"Psagot Provident Funds and Pension Ltd. deliberately concealed money and deposits of members and rights holders in the fund who are unaware of their existence," claims a NIS 3.86 billion lawsuit filed today against Psagot Investment House Ltd., with a request that the court recognize it as a class-action suit. The claimant, Lily Levy, contends that Psagot Provident Funds and Pension failed to make a reasonable effort to locate beneficiaries and heirs of deceased members, so that they would receive inheritances.
Levy contends, "The respondent, instead of trying to locate rights holders and try to notify them about the deceased's money, as it is required to do, did exactly the opposite. Through active and initiated measures, it severed contact, put barriers in place, and made it difficult for people to obtain basic information about the accounts of a deceased member."
Levy adds that Psagot stopped sending reports on material matters related to the deceased members' affairs, as well as with members who severed ties with it, while raising the management fees it charged in violation of the law, withheld online access to the accounts, and even programmed the call center to make any inquiry about a deceased member's account into a complicated task," which resembled more a game of chance than a simple data check".
Levy, 73, contends that her 92-year old mother died in 2005, and that she was the sole beneficiary of her mother's assets. Levy contends that, prior to her mother's death, she had an independent account at Gadish Provident Funds, and listed her daughter as the beneficiary. Levy contends that since her mother's death, and through 2011, Psagot did not contact her, even though she was the listed beneficiary of the deceased, and that only by chance, based on an old manual record found by her husband, did she discover that her mother had an account at Psagot.
"This is an illegitimate policy by Psagot to deliberately conceal money and deposits of members and rights holders, who, due to their death and for various reasons are unaware of the unclaimed funds. These members' capital, the existence of which is concealed from its owners and those eligible to it, is managed by the respondents as trustee, undisturbed, in order to gain profits at the expense of savers," states the statement of claim.
It goes on to state, "For the respondents, the conspiracy of silence about the money it holds is desirable, as a commercial method that generates profits estimated at many millions. This claim was filed to deal to eradicate this conduct."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 15, 2012
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