Dead Man’s $128,000 Pension Check Properly Canceled, Judge Says

The LSC Communications Pension Plan properly canceled a $127,697 check it sent to a retiree who died on the same day the plan received his request for a lump sum distribution, a federal judge in Chicago ruled.

Thomas Birchfield’s estate isn’t entitled to the lump sum pension payment he requested shortly before his death, because his pension plan required him to be alive on April 1, 2016, to receive the benefit, Judge Steven C. Seeger of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Birchfield’s death on March 12, 2016, extinguished his right to continuing payments under the ...