Intrusive Demand by Pension Provider

They need the usual confirmation of your identity before sending money to your, or your solicitor’s, account. They operate under strict money laundering regulations, as did I as a solicitor. I’m surprised your solicitor hasn’t explained this. You may see it as pointless bureaucracy. I see it as fraud prevention.

I agree GSM.

Another way of looking at this Scribbles, are the lengths this company is going too to ensure that this money goes to the person who is eligible to receive it, and not to a fraudster.

When DH retired his pension provider dragged their feet inexcusably, getting responses to calls/emails was incredibly frustrating. There is a pension ombudsman who can help but you must have followed the pension provider's own complaints' procedure first.

Complain to Ofcom and write to the financial pages of a national paper - and tell them you will be doing so. You could also contact ypur MP or threaten to and tell them that as well.

Whatever the verification procedure is now, The whole delay by the company is excessive and unacceptable. It should all have been sorted in under 6 months.

I’m so sorry you lost your dear husband Scribbles and in such a traumatic way.

I am sure that GSM and others are correct in what they say about money laundering rules. Although not such a sad situation as yours, I’ve needed to do some financial transactions recently and tbh, all their questioning made me feel like a criminal even though every penny we have has been legitimately earned! I suspect money launderers know full well how to get around the rules while we little people have to put up with this intrusion.

Regarding the photos, I found that scanning provides a better copy. If you have a smart phone it may have a scanning facility on it. If you bank online, there may be a button somewhere on your bank statement that allows you to download a PDF which you can then email on to them.

Thanks, all, for your thoughts.
I'm aware of the money-laundering legislation and okay with providing photo ID, birth and marriage certificates, proof of residence, etc. My gripe was about the requirement to provide a bank statement which seems to me intrusive beyond what is acceptable.

I have, as some suggested, considered a complaint to the financial ombudsman about the delay and/or contacting the financial chap at the Sunday Times. However, as this business now seems to edging towards a close, I decided not to do anything which might cause further delay. However, once the payment is safely in my bank account and the final accounts are completed, there will very likely be some pithy, grumpy-old-woman emails heading to senior people at that insurance company with copies to the press, You&Yours, etc.

Providing a bank statement is not an unusual requirement. It is proof that you are the holder of the account to which money is to be transferred. You can redact details of transactions. This is not intrusive and it is no reason for making a complaint.

Incidentally, the financial chap at the Sunday Times is a woman.

I'm so sorry for your loss, Scribbles. Just a thought, I went through similar after my mom died. Identity verification took a similar route. As to their dragging out your payment, her estate was rather simple, too, but it only took about six months for all accounts to be cleared. On writing your email, I had issues with a very nasty neurologist when my DH had a stroke. He was abrasive, arrogant, and dismissive of me, threatening to have me "reported and dealt with." I made notes, wrote my letter, and put it aside for 2-3 weeks until I'd calmed down and my husband had returned home. I edited it a bit and mailed it to the department head of the hospital and the head of the overall owners of the hospital. I received phone calls from both within a week of mailing it. The department head said, "This was the last straw as he'd had complaints before and complimented me on sitting on it for a few weeks to calm my emotions, something he tells his students-- write it out, put it aside, and let the emotions calm before moving forward." I don't know what happened with the neuro, but his profile disappeared from the hospital's website the next month. Of note, the owners were most concerned if I was going to post my experience with their staff on social media. My opinion is a letter in hand is more powerful than another of the many emails that pop up in queue.

I've had to show my passport to meet anti money laundering requirements. Surely that's enough?

Not if you are asking for money to be paid into your bank account. Evidence that you are the account holder is needed.

I had to provide a bank statement two weeks ago. I had a maturing regular saver worth only £1500 to be paid into my current account with another bank. I never gave it a thought, of course they had to check that my bank account was genuine

Another time I had to provide bank and savings account statements was when I put a deposit down on my cash-purchase new house. My solicitor had already seen them, I told the estate agent so and that was accepted

Four years is a ridulous amount of time to wait scribbles. That is what I would feel aggrieved about, not the statement provision

Germanshepherdsmum of course. I was the one paying in rather than expecting a pay out. It was to do with investments.

