Private pension deceased person

neil7462

I am an executor of a will and believe that the deceased had a private pension from a few years ago that he did not cash in. What do I need to pursue this from the pension company or will a solicitor do this for me?

p00hsticks

neil7462 said:

I am an executor of a will and believe that the deceased had a private pension from a few years ago that he did not cash in. What do I need to pursue this from the pension company or will a solicitor do this for me?

Do you know the employer the pension was with and/or pension company involved ? If so I would imagine that your first port of call would be to approach them - they'll probably expect you to provide evidence that you have authority to deal with the estate (perhaps, a copy of the will, or probate, or a signed declaration)  and id such as passport / driving licence....

I'm sure a solicitor would handle it for you but they'll need the relevant info from you to be able to do so, so I'm not sure that they'd take much of any weight off your shoulders....

lr1277

I am not an expert but have been looking into this for myself. According to posts on this board and the pensions web pages of the Money Advice Service, pensions are outside ot the will and IHT. It depends if the deceased has completed an Expression of Wishes. If the deceased has done that, the pension trustees will pay amy monies to the people listed by the deceased. If no expression of wishes has been completed, I am not sure, but I believe the trustees will pay the money to the closes person to the deceased e.g. spouse.

I expect you have to identify the pension company and its trustees/administrators. Inform them of the death, probably provide proof and then this is the bit I am not sure about, but the trustees should be in touch with the people mentioned on the beneficiaries list. If there are no beneficiaries listed, they may contact you about the next of kin.

Keep_pedalling

You do need a solicitor to get involve it will just add costs and delay (and that probably applies to the estate as well).

How the pension is handled and what taxes might apply to it very much depend on the type of pension and for SIPP the age of the deceased. For a company DB or DC pension you need to speak to the pension administrator, for a SIPP the platform provider.

lr1277

Again not sure about this but with SIPPS and possibly other pensions, if the payout is more than 2years after date of death, then a large amount of tax will be taken before the beneficiary is paid. Again worth investigating.

xylophone

I am an executor of a will and believe that the deceased had a private pension from a few years ago that he did not cash in. 

Contact the Administrators of the pension and report the death - they will require a copy of the death certificate and possibly other documentation/details.

Marcon

neil7462 said:

I am an executor of a will and believe that the deceased had a private pension from a few years ago that he did not cash in. What do I need to pursue this from the pension company or will a solicitor do this for me?

If you need specialist help, it's available free from TPAS: https://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk