Can heirs receive the pension savings of a deceased relative? What steps need to be taken to do this?
We talked about how the funded part of a pension is formed and how to increase it or at least maintain it given today’s inflation.
But, unfortunately, in Russia there are often situations when a person does not live to see retirement. A person can die after retirement, leaving an unpaid portion of pension savings.
First, let us remind you what is due to the future pensioner.
Is it possible to receive the funded part of a pension for a deceased relative?
Receiving payments is possible if the deceased person was insured and made contributions to replenish the pension. Only heirs can receive the accumulated funds, among whom the money will be distributed as when dividing any property.
Attention! It will not be possible to receive money if a person received a pension payment in full before his death.
Heirs have the right to receive funds that have not yet been paid to the pensioner. If a person has paid a pension for a certain period, then after his death the heirs will only be able to count on the remaining amount of savings. Payment of funds will not be possible if the account was emptied during the person’s lifetime.
Do I need to contact a notary?
To inherit pension savings, you do not need to contact a notary. There is a special registration procedure for them. Accordingly, the state duty for entering into an inheritance is also not withheld from them.
Please note that citizens who received funds from the deceased's funded pension are not considered his heirs. That is, they can refuse to receive the main inheritance and not pay the debts of the deceased (clause 8 of the Bulletin of Judicial Practice of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court of 2015).
Is this an inheritance
Every citizen of the Russian Federation is obliged to pay funds towards the formation of his pension. The list of compulsory pension insurance also includes a funded part.
Contributions to the Pension Fund are formed from the following types of payments:
- Maternal capital . It is included in the amount of the funded pension if the parents decide to use the money received to form future contributions.
- Profit from investing funds in various savings programs.
- Funds paid by citizens personally . This may be an initiative of the individual himself or an obligation for self-employed persons.
- Contributions from the employer if the citizen is employed under an official employment contract.
The legislation fully allows heirs to receive the funded part of the pension if the deceased person did not manage to realize it in his own interests.
This applies both to situations where a person passed away before retirement, and when a person, after retirement, continued working in order to increase the final size of the funded portion, but died before the payments were made. Therefore, funds are inherited in accordance with all the rules established for relatives.
How does inheritance work?
The procedure for inheriting a funded pension does not differ from the algorithm provided for other property. A citizen must declare his right to inheritance within six months and submit the necessary papers that can prove the degree of relationship between the applicant and the deceased person.
Further, the inheritance procedure will depend on the number of heirs. If there are several of them, then the remaining amount will be divided among all claimants to the property, and if there is only one heir, all the money will go to him.
Reference! The exception is when the distribution of property is carried out on the basis of a will drawn up by a person before his death. Then the funds are distributed in accordance with the will of the testator.
Who can receive funds?
To inherit the funded part of the pension, you need to familiarize yourself with the articles of Federal Law No. 173. The circle of persons who can count on payment after the death of the insured citizen is also listed here.
Persons who belong to the heirs of the first and second stages will be able to receive payment from the funded part . These include husband or wife, children, parents, brothers, sisters. If these categories of persons have the opportunity to receive a payment, then there are also those groups that have a guaranteed right to receive a pension for a deceased person.
Such persons include those who were dependent on the deceased for at least one year. But in order to receive a payment to a dependent, you will need to take into account several important nuances, without which the funds cannot be paid.
A ban on receiving an inheritance may be imposed if a person has been recognized as an unworthy heir. In this case, the person is deprived of even the guaranteed right to payment of funds. Access to pension savings if the fact of unworthiness is confirmed can be prohibited only by a court decision.
The decision to deprive the right is made by the court based on the following factors:
- The person committed unlawful acts against the deceased. Such actions include harm to health and attempted murder.
- The person did not fulfill his obligations to the deceased. For example, a person refused to pay alimony.
Funds can be allocated not only in full, but also in partial amounts . This is possible if there are several heirs who are included in the same queue. Then all pension savings are divided between the heirs into equal parts.
Important! In controversial situations, relatives go to court to fairly divide the payments.
An additional way to resolve the issue regarding the distribution of a funded pension is a will executed by a person before his death. If the heirs disagree with the provisions of the will, they can be challenged in the courtroom. If there are no contradictions or illegal actions in the execution of the document, the claim to change or invalidate the provisions of the will will be rejected.
Who is owed unpaid pension savings?
Of course, many of us want to get more money by delaying the retirement date. However, we should not forget that by putting off applying for a pension, even a seemingly healthy person may not use his pension savings at all.
While still alive, a future pensioner has the right at any time to write to the Pension Fund a statement about who will receive his savings. In NPF, heirs are indicated in a separate clause of the agreement.
A person can identify specific recipients of these funds, as well as determine in what shares the specified funds should be distributed among them (Clause 6, Article 7 of Law No. 424-FZ “On Funded Pension”).
The future pensioner has the right to name any person who is not even his relative as an heir.
And if a person did not write any application or did not include anyone in the contract, then who has the right to claim his pension savings? Then the payment is made to the legal successors of the deceased from among his relatives in order of priority:
- first priority - children, spouse and parents;
- second line - sisters, brothers, grandmothers, grandfathers, grandchildren.
The distribution of the pension among the heirs of each line is carried out in equal shares.
