can i claim my dead husbands private pension

allreet

my father in law has recently died can the mother in law claim his private pension. are there more than one type of private pension.
not got the details of the policy but shes been told he claimed the pension for more than 5 years so there can be no claims from her.
I know this could be complicated but just wanted to find out if this is the norm.

atush

It all depends ont he type of annuity he bought. If he bought one with widows proivision, yes. If he didn't (because the payments were higher) then no. If he got a 5 yr gurantee and it is over, no. If he got a 10 yr gurantee and it is less than 10 yrs, yes.

Basically every thing you bolt on to an annuity lowers the initial payments frm index linking, to spouse pensions, to guarantee periods.

jamesd

That description would be correct for a very common type of pension deal, a single life pension with five year guarantee period. The guarantee is that it will pay out for at least five years from the time it's taken out, the single life means higher initial income but no payment to a surviving spouse after the five years. It's very likely that the information she has received is correct.

dunstonh

He no longer had a pension. He had an annuity. When you buy an annuity, you get a choice of different guarantee levels, spouses benefits and other things. The most common chosen guarantee period is 5 years as it usually makes very little difference to the annuity rate.