My father passed away in December 2022. After my father's death, my mother started to receive monthly a portion of his pension as a survivor benefit. In January 2025 (2 years later), the pension plan provider (Fidelity) contacted my mother stating that they owed her another monthly pension payment in which the initial payment will included backdated amounts to my fathers death. We had no idea what this was. She then received a $77K check in February 2025 for the missed monthly payments since my father's death and she deposited that check. Later in February 2025, Fidelity contact my mother and stated that payment was a mistake and was my father's pension which should have stopped after his death in December 2022.
How does this situation not fall into the below scenario where they cannot attempt to recoup that payment?
https://pensionrights.org/issue/recovery-of-overpayments/
Quote:
Retirement plans may not recoup against the widowed spouse of an overpaid retiree.
When a married retiree in a pension plan dies, the retiree's widow or widower is often entitled to a monthly survivor benefit for the remainder of the spouse's life. The IRS takes the position that, if a retirement plan mistakenly overpays a retiree, the retirement plan may not try to recover that overpayment by reducing the spouse's survivor benefit payments or demand that the spouse repay the plan. However, if a retirement plan makes a mistake in calculating the amount of the survivor benefit payable to the widow or widower, the plan may attempt to recoup that overpayment.
