If as part of bankruptcy, you chose not to continue paying premiums for the policy in which you had invested and, you did not hold your investment in an IRA account, then you received units (think of them as shares of stock) in the Trust. Even if you did decide to continue paying premiums and became a CFH (Continuing Fraction Holder) you received units equal to 5% of the amount you invested. So everyone who did not hold their investment in an IRA account is a unit holder. Holders of units will receive periodic payments from the Trust under what we call a general distribution. On November 15, 2019, the Trust made its first general distribution out of excess funds in the Trust. The total amount paid to unit holders was $20 million and was paid based upon your pro-rata share of the total number of units in the Trust. At the time of the distribution there were 1,235,891,333 [489,696,911 PHT units plus 746,194,422 IRAP units] total units in the Trust so the amount you received was .0162 (1.62¢) per unit. So if you held 5000 units, you received $80.91 less any lien you may have owed. Because the distribution costs money as to each check issued, if you were calculated to receive less than $10 then no check was sent to you. However, that amount will accrue and will be paid in the next distribution if the total exceeds $10. You didn’t lose the money, its payment is just deferred until the amount is worth the check and mailing costs. The out of pocket cost to the Trust to make a general distribution to unit holders is approximately $15,000 each time a distribution is made.
The Trust expects, but cannot promise, that at least yearly general distributions will be made when the Trust has sufficient excess funds to allow it to do so. The Trustee is committed to getting you the most money it can as soon as it can after payment of premiums, operating costs and adequate reserves. The hope is that the amount of the funds distributed will increase over time now that the Trust has no debt and operating costs have been reduced. However, the ability to make distributions is entirely dependent upon the rate at which people die and the insurance companies pay the death benefits to the Trust. The good news is that these distributions are not taxable to you when they are made.
The total number of units in the Trust fluctuates each year due to a number of things such as CFHs deciding to no longer pay premiums and defaulting into the pool or people abandoning units. If someone defaults into the pool, they receive units generally equal to 80% of the amount they invested, not 100%, so as people default the number of units does go up. If people abandon their units, the number of units goes down. As stated above, on November 15, 2019 there were 1,235,891,333 total units held by a total of 18,190 [9703 PHT plus 8487 IRAP] investor accounts.
