Help please. Do I need a trustee for death benefit lump sum payment to my Son?

bflare

Hello. I am a 42 year old single father of a 13 year old Son. I started paying into a company pension around 20 years ago & it has been wound up. I have been sent 2 forms to complete. The first is a 'A-Day protection questionnaire' which I have absolutely no idea what it's about & another called a 'Discretionary Trust for Pension Polices'. Within this document it gives me the option of assigning two trustees for any lump sum death benefit. I have idea what this means & all I basically would like to do is leave any lump sum of money to my Son & Step daughter. My question is do I need to assign someone as a trustee or can I simply fill the form out & have my Son & Step daughter as the beneficiaries in the event of my death? Obviously my Son is only 13 years of age so if I was to unfortunately die before he is 18 years of age I am not sure where the money would go & is this the point of having a trust?  My Step daughter is 27 years old however, I do not have 100% confidence in her being in control of any money that was left & it may not get to my Son as I would wish.

Apologies but pensions are not my strong point at all!

xylophone

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1594983/A-Day-pensions-simplification.html

Within this document it gives me the option of assigning two trustees for any lump sum death benefit. 

It is standard for members of pension schemes to be asked to complete a form in which they nominate beneficiaries for consideration by the  Trustees of the Scheme.

Whether to pay the benefit to the nominated beneficiaries is at the discretion of the Trustees (although it would be unusual for them to refuse).

https://adviser.royallondon.com/technical-central/pensions/death-benefits/death-benefits-discretion-or-direction/ might be worth a read.

However 'Discretionary Trust for Pension Polices'

does not sound like the standard wording.

Why not telephone the Administrator and explain your situation and what you wish to do.

Of course should you die leaving a child aged under 18,  it is almost certain that the Trustees of the Scheme would require the person with parental responsibility for your child to open a  Bare Trust account  with him as the beneficiary.

Marcon

bflare said:

Apologies but pensions are not my strong point at all!

Sidetracking slightly....hopefully wills are, though - do you have a valid one, giving guardianship arrangements for your son if both you and his mother (assuming she is still alive now) die before he reaches the age of 18?

Zurich has some clear info on Discretionary Trusts for Pension Policies: https://www.zurichintermediary.co.uk/-/media/project/zwp/uk-intermediary/docs/124998.pdf

bflare

Marcon said:

bflare said:

Apologies but pensions are not my strong point at all!

Sidetracking slightly....hopefully wills are, though - do you have a valid one, giving guardianship arrangements for your son if both you and his mother (assuming she is still alive now) die before he reaches the age of 18?

Zurich has some clear info on Discretionary Trusts for Pension Policies: https://www.zurichintermediary.co.uk/-/media/project/zwp/uk-intermediary/docs/124998.pdf

Hi Marcon. I do not have a will however, I need to definitely sort this out especially with regards to the guardianship. If anything happened to me I would like some different alternative to his mother taking care of him as I had to take full custody of my Son last year due to various problems his Mother was having including drugs.