Barbados Today

After a few hiccups in the beginning with frustration over an early rush, all appears to be settled and moving smoothly as Resolution Life Assurance Company Ltd (ResLife) enters its seventh week of payouts in cash and bonds settlement to former CLICO policyholders.

ResLife’s Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator Geralyn Edward revealed that to date, more than 6,000 policyholders have received their payments from Government’s settlement package of $103 million in cash payouts and $300 million in bonds.

She revealed that the operations of ResLife are expected to wind up by September 6, as the insurance company moves to execute Government’s plan to liquidate the state-owned entity and offer payouts to its policyholders. To fast track this process, the company has temporarily brought on 26 people to staff ResLife’s Worthing Corporate Centre.

But Edward pointed out that the only problem at this current juncture are those policyholders for whom the company has no contact information or current address.

She said: “In an effort to complete the process, ResLife is asking former policyholders who have not received settlement letters to check the local newspapers in the coming days.

“The names of over 1,200 policyholders who are eligible for payments but for whom ResLife has no contact information or current addresses will be published.

“Following the announcement by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mia Amor Mottley in her March 20, 2019 Budget that ResLife wrap up its operations and undertake the orderly dissolution of the company, thousands of policyholders have received cash payments of up to $20,000 and Government bonds.”

In a town hall meeting two months ago, it was revealed that eligible policyholders were those holding active policies as of March 31 that had a positive net cash or fund values. Claims that remain unpaid up to March 31, as well as surrendered cash value claims that were unpaid for the same period, are also eligible to benefit. Pensions and Flexible Premium Annuities are also on the list to be paid.

It was also revealed that policyholders with two or more policies that cumulatively amount to more than $20,000, will still only receive one cash payment of $20,000 and the balance in bonds.

But policies that do not generate a cash value would not be part of the settlement process. Among these would be, term life policies, critical illness policies, individual health policies or group policies and lapsed policies. It was also noted that the company was in the process of selecting bidders to give some of these policyholders the option of switching.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb