How to sort someone’s pension after they’ve died

You can usually find details of pension schemes and their contact details by looking through paperwork or checking emails. 

If you think a pension might be lost:

• try and list all the employers the person had
• use the free Pension Tracing Service on GOV.UK to find pension contact detailsOpens in a new window

For more information, see our guide How to find old or lost pensions. 

It’s worth checking the person’s bank statements to help identify all the sources of income they had and which providers were paying them. 

This is important as pension income might not always be paid by the pension provider directly. For example, an insurance company might make payments if their pension was:

• used to buy an annuity

• put into drawdown so income could be taken as and when it was needed.

Next, contact each pension or annuity provider and let them know the person has died. It’s best to do this as soon as you’re able to as:

• you might need to repay any pension that has paid out since the death

• extra tax might need to be paid if the death is reported after two years of it happening.

For the State Pension, who to contact depends on where the person was living when they died. 

In most cases, the State Pension cannot be passed on to anyone else. 

But you might be able to claim some of the money or increase your own State Pension if you were:

• married, or

• in a civil partnership.

You can use the State Pension and your partner toolOpens in a new window on GOV.UK to check if this applies to you. 

How to find more help depends on where the person lived.

How someone’s private pension can be inherited depends on the type they had. You can check pension types using our tool or ask the pension provider. 

Defined contribution pensions work by building up a pot of money to use at retirement. 

This means any money left in the pot when the person died can be passed on, usually to the beneficiaries they nominated. The pension provider will usually contact those named to explain what their options are. 

Beneficiaries can typically choose to: 

• take some or all the money as one or more lump sums  

• convert some or all the money into guaranteed income by buying an annuity 

• leave the money invested until they need it.

For more information, see our guide What can I do with my pension pot?

An annuity usually stops paying when the person dies, unless they chose certain options when it was set up. This includes: 

• a guarantee period – where the annuity will pay out for a minimum period, including to beneficiaries if the person dies before it ends 

• a joint-life basis – where a named person can continue to receive a proportion of the income

• value or capital protection – where a lump sum might be paid to beneficiaries if the annuity had paid out less than it cost when the person died.  

For more information, see our guide about Take your pension as a guaranteed income: annuities explained.

Defined benefit pensions pay guaranteed income based on the person’s salary and how long they worked for that employer.

This means there isn’t a pot of pension money to pass on, but most schemes will have death benefits. The pension provider can explain the death benefits they offer, but typical examples include: 

• death-in-service lump sum – often a multiple of the person’s salary if they were still working for that employer when they died
• a refund of the person’s contributions with interest, if they died within two years of setting up the pension 
• a pension protection lump sum – if the pension had a guarantee period and the person died before this ended, beneficiaries can receive any amount that hadn’t paid out yet 
• a dependant’s pension – a partner or children up to age 23 can receive a percentage of the pension as either:
  • regular income
  • a lump sum if the value is less than £30,000 (called a trivial commutation lump sum). 

How tax works on inherited pensions largely depends on how the money is paid and how old the person was when they died.

You can contact HMRC’s Bereavement ServicesOpens in a new window for help with tax after someone dies. 

When you take money from an inherited pension, it’s usually taxed if:

• it’s paid as regular income or a trivial commutation lump sum

• the person died at age 75 or above – it does not matter how the money is taken.

This means any pension income or inherited amount is added to the beneficiary’s other earnings to calculate how much Income Tax needs to be paid.  

No Income Tax is usually charged on payments from an inherited pension if the person died before reaching their 75th birthday and:

• it’s taken as:
  • lump sums from an untouched pension or pension drawdown pot set up after 6 April 2015
  • income or lump sums from an annuity set up after 6 April 2015 
• the first payment is taken within two years of the pension scheme learning of their death
• the total amount of tax-free cash taken from all their pensions is not higher than the lump sum and death benefit allowance (LSDBA).

The LSDBA is £1,073,100 for most but will be lower if tax-free cash was taken before the person died. It might also be higher if they applied for lifetime allowance protectionOpens in a new window before April 2025. 

If the annuity or drawdown pot was set up before 6 April 2015, or the money is claimed two years after the death, Income Tax is usually payable on any money received.  

Until April 2027, any money left in a pension pot when someone dies – or any death benefits their scheme promises to pay – will not usually be counted as part of their estate.

This normally means:

• pensions are not covered by any will, so you do not need to wait for probate

• Inheritance Tax is not payable.   

This is because most pension providers or trustees have the right to choose who receives anything from the pension after the person dies, called a discretionary trust.

The provider or trustees will usually pay the money to the people who were nominated using an expression of wish form, but they do not have to. 

The alternative is if the provider uses ‘direction’, where they must pay the money to the people nominated. In this case, the money is counted for Inheritance Tax purposes. 

The pension provider will be able to explain the rules that apply to you.

From April 2027, any money left in your pension or in death benefits might be counted when calculating Inheritance Tax. 

You can use our Benefits calculator to see the payments, grants and discounts you might be eligible for.

For example, you might be able to claim a Bereavement Support Payment if your partner has died.

For more information, see our guides:

• Claiming Bereavement Support Payment and other benefits

• Managing your finances after your partner dies

For more help on what to do when someone dies, you can see all our Death and bereavement guides.