Death Benefit, Am I entitled?

azapater

Bit of an unusual situation, any guidance would be appreciated.

About a decade ago my father took his own life. Despite having left our home years before this happened, we have always continued to receive some mail for him, to this day.

Out of interest, I opened a piece the other day and it was from his pension provider. It appears that they were not notified about his death, or that the families business for whom he worked had continued to pay his pension.

At the time the pension was set up he lived with myself and my Mother, though they never married. He then left and married a woman, but she had become estranged at the time of his death.

My questions are as follows:

(1)Would a private/company pension require a 'nominated person' to receive a lump sum at the time the pension was taken out. I would assume if this was the case, my Mother would have been named and this wouldn't have been updated as we still received his letters despite him leaving.

(2)If a nominated person was not a requirement, would I be entitled to a lump sum? There has never been a claim from his estranged widow. And myself and my brother (whom has severe disabilities) are his only blood related children. We would strongly benefit from any pay out as our household is burdened by the debts left by my deceased father.

I am reluctant to make contact with the employer or gain immediate clarification from the pension provider if I'm not entitled. I am on very poor terms with both his former employer and his estranged wife, and would rather not highlight the situation if I'm not myself entitled. Hence why I am asking the forum on this issue!

(3)A further question would regard time limits. Many years have elapsed since his death and I've never looked into this issue before. Would there be a time limit on any such claim?

Any advice would be massively appreciated!

Thanks

jamesd

A person could be nominated. The pension trustees could override that nomination if they believed that circumstances had made it obsolete or necessary provision for financial dependants hadn't been made. Divorce and remarriage or arrival of a new child are the sort of thing that might cause this to happen.

It's possible that you would be entitled to something. Depends on the full circumstances and the specific pension scheme rules. The best thing to do overall is tell the pension provider the date and circumstances of death and let them sort out what the rules say and who should or shouldn't get whatever amounts. Also tell them about all of his relationships and their situations at the time of death, to the extent that you know of them, since that would also have an effect on what happens.

There's no significant time limit for this sort of thing. They'll try to get things to the state they should have been in if all had happened correctly at the time of his death.

jackyann

Something similar happened to us. Differences are that there was no estrangement, simply that my mother hadn't informed us about a specific pension arrangement, and they contacted us some months after she died (they get notified of deaths and check their records apparently)

Anyway, although all arranged and paid for by her ex-employers, we never had any dealings with them, simply contacted the pension provider, and got the payment.

Whether you have any entitlement depends on the exact terms (as jamesd says) but I see no reason for you to involve the ex-employers or anyone else. I would write, setting out the bare bones, something like:

Thank you for your letter. I am X's son, and represent / have power of attorney for X's other son because of disabilities (or similar)
It appears that you were not notified of our father's death, which happened at a time of some confusion for the family. I, and other family members, were unaware of this pension.
I would be grateful if you could clarify the pension provisions, and I will help in any way that I can.

It may, unfortunately, be that you need to tell them he left a widow and either how to contact her, or that you have no contact details for her. However, I would just see what the pension arrangements are before muddying the waters. I wouldn't hold your breath, but you have nothing but a stamp to lose, and I really don't think it needs to go any further.

Please let us know how it pans out!

Your_Hero

This may be problematic. The payments into the pension should not have been allowed following his death so I'm not sure how they would treat it. Perhaps a refund of contributions to the employers from the date of death less 20% tax on contributions?

A nomination could have been made (not compulsory) but as jamesd points out the trustees have the final say (at their discretion). It is likely that the surviving spouse would have the rightful claim to any funds in the pension.

xylophone

Out of interest, I opened a piece the other day and it was from his pension provider. It appears that they were not notified about his death, or that the families business for whom he worked had continued to pay his pension.

This seems rather odd. Do you mean that a company for which your father was working at the time of his death continued to make pension contributions for him? This seems very unlikely but I suppose that mistakes do happen.

Or do you mean that your father had a deferred pension with a previous employer and that the scheme administrator was not advised of your father's death?

