Hello. I wonder whether anyone might be able to clarify a situation concerning dea th benefits that, on the face of it, are payable to a discharged bankrupt's estate, but that are being claimed by the trustee for the bankruptcy?
On the date of bankruptcy (some time in late '95, I believe), said individu al had an approved personal pension scheme. Discharge from the bankruptcy o ccurred in Feb '99. Death occurred in late 2013, ten years or so before pen sionable age.
The person administering the estate has found no documents that show that t he pension policy, from which death benefits are payable, was vested with t he trustee for the bankruptcy. However, I am aware that in cases of bankrup tcy petitions presented prior to 29th of May 2000, this was common practise .
To cut to the chase, does the trustee need to have staked a claim to the pe nsion at the time of presentation of the bankruptcy petition, or can they " pop up", years after discharge, and take it? In this particular case, it seems that the pension fund company and the ban kruptcy trustee are dealing directly with each other and are being rather u ncooperative with the estate administrator. I would have thought that they would be obliged to show some proper evidence of the pension policy having been assigned to the bankruptcy trustee. Is this correct?
It appears as though the individual whose pension policy is subject to a tr ustee claim believed that the pension was his. He received regular statemen ts (I would have imagined that they would go to the trustee for the bankrup tcy if the policy was indeed vested with the trustee) and he made occasiona l payments into the policy (there would be no point in doing this if it wer e known that the benefit would go elsewhere). Is there a duty to inform a b ankrupt that his pension fund has been assigned to a third party, or that t hird party claims might be made at some point in the future?
Thanks. Jim.