Is this really Pearl's policy ?

mr.mandrake

Paul_Herring wrote:

Have Pearl received a death certificate from you yet?

Paul_Herring, thanks for your interest in this situation.

Pearl has advised us that it has sent a claim form.

We have advised Pearl that a death certificate shall be supplied by return of post following our receipt of the claim form.

It has so far taken Pearl 4 weeks and still no sign of a claim form.

Paul_Herring

mr.mandrake wrote:

Paul wrote:

Have Pearl received a death certificate from you yet?

Paul_Herring, thanks for your interest in this situation.

Pearl has advised us that it has sent a claim form.

We have advised Pearl that a death certificate shall be supplied by return of post following our receipt of the claim form.

It has so far taken Pearl 4 weeks and still no sign of a claim form.

So that's a no, despite their formal request for it?

mr.mandrake wrote:

We received a letter from Pearl quoting my father's 3 policy numbers and asking for Sight of the policy holder's death certificate, the return of all original policy documents and the repayment of all monies paid to the policy holder since death.

mr.mandrake wrote:

Telephoned Pearl and asked if this payment is correct only to be told that if we felt it had been paid in error then it must be retured to Pearl ASAP. We again suggested that Pearl categorically advise us of any incorrect payments Pearl has made relating to all 3 of my late father's pension policies; only to be told that because of the Data Protection Act no information could be given to anyone other than the policy holder.

While I understand your reluctance to provide the other information they're asking for, you cannot reasonably expect them to give you a formal figure for what they think you owe them, nor beleive that the person concerned has even passed on unless, and until ,they receive proof. I beleive that would mean sending them the death certificate. With or without posession of the claim form you're asking for.

mr.mandrake

Paul_Herring wrote:

So that's a no, despite their formal request for it?

While I understand your reluctance to provide the other information they're asking for, you cannot reasonably expect them to give you a formal figure for what they think you owe them, nor beleive that the person concerned has even passed on unless, and until ,they receive proof. I beleive that would mean sending them the death certificate. With or without posession of the claim form you're asking for.

I think it is entirely reasonable to expect a company to give an exact figure of what it believes it is owed. Especially since the company is not willing to give an honest indication of why it believes it is owed anything.

I agree 100% with you that Pearl should not be expected to believe that a policy holder has even passed on unless, and until, it receives proof. I also believe that would mean Pearl being in possession of a death certificate.

This is the whole point of the question asked in the thread title... Is this really Pearl's policy ?

Pearl has informed us that pension payments are stopped on the strength of it receiving a telephone call from anyone with knowledge of a policy holder's Name, Address and Date of Birth. Peal did not even keep a record of who telephoned informing it of my father's death.

Pearl employees have lied regarding whether my late father's pension payments were made in advance or in arrears, they have lied about the date Pearl was informed of my father's death, they have lied about who informed Pearl of my father's death.

Pearl has so far taken 4 weeks to provide us with a claim form.

Peal is a dangerously incompetent company and I would urge anyone with a pension with Pearl to contact the company and satisfy themselves that it is not Pearl's policy to stop pension payments on the strength of an anonymous phone call.

.

Paul_Herring

mr.mandrake wrote:

I think it is entirely reasonable to expect a company to give an exact figure of what it believes it is owed. Especially since the company is not willing to give an honest indication of why it believes it is owed anything.

Well since they are not in posession of a death certificate they cannot give you a figure. And since it appears that you're not willing to give them this one piece of paper, then it's going to be a catch 22 situation. You won't give them the cert until you have a final figure. They won't give you a final figure until they have the cert.

I agree 100% with you that Pearl should not be expected to believe that a policy holder has even passed on unless, and until, it receives proof. I also believe that would mean Pearl being in possession of a death certificate.

This is the whole point of the question asked in the thread title... Is this really Pearl's policy ?

It would appear, to me at least, to be a sensible expectation.

