Sister claimed she was the only beneficiary to our late mothers pension

[rainbowrain108]

My mother died 6 years ago and I am now NC with my sister due to her toxic and narcissistic personality.

I have recently found out through my cousin that my sister has claimed for my late mothers occupational pension (valued at £1200) and has declared that she is the only beneficiary, and hence not acknowledged me as the other obvious beneficiary.

My cousin provided me with a photocopy of the letter (addressed to my sister) which states that the the trustees of the pension have made a decision to pay the sum of the pension to my sisters account following recent correspondence.

Obviously, I have reached out to the pension company to advise them of the fraud (as we are both children of my mother the natural split should be 50/50) and they have said they are investigating.

Is anyone able to give any advise on action I can take? Will this be grounds for a criminal case? I am not concerned about the money per se (although it would be lovely to receive), but it is more a case of principle as I know our mother would be turning in her grave at this. Any guidance will be welcome?

The trustees can pay it to who they want based on information they are provided with. Honestly for 50% of £1200 do you want the upset?

You and your sister both know what she did

It doesn’t sound like it is the pension company’s fault, they paid out in good faith based on the information your sister provided. They are very unlikely to be able to recover anything from your sister now so they won’t be able to pay you anything. You will need to take legal action against your sister if you want any of the money.

Reading this I am concerned about your cousin accessing and showing you private correspondence to your sister. That is an offence. It’s also just downright odd - why are they meddling in family stuff ?

Do you actually know anything about the pension - did your mum make your sister the only beneficiary ? There isn’t anything ‘natural’ about a 50/50 split - obvs it often happens but it isnt a given.
Are you sure your sister isn’t planning to split it with you (if she has a duty to?). Feels as though you may be jumping the gun on assuming a lot of things ??
Did your mum’s will split other things 50/50? Was the pension mentioned in her will? Was your sister executor of that will?

Sorry - lots of qs. Agree fully that for 600 it isn’t worth doing anything through legal channels. Wait for the company to get back to you with info about who the beneficiary was. They may not be able to give you anything other than the most headline info due to data protection/confidentiality reasons.
Once you find out whether you were due anything or not you can lay it to rest.
Good luck.

How does your cousin have access to your sisters private correspondence?! That’s very odd.

I don’t think I could be bothered to get involved with all this even on principle.

I believe occupational pensions can be be left to the child you wish it to go to (if any). At the moment mine is it due to go to my eldest (although that's an error I need to correct).

Occupational pensions are like bequests. Your mum might have meant for her pension to I my go to your sister.

You would surely pay more in legal fees than the £600, but I understand how you feel, having a sister like that myself. May be better for you to take the high road and leave the moneygrabbing cow to go about her life. May be (or not) of interest, but having such a sister, when I made my will, the solicitor said that rather than leave a her out of it, better to leave a specific amount (£1) to her, so she will not able to contest it. Last laugh and all that!

Occupational pensions allow for beneficiaries to be named. You can’t be certain your mum didn’t name only your sister to receive hers. The pension company saying they are investigating may only unearth proof that this was the case.

There’s no principle worth proving here in any case. You won’t be able to prove to your mother that your sister is the horrible person you think she is; if your sister has acted fraudulently then she already knows that. You no longer have her in your life. Let it go.

@dontdisturbmenow

I believe occupational pensions can be be left to the child you wish it to go to (if any). At the moment mine is it due to go to my eldest (although that's an error I need to correct).

Occupational pensions are like bequests. Your mum might have meant for her pension to I my go to your sister.

There is no way my mum would have left the pension just to my sister. I know for sure. Also, the way the letter was worded suggests my sister approached and there was a claim

@ChessieFL

It doesn’t sound like it is the pension company’s fault, they paid out in good faith based on the information your sister provided. They are very unlikely to be able to recover anything from your sister now so they won’t be able to pay you anything. You will need to take legal action against your sister if you want any of the money.

They have a duty to ensure the pension goes to the correct persons surely? Otherwise whats to stop any old person making a claim on a deceased persons pension. It looks like my sister has done some digging to find this old pension

Why has this taken 6 years to come out? Were there any other assets e.g. property? If so, how was that shared out?

@HeronLanyon

Reading this I am concerned about your cousin accessing and showing you private correspondence to your sister. That is an offence. It’s also just downright odd - why are they meddling in family stuff ?

Do you actually know anything about the pension - did your mum make your sister the only beneficiary ? There isn’t anything ‘natural’ about a 50/50 split - obvs it often happens but it isnt a given.
Are you sure your sister isn’t planning to split it with you (if she has a duty to?). Feels as though you may be jumping the gun on assuming a lot of things ??
Did your mum’s will split other things 50/50? Was the pension mentioned in her will? Was your sister executor of that will?

Sorry - lots of qs. Agree fully that for 600 it isn’t worth doing anything through legal channels. Wait for the company to get back to you with info about who the beneficiary was. They may not be able to give you anything other than the most headline info due to data protection/confidentiality reasons.
Once you find out whether you were due anything or not you can lay it to rest.
Good luck.

