Defined Contribution funds to charities on death of second spouse

greatkingrat

One option is to leave 99% to your spouse, and 1% to the charity. Then if your spouse dies before you, the charity will be the only remaining beneficiary.

Marcon

greatkingrat said:

One option is to leave 99% to your spouse, and 1% to the charity. Then if your spouse dies before you, the charity will be the only remaining beneficiary.

Good idea! OP, worth adding a note along the lines of 'If my spouse survives me then in the proportions shown, failing which 100% to [names of charities] in equal shares'.

Albermarle

The OP also asked about tax , not just about beneficiaries.
As I understand it your pension is not passed onto the beneficiary as a pot of money , but as an actual pension with various tax rules attached , depending on whether the person who died was below or above age 75.
It raises then an interesting question . What happens if the pension beneficiary is an organization ( like a charity) rather than an individual. How do they 'take' a pension or pay tax on the income ?

pmq

Thanks for all the replies

I'm still not convinced that all pension schemes will accept notification of beneficiaries and contingent beneficiaries as an Expression of Wish. And even with those purport to, if they do not have suitable systems for effectively recording them, a free form letter could easily be lost (in the mists of time) and so come to nothing.

Hence the interest in aiming to rely upon the “”Will” route (at the very least as a backup to an EoW). Which very much leads on to whether there tax implications associated with a scheme paying the scheme funds into the estate (and so just allow the estate executor to deal with the distribution in accordance with the will. But if this were to be the case, would tax (or other charge) be payable on the transfer from the scheme into the estate (I am aware that there should not any IHT on any bequest to a charity under a will). And would any such tax situation be different depending upon whether death occurred before age 75 or from 75 onwards?

OR might a scheme, on sight of the will, pay the scheme funds (as a lump sum) directly to the charities. On the tax front, my understanding is that there should not be any tax or charge levied on such payments (provided there are no surviving dependents).

Albermarle

As I understand it pension trustees are very reluctant to pay pensions into an estate , although it is possible .
I'm still not convinced that all pension schemes will accept notification of beneficiaries and contingent beneficiaries as an Expression of Wish
Have you actually asked your provider(s) or are you just guessing ?