Heirs of the second stage will be paid the deceased’s pension in the absence of applications from close relatives of the first stage.
Process of receiving money
To receive pension savings as an inheritance, you will need to act in accordance with the conditions of Russian legislation. The issue of inheritance is considered in the RF PP No. 471.
To make a payment you will need to follow the algorithm:
- Find out all the necessary information.
- Collect documents.
- Go to the Pension Fund with the collected papers.
- Submit an application with documentary evidence to receive payment.
- By decision of the council, funds will be sent to the specified details or the application will be rejected.
Sample application for receiving a funded part of a pension for a deceased relative:
List of required documents to receive savings in the form of an inheritance:
- passport;
- birth certificate (if a minor is to receive funds);
- court order to extend the period for filing an application (if the period for filing an application was missed);
- confirmation of the degree of relationship between the applicant and the deceased person;
- death certificate;
- power of attorney (for representatives only);
- SNILS of the deceased person;
- details where the money must be sent if the council’s decision is positive.
An important nuance is to fill out the application correctly. If the application is not made according to the form, the pension fund employees will reject the application. There should be no corrections or blots in the finished document; they will be another reason for rejecting the application.
The generally accepted form of the document includes the following points:
- Applicant details (full name).
- Who is this person related to the deceased person?
- Passport details.
- Grounds for receiving a pension.
- Details for transferring funds.
- Temporary or permanent registration address.
- Number and signature of the applicant.
If the application is rejected, the citizen has every right to appeal the decision in court.
The documents and application must be submitted to the local PF office. Transfer of documents is allowed not only during a personal visit to the institution, but also through a third party, who must have a power of attorney from the applicant. If it was decided to send the papers by mail, then this can only be done using a registered letter with a list of attachments.
The legislation allows you to apply to the fund in accordance with the standard deadlines for registering an inheritance - 6 months from the date of death of a person . It is possible to submit an application without taking into account the deadline only in exceptional circumstances, when the heir was not informed or did not have the physical opportunity to be present during the division of property.
Important! The pension fund has five working days from the date of application to process the received application.
If the pension fund decides that the applicant has every reason to receive a payment, then a positive response to the application is issued. The funds will be transferred to the person by the 15th of the next month.
An applicant may be refused if the following facts were revealed during processing of the application and documents:
- Not a complete set of papers is presented.
- The application contains errors, inaccuracies or corrections.
- The submitted documents are fake.
- Incorrect information was transmitted.
- There are no grounds for payment.
The commission's decision may be challenged. To do this, the applicant must draw up and submit a petition to appeal the decision.
Lawyer's answers to popular questions
I am the only heir after the death of my brother. I don’t want to inherit because he has a lot of loans. But can I get my pension savings and not pay my debts?
Yes. As judicial practice shows, pension savings are not included in the inheritance estate. The recipient is not considered to have entered into the inheritance. So you can get your retirement savings and stay debt-free.
My nephew died. I am the only heir and have submitted all documents for the inheritance. Can I get his pension savings too?
Only if the nephew indicated you as a legal successor in the application in case of death. Otherwise, you will not be able to receive them.
When my father died, I began to draw up an inheritance. But I didn’t know that you could get pension savings. Can I apply to the pension fund 1 year after his death?
To get the savings, you will need to restore the term in court. However, it is necessary to prepare strong evidence that the deadline was missed for a good reason.
I missed the deadline for inheriting my father’s pension savings. Can I sue in my city if my father lived and worked in another city?
No. The application can only be filed at the location of the defendant. In your case, this is a branch of the pension fund with which your father entered into an agreement.
Mom lived in Vologda, and I lived in Moscow. She worked officially for many years. She became seriously ill, so she had to be admitted to a neuropsychiatric boarding school. A month ago she died. Can I receive her pension savings if I have been paying for boarding school accommodation all this time?
As a child, you are the first-degree heir. It is necessary to clarify whether she has submitted an application to the pension fund to appoint another legal successor. If not, you can get her pension savings.
Nuances
Legislation allows citizens of the Russian Federation to store their pension savings in state and non-state funds. Therefore, the place of circulation will depend on where exactly the deceased person kept the funds. The procedure for registering and receiving savings will be carried out under the RF Regulation No. 471, regardless of the organization.
The law prohibits pension funds from requesting an expanded package of documents. Therefore, before contacting the organization, there is no need to clarify which list of papers is necessary to process the payment.
If the pension fund requests additional papers, the applicant can immediately apply to the court with a corresponding application . Such an action on the part of the PF is illegal, for which the responsible person will be punished in accordance with the administrative or criminal code.
To receive a funded pension, you need to fill out an application, collect papers and submit a complete package of documents to the pension fund. Funds will be transferred to the applicant using the specified details only if there are grounds.
How to find out the amount according to SNILS
You can get information about the pension savings according to the SNILS of a deceased pensioner, as well as find out what savings are in your account as follows:
- by personally contacting the pension fund branch at your place of residence;
- through the use of the Internet. First of all, register on the State Services portal. Registration requires mandatory user identification. After this, go to your “Personal Account” by entering your SNILS number in the login field and receive the necessary information. This method is convenient and accessible, it allows you to get all the information you are interested in quickly and easily at any time, you do not need to stand in line at the pension fund branch.
