Death in Service and Pension lump sum

SevenOfNine

Even a signed nomination form would not guarantee the death in service payment would go to the nominated person - the trustees will make the decision.

Our son died in January, he had a pension with the Open University & the death in service payment was £273K. He had nominated his brother 3 years earlier when he joined the scheme.

The pension provider contacted us as immediate NoK & asked us if there was anything we wanted them to take into consideration (they did not mention there was a nomination). I said I thought my son had nominated his brother, surprisingly their response was that the form was signed 3 years earlier & that the trustees did not necessarily have to comply with it!

I told them our wishes were that they comply with my son's nomination & the payment was made to our other son promptly.

You are your mother's NoK, you've stated your case & it certainly is not necessary to bad mouth the boyfriend to the pension provider, it won't help.

They'll notify you of their decision & that will be your opportunity to argue more strongly if you do not agree. You don't sound greedy, 2 years is a very short relationship & I think you're overly concerned about nothing.

Just let it run it's course, it won't take long.

Malthusian

SevenOfNine wrote: »

The pension provider contacted us as immediate NoK & asked us if there was anything we wanted them to take into consideration (they did not mention there was a nomination). I said I thought my son had nominated his brother, surprisingly their response was that the form was signed 3 years earlier & that the trustees did not necessarily have to comply with it!

They were correct, but the kind of thing they would be looking for would be whether he'd gotten married or had kids since he'd made that nomination to his brother (which the next of kin would be able to tell them). They weren't planning on disregarding the nomination just because it was 3 years old, just checking whether anything significant had happened since then.

There is at least one pension company that allows you to elect for your death benefits to be distributed "at your direction", as opposed to making a nomination that the trustees are free to override. However if you do this the death benefits become subject to Inheritance Tax. So it is usually a bad idea. And is the reason why pension trustees must make clear that the decision on death benefits is theirs.

Kynthia

Malthusian wrote: »

They were correct, but the kind of thing they would be looking for would be whether he'd gotten married or had kids since he'd made that nomination to his brother (which the next of kin would be able to tell them). They weren't planning on disregarding the nomination just because it was 3 years old, just checking whether anything significant had happened since then.

There is at least one pension company that allows you to elect for your death benefits to be distributed "at your direction", as opposed to making a nomination that the trustees are free to override. However if you do this the death benefits become subject to Inheritance Tax. So it is usually a bad idea. And is the reason why pension trustees must make clear that the decision on death benefits is theirs.

exactly, as things can change in 3 years and there may have been a significant change in the son's wishes that he hadn't gotten around to informing the pension trustees of. I was told of one case where a wife was named but since then they had separated acrimoniously but not divorced. I believe the trustees decided to give the money to close relatives instead.

DISPension

This is what I am hoping to make them see here.

They were never married in the first place but towards in the last few months of her life they weren't seeing each other as a couple but due my mothers health (read as alcoholism and depression) she didn't have the strength to up and leave.

They also had a static caravan in the Lake District where he was originally from so he spent a lot of time there and she stayed at the house.

I think my mother assumed that I would get the money because they weren't married, I know that's not the case but all I want to do is honour what I know her wishes were because there isn't much else I can do now.

Kynthia

There was plenty of evidence of the acrimonious split though. Different addresses, seperate bank accounts, solicitor's letters, and possibly a changed will.

I don't think there's anything more that can be said until you here from the trustees.