An open letter to Mr. John Sclater, President, Equitable Life, 15 December, from Alex Henney, 38 Swains Lane, London N6 6QR, a member of Equitable and of the Equitable Members Action Group.

Dear Mr. Sclater,

I am not alone in thinking you should resign forthwith. You have been on the board of Equitable for 15 years. You presided over:-

• poor investment performance;

• a failure to develop proper accountability (which is part of a deeper failure to think constructively and fundamentally about the meaning of mutuality);

• a failure over a long period to work out both the unsuitability of the with profits product as a method for many (but not all) people to save for their pensions;

• a failure to realise that the GAR and non-GAR schemes should have been separated because their risk profiles were so different. You were not responsible for the sale of GARs, but in introducing non-GARS into the same fund, by at the latest the early 1990s the board should have realised that they were an open call option on interest rate changes that were written on the non-GAR members, and it should have taken appropriate steps to deal with the risk;

• an unsuccessful strategy to handle the GAR situation;