Death in Service beneficiary

Sunflower2102

Thanks for taking the time to reply. This is DIS not pension though.

gettingtheresometime

Sunflower2102 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply. This is DIS not pension though.

As it was in the case I referred to.

Malthusian

Sunflower2102 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply. This is DIS not pension though.

Apologies. Other than the last paragraph about the history of pensions, much the same considerations apply however. Death in service schemes, like personal life insurance, are designed to provide for dependents rather than non-dependent friends, and you don't have much comeback if the trustees use their discretion to pay the whole lot to the child. If he'd left you his own money in his Will it would have been different.

Brynsam

Malthusian wrote: »

Probably a good idea for them to chase if it's been more than a few weeks. Pension companies are inefficient.

This has nothing to do with a pension company. It appears to be a trustee discretion and such things can take some considerable time to assemble all the facts.

Perhaps if OP just stopped agitating about whether or not she's going to get any cash and focuses on grieving the loss of someone she claims was a dear friend it would make her life easier.

Sunflower2102

There was no need for that kind of post thank you.

Malthusian

Brynsam wrote: »

This has nothing to do with a pension company. It appears to be a trustee discretion and such things can take some considerable time to assemble all the facts.

Group life insurance companies are also inefficient and it takes even more time to assemble all the facts if nobody is asking for an update.

Sunflower2102

I asked for an update recently as not heard a thing. It's been three months. Due to travelling a lot with work I have handed this over to a lawyer to deal with on my behalf. Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Malthusian

After three months they have almost certainly paid the benefits to someone else.

I really don't see the point of paying a lawyer. If you want to chase the trustees, or make a complaint over their lack of contact, you can do that yourself. (Though you have declined to say whether they have been in contact with you at all; if you have been getting your information second-hand, e.g. from the executor, you need to chase them.) If they have paid everything to the child or A N Other there is absolutely zero chance of you successfully contesting it.

Sunflower2102

I should have said, I wrote a letter and chased and no response at all other than it's with the insurers.

Dox

Sunflower2102 wrote: »

I should have said, I wrote a letter and chased and no response at all other than it's with the insurers.

If this is a normal insured DIS arrangement, the company/trustees will alert the insurer to the claim and payment should be made fairly swiftly unless his benefits were specially underwritten and/or he died in a manner not covered by the policy (very unusual for a group life policy). Insurers are generally pretty good at paying out promptly in this situation, so why it should be 'with the insurers', especially for this length of time, suggests someone doesn't have a handle on how these matters are handled.

Why you've insisted on getting a lawyer involved is baffling. They won't normally be familiar with the processes, whereas that perfectly good free service, TPAS, could help you very efficiently.