If the latter, was the pension administrator trying to make contact with him at the only address on file to advise him that he had reached Scheme Pension Age?

In this case, it is possible that there was a letter of nomination in place in favour of his partner at the time he was a member of the scheme.

As others have said, the only way you can clarify the situation is to write to the administrator giving the date of your father's death.

Expect the administrator to request a copy of the death certificate and to make any additional enquiries he thinks fit - he may well ask for information about any living spouse etc.

azapater

xylophone wrote: »

This seems rather odd. Do you mean that a company for which your father was working at the time of his death continued to make pension contributions for him? This seems very unlikely but I suppose that mistakes do happen.

Or do you mean that your father had a deferred pension with a previous employer and that the scheme administrator was not advised of your father's death?

If the latter, was the pension administrator trying to make contact with him at the only address on file to advise him that he had reached Scheme Pension Age?

In this case, it is possible that there was a letter of nomination in place in favour of his partner at the time he was a member of the scheme.

As others have said, the only way you can clarify the situation is to write to the administrator giving the date of your father's death.

Expect the administrator to request a copy of the death certificate and to make any additional enquiries he thinks fit - he may well ask for information about any living spouse etc.

Well, the situation is that he originally worked for the family building firm so my assumption is that it was a company pension. My father left the firm and worked for himself thereafter. He was very poor at managing his finances so I cannot envisage a situation in which he was paying into his own pension with regularity.

My presumption therefore would be that the family firm, or my Grandad, more specifically, ensured that payment continued after he left. Why this continued after death I'm unsure.

My father would only have been 48 this year, so nowhere near the age to begin receiving the pension.

For personal reasons, I feel in a very tricky position as I would rather not put any groundwork in only for his estranged wife to receive the payout.

xylophone

My presumption therefore would be that the family firm, or my Grandad, more specifically, ensured that payment continued after he left. Why this continued after death I'm unsure.

Does the letter addressed to your late father indicate that contributions are still being made to the pension?

azapater

xylophone wrote: »

Does the letter addressed to your late father indicate that contributions are still being made to the pension?

I'm uncertain, all I can tell is that the total amount increased by £2,000 in the last year.

At first I thought this had meant someone had been paying into it still. On further inspection it suggests the plan is 'unit linked' and may go up and down based on the value of unit linked investments.

I'm not very clued up on if this is a normal occurrence and would happen with any unclaimed pension if someone stopped paying into it.

jamesd

If it's unit linked and the value is still changing then there's definitely something happening that needs looking at. It's what would normally happen if nothing more was being paid into a unit-linked pension but nobody had ever claimed anything from it.

Given the situation with his relationships it seems very likely that the trustees of the pension scheme would determine that it was appropriate to pay money to you. Perhaps not all of it, but yours is the long-lasting and ongoing relationship that he had vs the more transient relationships with others. It would be quite hard for the women concerned to argue that they had a financial dependence on him that could exceed your claim a a child, given the background information that you have provided.

What would normally happen with a pension of the type this appears to be and given his age is that the whole value would be paid out tax free to those the trustees determine should get it, based on his circumstances and any wishes he'd expressed to them. The will, if any, or the laws covering death intestate (no will), do not govern. Rather, it's the trustees judgement and that will normally be very heavily weighted towards immediate family. You being the most promising candidate for receiving the money or most of it.

atush

When you write to the pension administrators/trustees do mention his new marriage, and the fact they were no longer together/separated/estranged at the time of his death.

Generally spouses get the pension, but in the case of dependants such as disabled children, and estrangement/separation the trustees can override his expressions of wishes if he filled one out. Or you could end up perhaps splitting it with is widow.

azapater

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Another thing came to mind earlier. My father tried to force sale of our family house and during that legal battle he claimed he had set up a 'trust' for me and my brother. I believe this was false, but could providing proof of these representations indicate to the trustees that he had an intention to ensure we were looked after?

Also, should I just write a letter to the insurance company outlining the full facts of the case? Is that how these things function?