What Happens To My Deceased Father's Private Pension That He Has Not Accessed

Bryn_the_cat

My father recently passed away, very suddenly and unexpectedly.  He was 72 and had a private pension, earlier documents are with Canada Life and latter Sun Life Financial of Canada, I am assuming that this is the same company and has been bought out / overtaken in the past.  My Mum passed away 4 years ago and my brother and i are the executors of our fathers will.  The terms of the policy was, that he was unable to access the pension until he reached 70, and although he has made enquires a couple of times in the past two years to obtain figures he has not accessed the pension.  He couldn't decide how much to take as a lump sum and told me that if he left it untouched until he was 75 he would have a better return, he was a bit of a ditherer in that way!

I'm therefore wondering what will become of this pension pot as my brother and I are adults, therefore not dependents, will we have any claim on the pension pot? and if so how much?  I don't want to appear as grabby in any way, but as my father paid into this pension it would be really galling if nothing was paid out, and yes i know my father should have accessed it himself but he didn't foresee a terminal diagnosis with him passing away 5 days later.

Any advice would be appreciated.

xylophone

You will need to contact Sun Life  Financial as soon as possible and advise them of the death of your father, the policy holder.

You should enclose a death certificate and give full details of the policy.

It may be that your father had nominated a beneficiary of the pension.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/tax-guides/bereavement/what-happens-pension-policies-and-life-assurance-policies-deceased-held-death

https://techzone.adviserzone.com/anon/public/pensions/Tech-guide-DC-death

dunstonh

 earlier documents are with Canada Life and latter Sun Life Financial of Canada, I am assuming that this is the same company and has been bought out / overtaken in the past. 

That is not a safe assumption. Canada Life and Sun Life Financial of Canada are two different companies (and don't get mixed up with Sun Life which is different again)

I'm therefore wondering what will become of this pension pot as my brother and I are adults, therefore not dependents, will we have any claim on the pension pot?

The death benefits will be those for the type of pensions that they are.   Typically, it is the return of fund value but older pensions or hybrid pensions may have different death benefits (such as the return of contributions)

TVAS

If the product is a personal pension it maybe return of fund tax free to nominated beneficiaries or if none nominated his next of kin. The trustees will probably decide to award to the issue (children) equally they will ask for sight of the will. 
The documents your dad has will state the death benefits before and after retirement but as xylophone says you have to contact them in any case as we do not have the policy details.

wjr4

TVAS said:

If the product is a personal pension it maybe return of fund tax free to nominated beneficiaries or if none nominated his next of kin. The trustees will probably decide to award to the issue (children) equally they will ask for sight of the will. 
The documents your dad has will state the death benefits before and after retirement but as xylophone says you have to contact them in any case as we do not have the policy details.

They never ask for a copy of the Will. 

Bryn_the_cat

Thank you for your prompt replies, I have very little understanding of pensions (I have a NHS pension). I wanted an understanding of what to expect when I contact the pension company and didn’t want to be fobbed off by them.  Your advice is very much appreciated. My parents were very private where their finances were concerned and I’ve already discovered a savings account that I wouldn’t have been aware of if I’d not found a letter dated March 2020 advising that the account was being made dormant as it had not been used since 2015 😳 there was money in the account.

xylophone

Presumably you have the SLF address etc on the policy documents - the web site is here
https://www.sloc.co.uk/en/

Albermarle

wjr4 said:

TVAS said:

If the product is a personal pension it maybe return of fund tax free to nominated beneficiaries or if none nominated his next of kin. The trustees will probably decide to award to the issue (children) equally they will ask for sight of the will. 
The documents your dad has will state the death benefits before and after retirement but as xylophone says you have to contact them in any case as we do not have the policy details.

They never ask for a copy of the Will. 

There has been a few threads on here recently where there was a dispute about who the beneficiary should be.
In this case more than one poster commented in these kind of rare cases, the trustees might also take details of the will into account to try and get a steer on the right course of action.

Bryn_the_cat

okay, so I've reviewed all correspondence and it appears that there are two separate policies. Canada Life which i've found a letter dated July 2019 advising of the proposed transfer to Scottish Friendly and Sun Life Financial of Canada, so thanks again for all the pointers, now time to contact the companies. 

dunstonh

wjr4 said:

TVAS said:

If the product is a personal pension it maybe return of fund tax free to nominated beneficiaries or if none nominated his next of kin. The trustees will probably decide to award to the issue (children) equally they will ask for sight of the will. 
The documents your dad has will state the death benefits before and after retirement but as xylophone says you have to contact them in any case as we do not have the policy details.

They never ask for a copy of the Will. 

You are correct in the majority of cases.   However, where no expression of wish exists, they do often ask if there is a Will to get an indication of the persons general wishes and consider that in their decision.

There has been a few threads on here recently where there was a dispute about who the beneficiary should be.
In this case more than one poster commented in these kind of rare cases, the trustees might also take details of the will into account to try and get a steer on the right course of action.

I suspect there is more to that story than we are being told.    My gut feeling is that no expression of wish existed in that case.

Marcon

wjr4 said:

TVAS said:

If the product is a personal pension it maybe return of fund tax free to nominated beneficiaries or if none nominated his next of kin. The trustees will probably decide to award to the issue (children) equally they will ask for sight of the will. 
The documents your dad has will state the death benefits before and after retirement but as xylophone says you have to contact them in any case as we do not have the policy details.

They never ask for a copy of the Will. 

They certainly do where no expression of wish form is held, or only one signed a long time ago - or if they get a sniff of a family in dispute about potential beneficiaries.