Deferred Members

Death in Deferment - M Plan

If you leave your Retirement Account in the M Plan after leaving IBM or having opted out of the M Plan, then in the event of your death the amount available in your Retirement Account will either be paid under Discretionary Trust at the discretion of the Trustee and/or will be applied by the Trustee to purchase annuities for your spouse, dependants or children. If the value of your Retirement Account is in excess of the Standard Lifetime Allowance (SLA), the excess above the SLA will if paid as cash, be subject to tax at (currently) 55%. (You may have a higher Personal Lifetime Allowance if you elected Primary Protection under A Day regulations if you have registered for this with HMRC.)

Appropriate enquiries will be made about your family and/or any dependants at the time of your death and full consideration will be given to your wishes as to who receives the value of your Retirement Account; however, the Trustee has absolute discretion as to who receives the payment.

It is important to keep your recorded beneficiary nomination up-to-date if your personal life changes.

The Trustee participates in the Audit Commission’s ‘National Fraud Initiative’ (NFI) that takes place every two years. This compares the data about deferred members with the national death register. If you have your Retirement Account invested within the M Plan after leaving the Company and die before retirement, the NFI report will highlight this if the Trustee has not already been notified of your death. Pension Services will then endeavour to contact your beneficiaries.