My cousin knows full well what my sister is like and her history and so rightly alerted me to it when she saw the letter whilst visiting her house.

@20questions

Why has this taken 6 years to come out? Were there any other assets e.g. property? If so, how was that shared out?

no other assets, just some cash and jewellery that was shared between the 2 of us

@20questions

Why has this taken 6 years to come out? Were there any other assets e.g. property? If so, how was that shared out?

I suppose no one knew about the pension until my sister made some kind of enquiries.

I had a similiar situation and must stress that I am not a lawyer, just sharing my experience.

My sister, who I was very close to and were both estranged from our other sibling (for very good reason) died several years ago. One of the companies she had a pension wrote to me saying they were aware of her passing and as I had signed the death notification they wanted information from me of all the potential beneficiaries.

I, of course, supplied them with the details of my parents and siblings. They also asked me to write a letter stating if I wish to be considered for the pension and why I felt I had a claim. My mother and siblings decided to put a claim in too. The trustees decided to award her pension entirely to me. My mother and siblings appealed but the trustees upheld their original decision. The caseworker explained to me that the trustees have complete discretion on who to award the pension to but they have to be in complete facts of who all the potential beneficiaries are.

I suspect you would have to sue your sister for 50% of the pension value but for for £600 (although not a completely insignificant amount, especially near Christmas) it really wouldn't be worth it for your sanity and it will drag along affecting you so much. I don't think the trustees / company can do anything now but hopefully a solicitor will come along and confirm the situation for you.

The pension company does have a duty to pay out according to their scheme rules but they can only work with the information they’re given so if your sister didn’t tell them you exist what are they meant to do?

Note that for a lot of pensions the trustees have discretion who they pay it to anyway so there’s no guarantee if you would have been paid anything even if they did know about you.

This is your sister’s fault, not the pension company’s.

For £600 this seems madness!

Is it £600 or £600 per month. Because that's a big difference.

Am sure none of us would be turning down £600 per month.

Your sister did some digging to find this pension. You wouldn't have known about its existence otherwise. You are NC with her so not surprised she didn't let you know. It's £600. Forget it.

@AnnaMagnani

Is it £600 or £600 per month. Because that's a big difference.

Am sure none of us would be turning down £600 per month.

£600 one off

Give it up then. You are not getting it back.

600 - (so 300 you ‘hope’ to realise - don’t give it a second thought. Move on.

Unless info from pension company makes it straightforward etc. Otherwise absolutely move on and don’t even let it rankle.

Even though it is only £600 I totally get how angry this must have made you. You could write to the pension company yourself to let them know you have a claim on your late Mother's pension. No need to involve another pension company which will cost you money. If your mother's pension company asked your sister if their were any other people entitled to a share and she said no to them in writing, then she has acted fraudulently and you could take her to court for fraud. If you won the case you would most likely be awarded cost which would mean your sister would have to pay. You would need to see what pension company said about your claim. Your cousin has not done you a favour because now you are angry and upset just before Xmas and you.know your Mum would not want that for you. I had a two year legal wrangle with.my exh. We shared a hose and a company and had 52 percent shares each with our eldest daughter having 8 percent shares. The court ordered house and company be valued. Exh wanted me to have house with just 4 years mortgage left on it and he keep company. This would leave me with no job. House was valued but Exh refused to get company valued and gave company away to a friend and then he refused to work anymore. Court move very slowly and by time we got back to court he had informed most repeat customers he was not going to trade anymore. Eventually company got valued but what was left hot lower value than at point of court order to get valued. In the end Exh filed for bankruptcy when I was on holiday so knew nothing about it. Court awarded me 60 percent of house value and 60 percent of joint pension and judge said he had deliberately scuppered business rather than share with me. It all came back to bite him on the bum. He could not get new mortgage do put house in new partner name , after 6 years she kicked him out and as they were not married he had no claim. He could not tell court he paid deposit because he was bankrupt and so supposedly had money. He got money when he effectively gave/sold business to a friend thinking he would get it back down the line but his friend fell out with him and kept it. Exh now has no money, no job, 2 put of 3 of our adult kids don't have contact with him, he has missed out on wonderful experience of enjoying 2 dgc. He will spend Xmas alone. Basically all because he would not just share 50/50 which is what I asked for after 20 year marriage. Covid allowing I will spend Xmas with all my DC. I tell you this honestly, I wish I had let it go before 2 years of wrangling even if Exh got to keep business because it was not worth it and I lost over £300k.

Reading this I am concerned about your cousin accessing and showing you private correspondence to your sister. That is an offence. It’s also just downright odd - why are they meddling in family stuff ?

Cousins are family. If my cousin knew that my sibling had done something like this then they would tell me. Far odder not to, I would think.

@HeronLanyon

Unless info from pension company makes it straightforward etc. Otherwise absolutely move on and don’t even let it rankle.

Pension company have contacted to say they are investigating and a meeting will be held with Trustees to discuss next steps.