Friendly Societies Act 1896

PAYMENTS ON DEATH GENERALLY

56 Power of member to dispose of sums payable on his death by nomination

(1) A member of a registered society (other than a benevolent society or working-men's club) or branch thereof, not being under the age of sixteen years, may, by writing under his hand delivered at or sent to the registered office of the society or branch, or made in a book kept at that office, nominate a person to whom any sum of money payable by the society or branch on the death of that member, not exceeding one hundred pounds, shall be paid at his decease.

(2) The sum of money payable by the society or branch on the death of a member, shall include sums of money contributed to or deposited in the separate loan account and the sums of money accumulated for the use of the member under the provisions of this Act with interest thereon.

(3) The person so nominated must not be an officer or servant of the society or branch, unless that officer or servant is the husband, wife, father, mother, child, brother, sister, nephew, or niece of the nominator.

(4) A nomination so made may be revoked and varied by any similar document under the hand of the nominator, delivered, sent, or made as aforesaid.

(5) The marriage of a member of a society or branch shall operate as a revocation of any nomination theretofore made by that member under this section.

(6) A nomination or a variation or revocation of a nomination by writing under the hand of a member of a registered branch and delivered at or sent to the registered office of that branch, or made in a book kept at that office, shall be effectual notwithstanding that the money to which the nomination relates or some part thereof is not payable by that branch, but is payable by the society or some other branch.

57 Proceedings on death of a nominator

(1) On receiving satisfactory proof of the death of a nominator, the society or branch shall pay to the nominee the amount due to the deceased member, not exceeding the said sum of one hundred pounds.

(2) The receipt of a nominee over sixteen years of age for any amount so paid shall be valid.

(3) If the total sum in respect to which a nomination may he made under this Act by a member, after deducting any sums of money payable under the rules of the society or branch, or otherwise, for the purpose of defraying funeral expenses, exceeds at the time of the death of that member eighty pounds, the society or branch shall before making any payment require the production of a duly stamped receipt for the succession or legacy ditty payable thereon, or a letter or certificate from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue stating that no such duty is payable.

(4) The Commissioners shall give such receipt, letter, or certificate on the payment of the duty or satisfactory proof of no duty being payable, as the case may be.

58 Intestacy

(1) If any member of a registered society or branch, entitled from the funds thereof to a sum not exceeding one hundred pounds, dies intestate and without having made any nomination thereof then subsisting, the society or branch may, without letters of administration, distribute the sum among such persons as appear to a majority of the trustees, upon such evidence as they may deem satisfactory, to be entitled by law to receive that sum, subject, if that sum, after making such deductions as aforesaid, exceeds eighty pounds, to the obtaining from the Commissioners of Inland Revenue a receipt for the succession or legacy duty payable thereon, or a letter or certificate stating that no such duty is payable.

(2) If any such member is illegitimate, the trustees may pay the sum of money which that member might have nominated to or among the persons who, in the opinion of a majority of them, would have been entitled thereto if that member had been legitimate, or if there are no such persons, the society or branch shall deal with the money as the Treasury may direct.

59 Estate duty to be paid when the whole estate exceeds one hundred pounds

When the principal value of the estate in respect of which estate duty is payable of any person entitled to make a nomination under this Act exceeds one hundred pounds, any sum paid under this Act without probate or letters of administration shall, notwithstanding such nomination or payment, be liable to estate duty as part of the amount on which that duty is charged, and the trustees of the society or branch may before making any such payment require a statutory declaration by the claimant, or by one of the claimants, that the principal value of that estate, including the sum in question, does not after deduction of debts and funeral expenses exceed the value of one hundred pounds.

60 Validity of payments

(1) A payment made by a registered society or branch, under the foregoing provisions of this Act with respect to payments on death generally to the person who at the time appears to a majority of the trustees to be entitled thereunder, shall be valid and effectual against any demand made upon the trustees or the society or branch by any other person, but the next of kin or lawful representative of the deceased member shall have remedy for recovery of the money, so paid as aforesaid, against the person who has received that money.

(2) Where the society or branch has paid money to a nominee in ignorance of a marriage subsequent to the nomination, the receipt of the nominee shall be a valid discharge to the society or branch.

61 Certificates of death

(1) A registered society or branch shall not pay any sum of money upon the death of a member or other person whose death is or ought to be entered in any register of deaths, except upon the production of a certificate of that death under the hand of the registrar of deaths or other person having care of the register of deaths in which that death is or ought to be entered.

(2) This section shall not apply to deaths at sea, nor to a death by colliery explosion or other accident where the body cannot be found, nor to any death certified by a coroner or procurator fiscal to be the subject of a pending inquest or inquiry.