Just discovered my late father has a pension. Help!

welnik

Dont know if anyone can help me on this one. My father died over 5 years ago and left my mom with debts. This meant we didnt have to go to probate. A will was left leaving everything to my mom.

She has just had a letter throug running through what happens when my dad retires! Its waffling on about benefits in retirement but there are no actual figures on it. I dealt with my dad's estate and went through everything, but there were no details of this pension. He only ever worked for one company and then was self employed for about 25 years. He did work for a company from the age of 16 and my mother has said he was there for 22 years.

Ive telephoned the life company and obviously wouldnt give any info over the phone. My mom had no idea this pension existed.

The only thing is, if there is money in a pension fund, what happens next. Does she get the option of a lump sum or a monthly payment? Does this pension go straight to her rather than to his estate? Im just a bit worried as all his debts were written off including debt to the Inland Revenue. Im wondering whether they can stake a claim on it?

Any help would be great.

Cheers

Welnik

mountainofdebt

My late father in law died last year and the solicitors, who were acting as executors, were initially told that no payment would be made to the estate.

After receiving advice on this board, it appears that no payment would be made to the estate it should have been dealt with as a separate issue with any payments going to the benefciaries directly.

Due to somebody's stonewalling (not the pension administrators I add) the payment has only now been made....otherwise it would have been made a long time ago.

Is the pension referred to a private pension or a company pension - I'm guessing it must have been a private pension because in our case, the company had advised the administrators of my FIL death.

Also another thing to consider is if your dad nominated anyone to receive his benefits on his death before retirement. In our case my FIL hadn't completed an expression of wishes so the fund (including a death in service payment) was split between OH and SIL.

I don't know for sure whether debtors can make a claim on it but given what has happened in our case I wouldn't have thought so, especially after all given this length of time.

EdInvestor

Pensions are not part of a person's estate, because any additional benefits are paid out at the trustee's discretion, so no need to worrow about that.

Presumably your mom will be due a widow's pension from the fund and perhaps a lump sum.

He did work for a company from the age of 16 and my mother has said he was there for 22 years.

Does this pension at the life company relate to his employment at the company?Or is it possible there might be an additional pension at the company?

welnik

Thanks for your reply. The company he worked for went bust and he was made redundant. I will be getting more information from the life company in the post soon apparently as quite rightly, they wouldnt give me info over the phone.

My mom is so excited about it. Even if she gets £5.00 a month she will be chuffed! She is getting state benefits of some kind (not sure what). My husband seems to think they are means tested but I dont think that is correct.

Bossyboots

welnik wrote:

Thanks for your reply. The company he worked for went bust and he was made redundant. I will be getting more information from the life company in the post soon apparently as quite rightly, they wouldnt give me info over the phone.

My mom is so excited about it. Even if she gets £5.00 a month she will be chuffed! She is getting state benefits of some kind (not sure what). My husband seems to think they are means tested but I dont think that is correct.

You will need to check on what benefits she is receiving as any income from this pension could well affect them. It will also affect any council tax and housing benefits she may be receiving as well.

chesky369

You should ask them why they didn't send a yearly statement to your father, since I'm sure they're obliged to do so and obviously this would have come to light sooner if they had. It may be that they're at fault here.

dunstonh

It may not be a personal pension (post 1988) and may be before retirement annuity contracts and be an industrial branch plan. IB plans didnt have statements and there is no requirement to issue one.

jem16

chesky369 wrote:

You should ask them why they didn't send a yearly statement to your father, since I'm sure they're obliged to do so and obviously this would have come to light sooner if they had. It may be that they're at fault here.

It is a legal requirement for a pension company to provide a yearly statement as far as I know. However I have a problem in that I have not had a statement since 2002 from the Scottish Teacher's Scheme. They need the information from South Lanarkshire Council to be able to produce the statement. SLC have not supplied this in the last 4 years due to a "computer software problem"! There is no legal requirement on SLC to provide the information.

So what now? The union is already pursuing it.

dunstonh

Clarification here is needed to the start date. Whilst modern plans are classed as ordinary branch and those do provide statements. Older (very much older) plans, particulary from the 60s and 70s were often Industrial branch and these did not. These were typically endowment plans or similar variations where the premium was collected by an agent at your door.

If this is a very old plan, then it could be an industrial branch policy. This could be a retirement plan that was taken out before retirement annuity contracts or personal pensions were available.

Can you confirm the insurance company involved and the approx start date of the plan? Also, if there is a product name attached to the plan?

welnik

dunstonh wrote:

Can you confirm the insurance company involved and the approx start date of the plan? Also, if there is a product name attached to the plan?

It is Winterthur Life and I have no idea when it started (neither does my mom). He worked there from 17 -38 years of age.

thanks for all your replies