Isn’t the material point in Scribbles post not that the Insurance Company is seeking absolute verification of her identity to validate the claim, but that they are extremely slow to respond although information is being provided to them ina timely way? To take four years to sort out a claim due to delays in their internal processes is unacceptable.

It was the delay that promoted me to suggest the Ombudsman, that and the lack of communication. In DH case he was retiring and it was stressful enough, coping with it as part of a bereavement is totally unacceptable. (Perhaps the solicitor hasn't been as proactive as they could have been.)

That’s not her major complaint according to the thread title. I would have been making a fuss long ago about the time they’ve taken, but we don’t know why it has taken so long.

Some people have just been brought up not to make a fuss and to invest far too much belief in the competence in the dealings with other people.

My father was an army officer and his army service invested him with a total belief in the competence of non-military professional, he would no more chase them up than he would accept interference from non-military people on military matters.

My sister's estate took twice as long to clear than necessary because he wouldn't even ring someone and ask for a progress reports, whether estate agent or insurance company or solicitor. He just sat there and did nothing until they contacted him. The rest of the family were tearing their hair out over it. Even my mother, whose advice he rarely ignored could not get him to just call and ask for a progress report.

GSM, I think the requirement to provide my documents for a second time was what got me ranting this week. I have been very unhappy with the time taken to unravel my husband's estate. Delays by the insurer have not yet been properly explained; several complicated tales have been repeated to me by staff at the solicitor's office, none of which I can entirely believe. My gut instinct says that somebody at the insurer screwed up big time and they've been trying to cover their derrières. I don't want to detail my suspicions on a public forum - and I doubt I could ever prove them anyway.

The delays weren't helped when my solicitor went sick for some considerable time and several of his colleagues left the firm just as things were opening up post-lockdown and their business was picking up, resulting in serious staff shortage and delays.

Yes, I could have sought the help of another solicitor but figured that would only result in even longer delays and double the fees payable so was optimistic (daft?) enough to stay where I was.

Thanks for the advice about the ST's finance editor by the way. I confess to having given up on newspapers a couple of years ago when I realised I rarely got beyond p5 because there just wasn't time to read them.

Zuzu. I've taken your comments on board and I do agree it's much better to give oneself breathing space and time to assemble the facts in order before writing a succinct and forceful complaint. I'm pleased that yours was so effective, too.

I hope it’s all sorted out very soon now. If the law firm you’re using lost a number of members of staff and at the same time more work was coming in that would have been a difficult situation, as well as people being furloughed and/or wfh during covid. The insurer probably also had problems with lack of people in the office and I’m afraid these companies do lose paperwork and ask for documents to be sent again. It shouldn’t happen but I imagine the chaos caused in many offices by covid has been responsible for a lot of complaints. They just weren’t set up to enable remote working. Fortunately my firm had the technology in place well before covid and I regularly worked at home - well before covid. But many, especially the smaller firms, didn’t.

Or, as Hanlon said, "don't ascribe to malice what can be plainly explained by incompetence".
A good mantra for daily life but I guess I've allowed it to slip my mind recently. Back to the mindfulness tapes this weekend!
It's funny how a few minutes on GN can help put life back into perspective. Thanks, everyone.

This should not have taken four years to sort out. The chances of this being a case of money would seem to be low and an excuse.
Your solicitor should have been far more pro-active in expediting this and I hope is charging a set fee, not delaying and charging for each item.

I can remember a family member struggling when her DH died and she had to send proof to his firm so that his pension would be paid to her. The firm lost her marriage certificate and used other delaying tactics but at least that only took six or so months.

You need to chivvy up your solicitor, he or she sounds useless.

^The chances of this being a case of money laundering would seem to be low and an excuse.