Private Pension Death Lump Sum

Aretnap

Andy_L said:

ChampagneKisses said:

Hi Sammy,

I don’t have any contact with them and I’d rather not. 

I would go as far to say that I’d rather the pension company retained the money than give it to them, haha.

Thanks for your response x

Do you have no contact details for them or do you just avoid them?

Were you the executor of his will?

If you were than you have a legal duty to ensure the correct distribution of his assets. IMO that would include ensuring any pension goes to those entitled to it. 

Not sure this is correct. The pension is not the property of the deceased; it's held in trust for him, sits outside his estate and is ultimately the responsibility of the trustees, not the executor of his will. 

For the same reason the will doesn't determine where it will go. The trustees might look at the week as one line of evidence about his wishes and his affairs, but they are not bound by it and are free to distribute it completely differently to the assets in his will.

LHW99

Marcon said:

Andy_L said:

gravel_2 said:

What happened to any other assets in the estate? It should all have been split 3 ways...

Depends on what the will says

Doubt it. Normally on death the pension provider (for a defined contribution scheme) will have used their discretion as to the recipient(s), guided by any expression of wish form the member completed. Sounds as if that's what's happened here.

The way I read it, gravel_2 is asking about non-pension "other assets" in which case, Andy_L will be correct, and the assets outside the pension will be distributed according to the terms of the will. Could be equally split, could be all to one, or some combination, including the local cat's home.

If no will, then there is a procedure for dividing the estate.

ChampagneKisses

Thanks all.

Dad didn’t have a Will.

Basically, I’ve had no relationship with my 2 siblings on my Dad’s side and then when he passed, they decided to suddenly turn up. They basically did me “the dirty” - won’t go into details, so I deleted their phone numbers and that was that. I remember Dad had the pension after this and was given my 1/3 of it.

The company my Dad has the pension through doesn’t have any more of their details other than that there’s 2 other siblings. 

Ultimately, my question is, if they’re not traced doesthe money just stay there or can it be released to myself?

zagubov

What do you think your dad would have wanted?

Albermarle

ChampagneKisses said:

Thanks all.

Dad didn’t have a Will.

Basically, I’ve had no relationship with my 2 siblings on my Dad’s side and then when he passed, they decided to suddenly turn up. They basically did me “the dirty” - won’t go into details, so I deleted their phone numbers and that was that. I remember Dad had the pension after this and was given my 1/3 of it.

The company my Dad has the pension through doesn’t have any more of their details other than that there’s 2 other siblings. 

Ultimately, my question is, if they’re not traced doesthe money just stay there or can it be released to myself?

Presumably your Dad's other assets were distributed 3 ways even without a will ? Probably by an appointed solicitor?
In which case the pension provider will presumably go looking in this direction for some details about your siblings contact details, or make other investigations.

ChampagneKisses

No Solicitor was involved in dividing his other assets between the 3 of us. 

xylophone

Who administered your late father's estate?

Are you saying that you could in fact be more helpful in putting the pension Trustees in touch with your siblings?

ChampagneKisses

As stated above, my siblings came on the scene when my Dad passed away and then “did me the dirty” over some things. We never had a relationship as it is but that was the final straw for me and I deleted their phone numbers as I had no intention of contacting them again. So I don’t have any of their details.

gravel_2

The right thing to do is to facilitate the pay out to your siblings. If that's not what you want to hear then you may want to look elsewhere for advice.

ChampagneKisses

I don’t have the money, the pension company do.
I’m still waiting for them to do their tracing.