Army veteran’s £86k windfall reunited with son after 30 years

Award-winning designer Christopher Lenaerts- Gerard buried his father, a decorated Royal Artillery colonel who joined the Army as a boy soldier at 14, in 1991. Thirty years later, the 71-yearold from Devon has just come into a surprise £86,000 windfall from a decades- old insurance policy he never knew existed.

It is the culmination of an 11-year search for the owner of an investment bond dating back to the 1970s, which his father had purchased for £ 5,000. “Good old dad, I thought,” Mr Lenaerts- Gerard said when recollecting the moment insurance company Prudential first told him of the surprise inheritance.

“I invested £10,000 for both my children when they were born and it allowed them to both put a deposit of £50,000 each on their first homes. It is a great example of the power of stocks over time.”

It transpired the solicitors who had dealt with the estate of his father had overlooked the bond, bought for £5,000 in 1977, which had increased in value by more than 1,600pc. The search for the rightful owner of the money started in 2009, when Prudential’s systems flagged up Mr Lenaerts- Gerard’s father as “gone away”.

The insurance company suspected the man had died, but were unable to contact any next of kin. It was not able to reach the family until 2020, when it made contact over the internet. It has left Mr Lenaerts- Gerard with a complex tax question of what he may pay in death duties or investment profits taxes, but he said the news was a pleasant surprise.

“It has been a headache to deal with, but better than playing sudoku as most pensioners do,” he said.

Lost assets eventually fall into the hands of the state. The Government recently announced an £ 800m expansion of its dormant assets scheme, which funds charities via forgotten bank accounts. It will soon incorporate lost pension savings and unclaimed insurance payouts.

Prudential said it declared policies dormant after seven years of trying to contact “gone away” customers it can no longer reach. Mr Lenaerts- Gerard spoke under a pseudonym.