Unclaimed Policy

sammyjo1979

Hi,
My husband received a letter today from a company that deals with life insurance and pensions stating that they'd been notified by DWP of my late father in laws passing and that they had traced my husband through living at your same address. My father in law passed away 13 years ago so it's all a bit of a shock. We rang the company and they said that my husband was the only one they sent a tracing  letter to. Is this not odd considering his mother is still alive as is his sister (both of whom we have no contact with). They have said they'll pass the details on to the relevant department and will be in touch. 
Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. Thank you. 

Silvertabby

Not so unusual - the LGPS for one uses (expensive!) tracing services to track down pension fund members who have reached payment age/75, or nok in the event that the initial DWP search revealed that they had died. They found your husband from the address (and same name?) link and that's deemed to be sufficient.  

The onus is then on the person contacted to be honest, and to inform the insurance/pension company of other potential beneficiaries - even if they are no longer in touch.

Note that if your husband's parents were married at the time of his father's death, then the most likely outcome would be that any monies due would go to his mother.  

xylophone

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. Thank you. 

Your husband has been advised

They have said they'll pass the details on to the relevant department and will be in touch. 

He just waits to hear from "the relevant department".

sammyjo1979

Silvertabby said:

Not so unusual - the LGPS for one uses (expensive!) tracing services to track down pension fund members who have reached payment age/75, or nok in the event that the initial DWP search revealed that they had died. They found your husband from the address (and same name?) link and that's deemed to be sufficient.  

The onus is then on the person contacted to be honest, and to inform the insurance/pension company of other potential beneficiaries - even if they are no longer in touch.

Note that if your husband's parents were married at the time of his father's death, then the most likely outcome would be that any monies due would go to his mother.  

Thank you. We did advise them that my husbands mother is still alive but they didnt seem interested. 
We'll wait and see what they say. 

Silvertabby

sammyjo1979 said:

Silvertabby said:

Not so unusual - the LGPS for one uses (expensive!) tracing services to track down pension fund members who have reached payment age/75, or nok in the event that the initial DWP search revealed that they had died. They found your husband from the address (and same name?) link and that's deemed to be sufficient.  

The onus is then on the person contacted to be honest, and to inform the insurance/pension company of other potential beneficiaries - even if they are no longer in touch.

Note that if your husband's parents were married at the time of his father's death, then the most likely outcome would be that any monies due would go to his mother.  

Thank you. We did advise them that my husbands mother is still alive but they didnt seem interested. 
We'll wait and see what they say. 

First rule of dealing with a death notification: Never mention money/entitlement until you have all the facts and relevant documents.  

sammyjo1979

Hi, so, the company advised us that the policy would need to go to the next of kin as there were no named parties on the policy itself.  We notified my husbands mother who has since refused to provide them with the will.  We have a strong feeling that there is something written in the will that states my husband and his sibling are the beneficiaries hence her not willing to provide them with it.  The Company have said that the money will just sit there until she provides a will.   Is this not odd that she will not provide the will?  Anyone come across this before?  Thanks

xylophone

Did the will ever go to probate?  If so, 
https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

Flugelhorn

xylophone said:

Did the will ever go to probate?  If so, 
https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

possible that the will never went to probate - no good reason for MIL not to produce it if it is all straightforward

poppystar

sammyjo1979 said:

Hi, so, the company advised us that the policy would need to go to the next of kin as there were no named parties on the policy itself.  We notified my husbands mother who has since refused to provide them with the will.  We have a strong feeling that there is something written in the will that states my husband and his sibling are the beneficiaries hence her not willing to provide them with it.  The Company have said that the money will just sit there until she provides a will.   Is this not odd that she will not provide the will?  Anyone come across this before?  Thanks

So if the policy “would need to go to next of kin” why do they need a Will rather than just information on who was/is next of kin? You don’t have to leave money to next of kin in a Will. What if there was no Will in the first place? Again, perfectly possible. 

xylophone

https://www.onlinemoneyadvisor.co.uk/insurance/life-insurance/life-insurance-beneficiary/#:~:text=If there is no beneficiary,then distributed by the courts. may be of interest.

sammyjo1979

poppystar said:

sammyjo1979 said:

Hi, so, the company advised us that the policy would need to go to the next of kin as there were no named parties on the policy itself.  We notified my husbands mother who has since refused to provide them with the will.  We have a strong feeling that there is something written in the will that states my husband and his sibling are the beneficiaries hence her not willing to provide them with it.  The Company have said that the money will just sit there until she provides a will.   Is this not odd that she will not provide the will?  Anyone come across this before?  Thanks

So if the policy “would need to go to next of kin” why do they need a Will rather than just information on who was/is next of kin? You don’t have to leave money to next of kin in a Will. What if there was no Will in the first place? Again, perfectly possible. 

Hi, because she has stated that there is a will (although she always said to us that he never had one) and now this has been stated the company will not release anything until they have seen it.