Dying before taking any benefits.

mountainofdebt

Can someone tell me what usually happens if a person with an occupational pension scheme dies before they can take the pension....ie is the fund value as at the time of death or is it merely a return of the member' personal contributions that forms part of the estate.

Also if a death in service payment is payable is this normally paid regardless of the marital status of the deceased ?

margaretclare

It depends on the terms and conditions of the pension scheme. Some schemes will only pay to a spouse, whether male or female.

I have a little knowledge of what happens, for example, in the local government pension scheme. My daughter joined the scheme on starting a new job but died unexpectedly and suddenly 6 weeks later. For some schemes there is a qualifying period - there wasn't for that one. Her widower received 3 months of her full salary plus 2 years final salary.

It would be best to look at what it says in the booklet that must have been issued on joining the pension scheme.

Margaret Clare

mountainofdebt

and thanks for your reply....although I was sorry to learn of the circumstances of your knowledge.

Problem we have is that the query relates to a pension of a person that has died and whilst we can find old statement of benefits which indicate that there should be a lump sum payable, we can't find anything anything that could give us a definitive answer.

Perhaps a little detective/uncover work is needed.

montycat_2

Hi ,
My husband died last year(41 years old) and each pension he had paid out differently .I got a lump sum from 1 of them ." of them were converted into an annuity and 1 got divivded between me and my 3 children .
My husband had named me as beneficiary on most of them so no questions asked .
Read the terms and conditions carefully ,there doesn't seem to be a set rule .
I would write to the company involved and ask .

Zwicky

mountainofdebt wrote:

Also if a death in service payment is payable is this normally paid regardless of the marital status of the deceased ?

Some schemes will pay a death in service lump sum plus a reduced pension (say two thirds or a half) to the surviving spouse. There may be restrictions on this however to prevent the pension fund incurring excessive liabilities if for example, an older man marries a much younger wife!

All this is guesswork however, and the only way to find out what the position is will be to obtain a copy of the scheme rule book. You should be able to get this from the deceased's employer although they may be reluctant to discuss with you unless you are a beneficiary or closely related to the deceased.

montycat_2

If you are administering the estate ,you should be able to contact the scheme managers.Probate will give you the necessary paperwork to be able to access the records .
Are you a close relative ?

mountainofdebt

I'm sorry to hear of your loss - I'm a relative to a very close relative of the deceased (if that's not too cryptic)

The executor of the will sent a copy of a letter sent by the trustees of the scheme basically saying that their decision was final and that they didn't have to give reasons for their decision .....however the executor didn't say what he had written to them about so it was all abit weird.

However we are guessing (from comments made since) that it was to do with the lump sum payment and (I appreciate we may be adding 2 and 2 and getting 73) that it wasn't paid even though everything we've seen in the way of benefit statements says a lump sum is payable although it does mention a spouses pension, although it doesn't say that the deceased had to be married for the lump sum to be paid.

As you say, the scheme rules etc should explain everything....its just getting a copy of these now!

NAR

Some death in service lump sum payments are paid to the deceased's declared nominee, who may not be the spouse. This is the case with Civil Servants for example.

mountainofdebt

it now sounds as if they have refused to make ANY payment to the estate which, to be honest, makes the situation a whole lot stranger. I would have expected at least the return of the deceased's contributions.

I think the answer is going to be found in a) the estates' accounts - which we should be getting soon and b) the scheme booklet - and I've contacted the scheme's trustees about getting a copy.

Looks like we may have a fight on our hands.

montycat_2

I think you may be looking at Legal Advice as well .

Ugh how horrible ! Good luck .

mountainofdebt

no payment from relative's pension (received the interim accounts today) so that has cleared that side of the mystery up.

I really don't understand why there has been no payment when everything we've got suggests there should have been....I'm half wondering if the decision was made to help any shortfall the scheme may have had, it's that strange.