Pension Expression of Wish and children

lovinituk

Is there any financial benefit in including children on an expression of wish form for a pension rather then just requesting 100% to go to spouse?

My children are both currently under 18 if that makes any difference?

jamesd

You are hit by a bus. Spouse remarries, gets hit by a lorry. Spouse's new spouse is now the owner of all of your assets having known your children for two months and not having formed a parental bond with them. Children go to live with grandparents or sibling of yours, new spouse keeps all of the money. Or posit a new souse who's crippled in the accident and needs lifetime care and adapted housing that your money is used to pay for.

To protect the children you should have the money paid to them in trust. The normal trustee would be your spouse as first choice, though do provide alternatives in case the bus hits you both. The new spouse with no bond to your children does not end up owning the money, it's still held in trust for the children and whoever looks after them can use it for their care.

Many other bad cases, trusts are the way to protect your children from them.

The money held in trust can be used for things like housing, food, education and all of the other costs associated with bringing them up. They can do things like buying a house, say.

You can say what happens when they reach 18 if you don't want the money to go to them at that age, which is what will happen in a normal trust arrangement.

xylophone

An expression of wishes is just that and is not binding on the Trustees but it would be in unusual circumstances that they did not have regard to it.

If you died while your children were under 18, the money though beneficially owned by them would be paid to their trustee(s).

Normally, if there were a surviving parent, that parent would be the Trustee.

As you have a wife and children, one assumes that you have made a will and named a guardian in case you and your spouse should meet with a fatal accident during the children's minority.

It is likely that the guardian would be the Trustee of monies paid out under the pension unless your will specifically created a guardian for financial affairs and one for the children's physical welfare.

Your wife, too, will have written a will to cover you and your children in the event that she predeceases you?

lovinituk

Yes we have wills and trustees for the children named in them.

Thanks, for the advice I will add them to the expression of wish.