Annuity to ex wife or kids?

purplebiro2

My father in law passed away in July. He divorced my husband's mother in the mid 2000s, fairly acrimoniously and at the time severed their finances entirely (we thought) and changed his will to give everything to his two children equally.

However, he did not tell his pension provider and now we have found (quite to our surprise) that there is a five-figure annuity due. They have contacted my husband and his sister asking if it is indeed to be paid to their mum and they have advised that no, they do not believe this would be his wishes, that his will should be seen as a good indication of this and also that we have a letter sent by my mother in law to my father in law during the divorce which states categorically that she does not want to claim any of his pension.

We have been informed by the pension provider that this has now been sent to a "death panel" for review and then will be passed to a technical department before we will be informed of the income. I wondered if anyone could give me an insight into this process and the likelihood of it going in my husband and his sister's favour? 

I should also probably add that the obvious solution here would be for us not to dispute it being paid to his ex-wife and her passing the money on to the kids once received but...families. My husband and sister-in-law are highly doubtful that she would do this (as am I) and would prefer, if the money does go to them, for her not to be notified at all, so would be helpful to know what normally happens in these situations.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can give.

p00hsticks

Can you confirm that you do really mean an annuity (i.e. a regular sum paid until death)  rather than it just being a pension pot ?
 
I've no knowledge on the matter, but logic would suggest that if it's the former, then the sum being paid out would  need to be recalculated if it's going to be paid to children rather than spouse, as the former are presumably younger and have a higher life expectancy. 

Flugelhorn

p00hsticks said:

Can you confirm that you do really mean an annuity (i.e. a regular sum paid until death)  rather than it just being a pension pot ?
 
I've no knowledge on the matter, but logic would suggest that if it's the former, then the sum being paid out would  need to be recalculated if it's going to be paid to children rather than spouse, as the former are presumably younger and have a higher life expectancy. 

also the annuity would be split between however many who as you say may live much longer 

Keep_pedalling

p00hsticks said:

Can you confirm that you do really mean an annuity (i.e. a regular sum paid until death)  rather than it just being a pension pot ?
 
I've no knowledge on the matter, but logic would suggest that if it's the former, then the sum being paid out would  need to be recalculated if it's going to be paid to children rather than spouse, as the former are presumably younger and have a higher life expectancy. 

If this is a joint life annuity then I would have thought the payments would still go to the ex wife.

purplebiro2

Oh sorry - my mistake (and complete ignorance on pensions) - I mean a single one off payout.

Flugelhorn

purplebiro2 said:

Oh sorry - my mistake (and complete ignorance on pensions) - I mean a single one off payout.

oh ok less complicated - I suspect this is to do with the fact that these payments are outside the estate and the trustees then determine who should receive the payment - usually it is really obvious ie surviving spouse / children etc but other times related to information given in forms of nomination completed  by the owner of the policy. The trustees can override if appropriate eg (as our financial adviser said) a father  with young family leaves them with nothing and  nominates for it all to go to the lady up the road 

suspect in this case they will look at all the evidence you provide 

Marcon

purplebiro2 said:

My father in law passed away in July. He divorced my husband's mother in the mid 2000s, fairly acrimoniously and at the time severed their finances entirely (we thought) and changed his will to give everything to his two children equally.

However, he did not tell his pension provider and now we have found (quite to our surprise) that there is a five-figure annuity due. They have contacted my husband and his sister asking if it is indeed to be paid to their mum and they have advised that no, they do not believe this would be his wishes, that his will should be seen as a good indication of this and also that we have a letter sent by my mother in law to my father in law during the divorce which states categorically that she does not want to claim any of his pension.

We have been informed by the pension provider that this has now been sent to a "death panel" for review and then will be passed to a technical department before we will be informed of the income. I wondered if anyone could give me an insight into this process and the likelihood of it going in my husband and his sister's favour? 

I should also probably add that the obvious solution here would be for us not to dispute it being paid to his ex-wife and her passing the money on to the kids once received but...families. My husband and sister-in-law are highly doubtful that she would do this (as am I) and would prefer, if the money does go to them, for her not to be notified at all, so would be helpful to know what normally happens in these situations.

Thanks in advance for any insight you can give.

Given the written evidence you've been able to provide, it is highly likely that the decision will be made to ignore what appears to be a totally out of date expression of wish form, provided that it is dated 'long ago' - ie well before the will was made and the divorce took place.

There's no guarantee that the pension provider won't want to contact his ex-wife to confirm certain points, and I'm afraid you'll just need to live with that.

dunstonh

We have been informed by the pension provider that this has now been sent to a "death panel" for review and then will be passed to a technical department before we will be informed of the income. I wondered if anyone could give me an insight into this process and the likelihood of it going in my husband and his sister's favour? 

You are only aware of the information that has been provided from your end.   His ex-wife will also be given the opportunity to provide information to support her views.    That may include details of the divorce settlement.

If it was a clean break and the assets were split at the time, then it's unlikely that the ex-wife will get anything.   

purplebiro2

Thank you all, this is very helpful.