Pearl has informed us that pension payments are stopped on the strength of it receiving a telephone call from anyone with knowledge of a policy holder's Name, Address and Date of Birth.

... whereupon you then indicated in your first post that they did not actually stop payments, merely suspended them, then re-instated when more proof was not forthcoming. In a later post, you indicate that this is exactly what has happened.

Peal did not even keep a record of who telephoned informing it of my father's death.

Pearl employees have lied regarding whether my late father's pension payments were made in advance or in arrears, they have lied about the date Pearl was informed of my father's death, they have lied about who informed Pearl of my father's death.

All rather unfortunate, I agree. I'm not trying to indicate in any way whatsoever that Pearl are not, at least partially, at fault here.

Pearl has so far taken 4 weeks to provide us with a claim form.

Sorry to sound so insensitive, but how long has it taken you to provide them with the death certificate?

Irrespective of all the other problems you're having (their demanding other documents, and money returned), I fail to see why you're delaying sending it off.

mr.mandrake

Paul_Herring wrote:

Well since they are not in posession of a death certificate they cannot give you a figure. And since it appears that you're not willing to give them this one piece of paper, then it's going to be a catch 22 situation. You won't give them the cert until you have a final figure. They won't give you a final figure until they have the cert.

The above is not at all what has been said here, perhaps I can respectfully suggest you reread the thread, because this could not be further from a 'catch 22' situation.

At no time have we told Pearl that until we have a final figure we shall not provide a death certificate.

We have said that we will send a death certificate by return of post once we have received a claim form. 4 weeks and we are still waiting for a claim form.

We will not return any money until we are sure that any money is owed.

... whereupon you then indicated in your first post that they did not actually stop payments, merely suspended them, then re-instated when more proof was not forthcoming. In a later post, you indicate that this is exactly what has happened.

To follow your logic; No, that is not exactly what has happened. As mentioned, my late father had 3 pension policies, 2 of which were paid monthly the other quarterly. All paid into the same account. The quarterly payment was deposited by Pearl at the end of last month... the payments against the 2 monthly policies have not been re-instated. Until Pearl categorically advises us of the terms of all payments we must presume that the quarterly pension was paid in arrears... why else would pearl have made the quarterly payment while not re-instating the monthly payments.

All rather unfortunate, I agree. I'm not trying to indicate in any way whatsoever that Pearl are not, at least partially, at fault here.

I fail to see where anyone other than Pearl is at fault.

We have informed Pearl of my late father's death, Pearl employees have lied to us concerning the terms of the policies, they have lied about when and who informed them of the death, they have attempted to have us return monies without specifying which monies and why they should be returned. They have failed to even ask if anyone has access to any monies that have been paid in error.

Sorry to sound so insensitive, but how long has it taken you to provide them with the death certificate?

Not one minute. Upon receipt of the only communication we have yet to receive from the company we telephoned Pearl for clarification of exactly what was being demanded. It was a Pearl employee who suggested we wait for a claim form until we send anything.

Irrespective of all the other problems you're having (their demanding other documents, and money returned), I fail to see why you're delaying sending it off.

It would take us 2 working days to get a letter to Pearl. So far Pearl has taken 4 weeks to get a claim form to us. I fail to see why Pearl is delaying sending it off.

I also fail to see why we should act in Pearl's best interest rather than our own - especially if all or any of my late father's pension payments were actually made in arrears.

From what we have experienced so far, Pearl is considerably less anxious to ensure that it does not owe us money, than it is anxious to insist that we return any payments it has made since my late father's death, irrespective of whether those payments were made in error.

The multitude of lies that Pearl has so far told us have left us very distrustful of the company.

The shoddy, disingenuous and outright deceitful way in which Pearl is treating us is disgraceful.

.

mr.mandrake

Just a quick update on Pearl's 'service'.

It is now 3 months since Pearl were advised of my late father's death and 2 months since Pearl promised to send a claim form. Nothing.... no contact from the company whatsoever.

