LGPS or private life insurance in Trust

[JamMakingWannaBe]

I'm not sure if this is best in "money" or "legal" but a comment on another thread got me thinking about Trustees in the event of my premature death.

I have a LGPS Death in Service "policy" of say £100k and a similar amount in a private life insurance policy which I've been looking at placing into a Trust.

My original intention was to leave my work policy to OH and appoint Trustees to manage the private policy until DD comes of age.

If I did it the other way around and OH got a lump sum from my private policy, would the LGPS manage my Death in Service "fund" on behalf of my DD to save my friends/family from doing so as appointed Trustees and if so, could I write a Letter of Wishes to guide the LGPS?

Hi @JamMakingWannaBe

I’ve only just seen this. The administering authority of your LGPS pension (i.e the council running it) have the discretion to pay out your death grant to anyone that is someone you have nominated, your personal representative, or anyone appearing to be your relative or dependant. You can complete an Expression of Wish form telling them who you would like it to go to, but they are not bound by this. If you want the death grant to go to your DD, you should complete an Expression of Wish form telling them this and it may also be worth making this clear in your will too. It’s likely that they will follow your wishes if there’s no good reason they shouldn’t, but they may ask your DH to confirm that he is happy for it to go to your DD. If he contests it they may end up paying it to him. If your DD is still a minor if a death grant becomes payable, the LGPS fund may want a trust account set up for it to be paid into so someone will need to set that up - the LGPS fund won’t get involved with that side and they won’t keep the money on behalf of your DD.

Hope that’s helpful, happy to help with any further questions.