 years? Also, Prudential being a proprietary Company created the "with profit" fund with shareholders money in the first place, unlike some of the mutuals most of whom have now demutualised with the notable exception of Royal London, so to our mind the Directors at the Prudential are not completly wrong by sitting on their hands at the moment and doing nothing!