Every year, over $1 billion in shareholder value quietly vanishes from the global financial system—not through fraud or error, but through inertia, complexity, and silent inefficiencies in corporate actions. This is particularly true in scrip dividends, where shareholders are given the option to receive either cash or shares. The tragedy? In most cases, the stock option delivers more value—but is missed by over half of participants.
Who benefits from this leakage? Not the everyday investor. Instead, this value is siphoned—often invisibly—into the hands of sophisticated players, brokers, and custodians who profit from a system designed to confuse rather than clarify.
Now, technology is threatening that status quo—and not everyone is pleased.
The Silent Transfer of Wealth
Scrip dividends offer a choice. But it’s a choice that most investors—especially retail ones—don’t fully understand or actively engage with. Faced with complexity, they default to the cash option. Data shows that in 85% of cases, the stock election would have yielded a better outcome, particularly when shares are immediately sold.
Solutions like Scorpeo’s Cash+ and Euroclear Cash+® were created to fix this. They automate the optimal decision. Shareholders can still opt for cash—but now, they receive the most cash possible, by capturing any additional value embedded in the alternative option.
It’s seamless. It’s secure. It’s fair. And yet, it’s being resisted.
Who Resists—and Why?
Some brokers and custodians, who have historically monetised this inefficiency, are pushing back. Their objection isn’t technical—it’s commercial. By automating optimisation, they stand to lose the quiet revenue streams that come from client inactivity and information asymmetry.
This raises a difficult but essential question:
Should financial intermediaries be allowed to profit from client ignorance?
Ethics Must Trump Exploitation
In an industry that prides itself on fiduciary duty, resisting value-enhancing transparency tools is ethically indefensible. It undermines client trust. It entrenches inequality. It perpetuates a two-tier system—where the informed benefit and the rest pay for it.
This isn’t just a governance issue; it’s a justice issue.
If financial services are to serve society—not extract from it—then innovation that restores value to the rightful owner must be championed, not challenged.
A Call for a New Standard
As the Academy of Life Planning, we stand for a revolution in financial planning—one built on transparency, accessibility, and ethical innovation. Tools like Cash+ exemplify what’s possible when technology is used to empower, not exploit.
Let’s be clear: those who resist this change are not defending their clients—they are defending their margins.
It’s time to expose and oppose the silent extraction of shareholder wealth. And it’s time for every planner, investor, and financial institution to ask themselves not just what is profitable, but what is right.
Steve Conley
Founder, Academy of Life Planning
Empowering you to plan your life, not just your money.
Your Money or Your Life
Unmask the highway robbers – Enjoy wealth in every area of your life!
By Steve Conley. Available on Amazon. Visit www.steve.conley.co.uk to find out more.
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