Yahoo Finance Widow’s £160,000 pension fight with City giant
A London widow is in dispute with one of the world’s biggest financial services giants after it clawed back most of her husband’s workplace pension pot following his sudden death.
Claire Meier was left to raise their young son alone when her husband Mark Underhill died from leukaemia in 2021 at the age of 46 just three weeks after a shock diagnosis.
He had worked for the US asset management and banking group Northern Trust, which has its London office in Canary Wharf, for 11 years. Ms Meier, 46, was told that the rules of his pension policy allowed Northern Trust to claw back three-quarters of his contribution pension fund.
His employee contributions of about £44,000 were paid to his widow but she says the employer contributions of about £165,000 were returned to Northern Trust.
Ms Meier is also upset that she faces a £65,000 tax bill on a £1 million death-in-service award because they paid it as a lump sum that took his pension fund over the lifetime allowance of £1.073 million.
Any contributions above the allowance are taxed at 55 per cent.
Ms Meier, who lives near Alexandra Palace, said she was in talks with Northern Trust about structuring the payment to prevent it triggering the tax bill, but the two sides could not agree.
She planned to use the money to fund their six year old son’s education and pay off the mortgage. She said: “They said they loved Mark but they have deprived his child of £200,000.”
Her complaint is now the subject of an internal dispute resolution process. Ms Meier has said she will take her complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if it not resolved.
Northern Trust said: “Mark was a valued colleague and we express our deepest condolences to his family. We structure our employee benefits so they are and aligned with best practices.”
