ReAssure Pension Annuity - Making Transfer To Spouse Difficult

Chococat7

My father died in May, leaving behind my mum who he had been married to since 1972. He had a couple of small private pensions of which mum is entitled to monthly payments. One pension company, Just, have already dealt with it very efficiently. So has the State pension as my mum will receive a portion of my dad's. 'Just' asked for the death certificate via email and didn't need to provide proof of bank account because the money is paid into a joint one and it's the same account that dad's payments were going into, plus they wanted a utility bill.

ReAssure are really rubbish and seem to be stalling everything. Firstly they took ages to send out forms and when I received them I only got a cover letter without the forms enclosed. I rang and was told that this was due to a blip on the system, then received the forms a few days later. They wanted my parent's original marriage certificate which I can't find anywhere; they were married in a South American country, which is also mum's birth place. ReAssure said they can just take the wedding date to see if that will be enough to do their checks. They wanted the original copy of  mum's birth certificate (which is not in English) and an original copy of the death certificate - This is the only organisation that has asked for original documents  (aside from the Will for probate). They also wanted proof of bank account even though I told them it's the same account as they were paying dad's pension into.

Anyway, I posted everything via Special Delivery which they received a week ago. I rang a couple of days ago to find out if they had all the info they required and how long it would take but, even though they had received it,  they didn't know how long it would take. Somebody was due to ring me back before today, but didn't, so I had to ring them. They said they have sent the birth certificate to their 'technical team' to translate, but can't give me any timescale on how long this will take. 

Whilst I appreciate checks are necessary, please can anybody else tell me if they've had problems with this company please? Or am I being unreasonable in thinking that they are making things more complicated than it needs be? 

Thank you 

dunstonh

They wanted my parent's original marriage certificate which I can't find anywhere; they were married in a South American country, which is also mum's birth place

This probably goes back to when the plans were set up.  If the marriage certificate was provided at the outset, they wouldn't need it again.    If it wasn't provided at the outset, then it would be needed upon death if spouse benefits were included.     

So, whoever set the policy up at point of sale probably provided the marriage cert to Just but it was never provided to ReAssure.     

Whilst I appreciate checks are necessary, please can anybody else tell me if they've had problems with this company please?

ReAssure are not known for being the quickest.  Just are known to be very efficient.   However, there is nothing unreasonable in what ReAssure are asking for.

 Or am I being unreasonable in thinking that they are making things more complicated than it needs be? 

A little bit.  They are not sitting there thinking how much more difficult they can make your mum's life.    ReAssure is a bit old fashioned.  It has recently been taken over by Phoenix.    In time, Phoenix will streamline and improve them as they have with most of the other dead insurance company books that they have taken over.