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Owen and Another v Metal & Engineering Industry Bargaining Council Pension Fund and Another

When the complainant’s father died in October 2013, he was a member of the first respondent pension fund. The fund identified three beneficiaries namely the wife of the deceased (who was allocated 50% of the benefit), the complainant and the son of the deceased (each of whom were allocated 25%).

The complainant was dissatisfied with the allocation, stating that in a beneficiary nomination form completed by the deceased, he had expressed his wish to have the death benefit distributed in equal percentages of 33,3% amongst her, her brother and the wife of the deceased. As far as the complainant was concerned, policies that the deceased had taken out together with provision in his will for his wife to be his sole heir, and the 33,3% in the beneficiary nomination form, were more than enough to take care of the deceased’s wife. It was argued that the board of management, in departing from the nomination form, failed to consider that the complainant and her brother did not have permanent employment.

Click here to read a summary of this Pension Fund Adjudicator Ruling.