Lost Pension

UTM1

My father passed away in 2011. I was the executor of his will. He was receiving a workplace pension so I notified them of his passing so they could stop his payments. It is only now that it has recently been in the news about lost pension pots that I have tried to enquire what happened to dad’s pot. The scheme is now administered by Legal and General but they say they have no records of my father. They say the previous administrator had no obligation to keep any records more than 7 years old. Is this correct?.Can anyone advise if there is any further course of action I can take.

Flugelhorn

UTM1 said:

My father passed away in 2011. I was the executor of his will. He was receiving a workplace pension so I notified them of his passing so they could stop his payments. It is only now that it has recently been in the news about lost pension pots that I have tried to enquire what happened to dad’s pot. The scheme is now administered by Legal and General but they say they have no records of my father. They say the previous administrator had no obligation to keep any records more than 7 years old. Is this correct?.Can anyone advise if there is any further course of action I can take.

depends what sort of pension it was - some don't have a "pot" - they just have a guaranteed sum that is paid monthly, on death it either disappears or a smaller amount gets paid to the deceased's spouse and dependant children usually to max age of 23. 

bjorn_toby_wilde

Do you know what type of pension scheme your father was in?  If it was a defined benefit (often referred to as final salary) scheme then there wouldn’t have been a pot as such. On the death of the pensioner they may pay a reduced pension to a spouse but other than that there would be no further benefits.

Did you by any chance keep any of the paperwork?

Marcon

UTM1 said:

My father passed away in 2011. I was the executor of his will. He was receiving a workplace pension so I notified them of his passing so they could stop his payments. It is only now that it has recently been in the news about lost pension pots that I have tried to enquire what happened to dad’s pot. The scheme is now administered by Legal and General but they say they have no records of my father. They say the previous administrator had no obligation to keep any records more than 7 years old. Is this correct?.Can anyone advise if there is any further course of action I can take.

If your father died in 2011, and was receiving regular workplace pension payments, then there will be no 'pot'. Either he was in a defined benefit scheme, which will automatically have made regular payments to him once he started to take his benefits from the scheme; or he was in a defined contribution scheme - and in 2011, he would have had to buy an annuity with the whole pot, or taken some tax free cash and then used the balance to buy an annuity.

If someone dies within a fairly short time of starting to take their pension, many schemes/annuities have a 'guarantee' period, typically five years, in which case a lump sum payment is normally paid out on death. If that was the case, the payment will have been made long ago and it's no surprise that the administrators no longer have the details.

Brie

If your father was already in receipt of his pension it's possible that it died with him.  This is often the case with defined benefit/final salary pensions.  So if his pension rightly stopped 13+ years back the administrator would normally only keep records for the length of time required by law - which I believe is 7 years since they last dealt with it.  So they would have disposed of the records in 2018 or 19 depending on their data protection cycle.  

The lost pension pots that have been in the news will be those that have not as yet been claimed.  

Of course there's nothing the matter with going back to L&G and ask what sort of pension he might have been in.  

Marcon

Brie said:

Of course there's nothing the matter with going back to L&G and ask what sort of pension he might have been in.  

Except of course they won't be able to answer, so not much point: 

UTM1 said:

The scheme is now administered by Legal and General but they say they have no records of my father. They say the previous administrator had no obligation to keep any records more than 7 years old. 

I think some of the answers on this thread are overlooking the fact that the death was in 2011, when the so-called pension freedoms were still some years away, meaning a DC pot would have been annuitised.

Brie

Marcon said:

Brie said:

Of course there's nothing the matter with going back to L&G and ask what sort of pension he might have been in.  

Except of course they won't be able to answer, so not much point: 

UTM1 said:

The scheme is now administered by Legal and General but they say they have no records of my father. They say the previous administrator had no obligation to keep any records more than 7 years old. 

I think some of the answers on this thread are overlooking the fact that the death was in 2011, when the so-called pension freedoms were still some years away, meaning a DC pot would have been annuitised.

What I meant by going back to L&G is they might have know what types of pensions the previous admin were dealing with for that employer.  So if all they did was annuities or final salary then that would at least explain why there's nothing left in a pot.

Alternatively if the OP tells us who the employer was and when dad retired we might be able to make an educated guess.  

Marcon

Brie said:

Marcon said:

Brie said:

Of course there's nothing the matter with going back to L&G and ask what sort of pension he might have been in.  

Except of course they won't be able to answer, so not much point: 

UTM1 said:

The scheme is now administered by Legal and General but they say they have no records of my father. They say the previous administrator had no obligation to keep any records more than 7 years old. 

I think some of the answers on this thread are overlooking the fact that the death was in 2011, when the so-called pension freedoms were still some years away, meaning a DC pot would have been annuitised.

What I meant by going back to L&G is they might have know what types of pensions the previous admin were dealing with for that employer.  So if all they did was annuities or final salary then that would at least explain why there's nothing left in a pot.

Alternatively if the OP tells us who the employer was and when dad retired we might be able to make an educated guess.  

Why do you need an 'educated guess'? If it was DB there was never a pot; if it was DC, it would have been annuitised (after taking tax free cash, if that's what OP's father wanted to do), so there can be no 'lost pot' to find. Please see my comment above - the death was in 2011.

UTM1

He worked at British Steel as a Bricklayer.He retired early circa 1996/7. Unfortunately I haven’t kept any paperwork 

DRS1

Up to 2012 the British Steel Pension Scheme was a final salary scheme - ie defined benefit.

Silvertabby

UTM1 said:

He worked at British Steel as a Bricklayer.He retired early circa 1996/7. Unfortunately I haven’t kept any paperwork 

Then it would have been a final salary scheme with a guarantee period of 5 years.  ie, if the pensioner had died within 5 years of starting to draw their pension, then there would have been a lump sum (of 5 X annual pension minus pension already paid) due to the nominated beneficiary/beneficiaries.

Once out of the guarantee period, any further payments could only be made to qualifying  survivors.  ie, spouse and/ or eligible children*.

* Eligible children usually being those under age 18, or 23 if still in full time education.  Or, exceptionally, a child of any age who remains financially dependent on the pensioner due to a serious and permanent disability.