Pearl has however continued* recommenced payment of both monthly payments and the quarterly payment with respect to my late father's pensions... all of which is attracting interest in a 60 day savings account.

What an unbelievably incompetent goodwill gesture...

*edit

jamesd

Please stop pretending to be your father while he is still alive. You're not entitled to the information because they are his policies and they are required to protect his interests, not yours. Including protecting the privacy of his policies.

Alternatively, please prove to them that he is dead by sending them a death certificate so they are allowed to discuss his policies with someone other than him.

Take your pick. At the moment you're refusing to give them what they need to know that they are allowed to talk with you and tell the difference between you being yourself or you being conniving relatives of a still-alive person.

I also suggest that if he really is dead, you assume all policies pay in arrears until they provide documentary evidence otherwise. That means you should be returning any subsequent payments beyond the first month or quarter.

Sorry to be so blunt but you're messing them around and trying to get information you're not entitled to unless they know that they no longer need to protect his privacy.

ReportInvestor

dunstonh wrote:

Knowing how they work Ed, there is no file for them to lose. I still reckon they will give the required information once they have the death certificate and that no claims form is required.

I also no longer understand what this is all about.

Why not give them the death certificate to move the matter on ?

Don't you want this issue cleared up? If not, what do you want?

Paul_Herring

ReportInvestor wrote:

Why not give them the death certificate to move the matter on ?

From an earlier post:

mr.mandrake wrote:

Paul_Herring wrote:

Have Pearl received a death certificate from you yet?

Pearl has advised us that it has sent a claim form.

We have advised Pearl that a death certificate shall be supplied by return of post following our receipt of the claim form.

It has so far taken Pearl 4 weeks and still no sign of a claim form.

And still (it seems) no sign of a death certificate.

mr.mandrake

jamesd wrote:

Please stop pretending to be your father while he is still alive.

My father is dead.

You're not entitled to the information because they are his policies and they are required to protect his interests, not yours. Including protecting the privacy of his policies.

My father is dead. His next of kin has every right to any and all information regarding any and all aspects of his pension policies.

Alternatively, please prove to them that he is dead by sending them a death certificate so they are allowed to discuss his policies with someone other than him.

They have been verbally informed of my father's death and on that information they stopped his pension payments... they then demanded that all of the previous month's payments made to him be returned... not just payments that had been made after his death.

They were informed that since no payments had been made since my father's death then, unless they could state specifically that pension payments were made in advance, no repayments would be made until we received an official written request for repayment of exactly that which they claim to have overpaid.

They requested his copies of the original pension policies. They were informed that the policy documents were no longer available.

They requested 'sight of an original death certificate'. They advised us to include a copy of the death certificate when we returned the claim form. They have not supplied us with the claim form that they promised to send 3 moths ago.

Take your pick. At the moment you're refusing to give them what they need to know that they are allowed to talk with you and tell the difference between you being yourself or you being conniving relatives of a still-alive person.

You are nearly getting it... the main point of this thread was to highlight pearl's policy regarding the fact that the company would stop a customer's pension payments on the word of ANYONE with a policy holder's name, address and date of birth.

I also suggest that if he really is dead, you assume all policies pay in arrears until they provide documentary evidence otherwise. That means you should be returning any subsequent payments beyond the first month or quarter.

Why would you suggest that without knowing the exact terms of my late father's policies? Pearl promised to send us an official claim form within 10 working days, we promised to complete it and include a copy of the death certificate by return of post. That was 2 months ago.

Sorry to be so blunt but you're messing them around and trying to get information you're not entitled to unless they know that they no longer need to protect his privacy.

Messing them around? We have promised to send them any information they feel they may need... they have promised to provide us with a claim form in order that we can do so.

They have made no contact with us since insisting that we repay money that is not owed.

If (like you) Pearl feel there is a possibility that my late father is still alive, why haven't they attempted to contact him?