A recent item in the Des Moines Business Record Daily (March 5th article) referred to an ongoing lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of investors who received stock and cash when several mutual life insurance companies demutualized.

Charles Ulrich, a retired accountant in Baxter, Minn., who is guiding the suit for the plaintiffs is now alerting all affected investors who paid taxes in 2003 that the statute of limitations will end their rights to file a refund claim on April 15.

Ulrich encourages potential claimants to visit the Web site www.demutualization.biz and fill out the registration form found there. “We’ll get in touch with them” after the form is sent in electronically, Ulrich said. “We can’t guarantee them a refund, but we can guarantee an extension of their refund rights for two years.”

Principal Financial Group Inc. is one of more than 30 insurance companies that have demutualized since the late 1990s.