Hi,
My aunt was separated from her husband in the 90's, and he has recently died.
He was paying her maintenance from his pension, and this has been stopped.
His pension scheme is based in the UK. One of its rules states that if the pension scheme member and spouse are not married and living together at the time of death, that subsequent payouts are at the discretion of the trustees. If they were married & living together, my aunt would get 50% of the pension.
The trustees have decided not to pay out.
The executor of her husband's will, and his solicitor have kindly agreed to help out, but my aunt is not their client. So I just want to check if we are doing the correct thing. So far they have sent a letter to the trustees stating that a portion of the pension was expected. They say that they will mention the pension preservation order depending on the response. Each response seems to take weeks, and it is dragging on a bit now.
My aunt is in a nursing home, and is not able to communicate - so we cannot ask her about what happened at the time. We have her personal paperwork, and a family member has power of attorney. So we are trying to figure out what we need to do. It has a great bearing on the Fairdeal scheme etc etc.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
My aunt was separated from her husband in the 90's, and he has recently died.
He was paying her maintenance from his pension, and this has been stopped.
His pension scheme is based in the UK. One of its rules states that if the pension scheme member and spouse are not married and living together at the time of death, that subsequent payouts are at the discretion of the trustees. If they were married & living together, my aunt would get 50% of the pension.
The trustees have decided not to pay out.
The executor of her husband's will, and his solicitor have kindly agreed to help out, but my aunt is not their client. So I just want to check if we are doing the correct thing. So far they have sent a letter to the trustees stating that a portion of the pension was expected. They say that they will mention the pension preservation order depending on the response. Each response seems to take weeks, and it is dragging on a bit now.
My aunt is in a nursing home, and is not able to communicate - so we cannot ask her about what happened at the time. We have her personal paperwork, and a family member has power of attorney. So we are trying to figure out what we need to do. It has a great bearing on the Fairdeal scheme etc etc.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.