Old pension rules
Discussion
Helping my Mum with some financial stuff as you do and I uncovered a bit of an anomaly.
Dad was in one co pens scheme for 25 years around 1970-1995. Scheme administered by a large and still in existence insurer. Post 1995 he was in a new different co scheme for four years administered by the same ins co.
The anomaly is that I have long assumed that Mum was receiving at least one widow's pension but it appears not. Correspondence with the insurance company initially produced a 'can't trace him on our records' but when we found old scheme paperwork with references the tune changed instantly to 'we've found him but no schemes have any value'.
Now my next step will be to find out where any death benefit was paid and the situation with regard to any widow's pension but in the meantime I'd like to know how it would have been possible to 'lose' the 25 year scheme. I can see that he might have transferred it to the four year one but not how he could ever have extracted the funds UNLESS back then the current five year rule (now two I think) didn't exist.
It would be one almighty loophole if a frozen pension due to time could be transferred into a new one and then the whole lot extracted.
Any thoughts from the advisors on here?
Dad was in one co pens scheme for 25 years around 1970-1995. Scheme administered by a large and still in existence insurer. Post 1995 he was in a new different co scheme for four years administered by the same ins co.
The anomaly is that I have long assumed that Mum was receiving at least one widow's pension but it appears not. Correspondence with the insurance company initially produced a 'can't trace him on our records' but when we found old scheme paperwork with references the tune changed instantly to 'we've found him but no schemes have any value'.
Now my next step will be to find out where any death benefit was paid and the situation with regard to any widow's pension but in the meantime I'd like to know how it would have been possible to 'lose' the 25 year scheme. I can see that he might have transferred it to the four year one but not how he could ever have extracted the funds UNLESS back then the current five year rule (now two I think) didn't exist.
It would be one almighty loophole if a frozen pension due to time could be transferred into a new one and then the whole lot extracted.
Any thoughts from the advisors on here?
Did he purchase an annuity with the pot of money? If he did and it was a single life policy then it would have ceased to have any ongoing value to your mother upon his death.
Do you remember who the executor of his will was? It maybe worth searching probate records to see if there is any insight within that - https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
Good luck.
Do you remember who the executor of his will was? It maybe worth searching probate records to see if there is any insight within that - https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
Good luck.
5pen said:
Did he purchase an annuity with the pot of money? If he did and it was a single life policy then it would have ceased to have any ongoing value to your mother upon his death.
Do you remember who the executor of his will was? It maybe worth searching probate records to see if there is any insight within that - https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
Good luck.
Good question about the annuity. I don't believe so but it will be possible to check old transactions which should provide an insight.Do you remember who the executor of his will was? It maybe worth searching probate records to see if there is any insight within that - https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
Good luck.
Just to be clear, if he had 25 years in a scheme in 1995, would it have been possible to effectively shift that fund into an annuity? My layman's understanding is that would not be possible and the contributions would be effectively locked in.
I do know the executor and will be able to access probate records. I will dig around.
Gassing Station | Finance | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff