Trouble getting annuity payment after my Father passed away

Colliedog1

I wondered if anyone else has had trouble with the Prudential when trying to get them to sort out an annuity payment.

My father sadly passed away over three months ago and his Pru annuity pension was supposed to pay 50% to his wife/my mother if he died first. I informed them straight away and sent them the death certificate. I have spoken to them several times and today they have informed me that it will be another few months to check the information and then give me an update. So that could be nearly 6 months from him passing away before I get an update.The original paperwork states that the pension to the spouse will be immediately payable upon death.

My mother is in her nineties, frail and not in the best of health and she has just lost her husband of 72 years. She is getting herself very stressed over this as she cannot understand what the problem is and why it is taking so long. She became so ill last month that the doctor had her taken into hospital where they kept her for a few days. I need to get this sorted out for her before she becomes worse.

Does anyone know an email address to use for the Pru a bit higher up than their customer service email as I am getting nowhere with them or is there anyone else I can contact please.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Isthisforreal99

Have you put a formal complaint in?

I wouldn't take the 'immediately after death' literally - these things do take time unfortunately but the tine elapsed so far is pushing it and another few months is unacceptable.

Some details feom Google

• Email: Send your dispute to complaint.resolution@prudential.co.uk.
• Post: Write to the Customer Relations Unit, Prudential, Lancing, BN15 8GB.
• Executive Escalation: For critical escalations, you can contact the CEO's office at ceocomp@mandg.com.

Keep_pedalling

I have no idea if this is normal or not for annuities, but it might be worth asking over on the pensions board where you might get better advice.

Colliedog1

Thank you for the email addresses.

The lady did say when I told her that this was making my Mother ill that if anything happened to her not to worry as they would pay out any funds owed to her estate if she passed away. I was shocked and told her it wasn’t the money I was bothered about just the fact that them not getting it sorted was making her ill.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82040400#Comment_82040400

Pensions, annuities & retirement planning — MoneySavingExpert Forum

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6673133/trouble-getting-annuity-payment-after-my-father-passed-away

The "immediately" doesnt mean that it will physically be paid instantly but that the entitlement is immediate and hence as they have said, when it does come into force it will be backdated to the date of death.

Annuities have a lot of practical problems not encountered by most other classes of business. A single policy can last over 60 years, remembering the pension scheme could have bought a deferred annuity when an ex-employee was still in their 20s. 60 years ago IT systems arent what they are today, no insurer is still using the same systems they were using 60 years ago, most will have gone through multiple replatforming during that time. Whilst data is migrated as best as possible there will always be gaps, the new system presumably does more than the old system which is great for stuff you sell today but for the migrated stuff the data is often lacking.

As such, despite having high tech systems there is a lot of manual checking done. Getting 60 year old records out of storage can be problematic, they can be misfiled, they can be incomplete, they can be broken up meaning multiple trips to the offsite storage.

Sometimes wordings are poor, annuities are often written as spouse at date of death or spouse at date of retirement (when the annuity comes into payment). Sometimes the wording is unclear therefore you have to go back and see if there is more guidance, how previous cases were settled etc.

I've had the joys of dealing with annuities in the past, it's not something I'd want to do again in a hurry. Lots of things that were ok then are not ok now, rules are stricter, things are done more formally. You have to work out how to interpret in today's environment.

A customer had complained we were including their annuity in the sale of a book of business because they had read that customers with X feature had intentionally been not included and they believed they had that on their policy; the current IT system said they didnt. So firstly pull the digital copy, unreadable, the scanner was too bright for the paper stock so both sides of the text had come through making it illegible. So requested the 1983 paper copy. Thankfully it was found fairly quickly, received it, looked at it, there were three options on it with the instruction to tick the one you wanted. All three were ticked but one had been scribbled out. One had a ring around it with "this one" written next to it in a different hand to the rest of the text. The circled one was the one our system had recorded as their selection.

So what happened? Who had crossed out one of them? Who had circled the one? Was it done by the customer? A relative helping them? Was it our agent? Had they called them to confirm? If they did has they spoken to him, her, their relative? Did they do it off their own back? The docs sent to the customer afterwards clearly state they had a different option, is 34 years enough time for them to have read it and called out the mistake?

Unfortunately it is a slow process and insurers would rather be slow and ensure they pay the right person the right amount than fall for someone making an illegitimate claim (intentionally or accidentally). Certainly on the later have seen many cases where widows call to claim the 50% of the pension they thought they were entitled to only to be told the policy is spouse at date of retirement so the Ex gets the pension not them.

Colliedog1

Thank you for your very detailed response. It is very interesting to read and I can see what you mean that there can be many problems with who to pay.

Luckily I have the original paperwork from 2001 when he took his annuity out which clearly states he signed to give half to my Mother in the event of his death and I have the replies from the Prudential which confirmed receipt of the marriage and birth certificates from them both.

Never thought about that last part of your message where the widow might not have been married at the time of retirement and the ex gets the payout. Just shows that people need to keep up to date with their paperwork and regularly review things. Not that it applies to my parents as they were married for just on 72 years.

As I say I’m not bothered about the money just about the effect it is having on my Mother. I will wait until August and then start emailing people if it isn’t sorted by then. Thank you again for your help.