Following the Dormant Assets Act 2022 which made dormant assets in the investment and wealth management sector eligible to be transferred into the Scheme, the FCA is planning to launch a consultation during the course of 2023 to enable the sector to participate. RFL will open the Scheme to investment and wealth management as soon as it is permitted to do so.

A key principle of the Scheme is customers’ lifelong right to reclaim. That means that the original owner of a dormant asset that has been transferred into the Scheme, or their beneficiary, is entitled to be fully reimbursed as if the transfer had never taken place. In the case that customers’ holdings include shares or unit trusts, they would receive the cash equivalent of the value of those holdings at the time they were reclaimed, in addition to any income on those holdings that they would have received if their share or unit holding was still held on the register. This includes any accrued interest, adjusted for any fees in line with the fund policy.

The government’s wishes are to ensure that FCA rules for paying away unclaimed assets and the Scheme operate in a similar way, allowing potential participants to choose between the two freely. As such, the government is keen to work with the FCA and RFL to ensure that both schemes continue to mirror each other in their approach to dormancy.