How to Nominate Pension Beneficiaries Correctly

An expression of wishes — sometimes called a beneficiary nomination — is one of the simplest forms you'll ever fill in for a pension, and one of the most consequential. It tells your pension provider who you would like to receive any death benefits, and while it isn't always legally binding in the way a will is, it strongly guides a decision that is otherwise left almost entirely to someone else's discretion. Given how much money can be involved, and how easy it is to forget an old form exists, keeping these nominations current across every pension you hold deserves far more attention than most people give it.

What an expression of wishes actually is

Most pension schemes, particularly defined contribution workplace and personal pensions, are set up as trusts, with a board of trustees or a scheme administrator holding legal responsibility for deciding who receives any death benefits when a member dies. This structure exists for good historical reasons — a genuinely discretionary payment, not directed by the deceased, has traditionally been one of the key features that kept pension death benefits outside the scope of inheritance tax. An expression of wishes form is how you tell the trustees what you would like to happen, naming one or more people (or in some cases a charity or trust) and, if you wish, specifying what proportion each should receive.

Crucially, an expression of wishes is usually described as an indication of your wishes, not a binding instruction. In the overwhelming majority of cases, trustees follow the nomination closely, because that is exactly what it is there for and it reflects your clearly stated intentions. But the discretion technically remains with the trustees, who retain the ability to depart from your nomination in unusual circumstances — for example, if the named person has died, if your family circumstances have changed dramatically since you completed the form, or if there are other dependants with a strong claim that the form doesn't reflect. This is precisely why keeping the form updated and reasonably detailed matters so much: the clearer and more current your wishes are, the less room there is for trustees to have to guess.

Why a pension nomination does not follow your will

One of the most common and costly misunderstandings in this area is the assumption that writing a will, or naming someone as a beneficiary in your will, automatically covers your pension too. It generally does not. Most pension death benefits sit outside your estate specifically because they are distributed at trustee discretion rather than by instruction in your will, which means your will typically has no direct legal effect on who receives your pension death benefits. If you have carefully updated your will after a divorce, for instance, but never got round to updating the separate expression of wishes form with your pension provider, your ex-partner could still end up being the person the trustees consider — or at least a factor they weigh — when deciding who receives your pension.

This gap between wills and pensions catches out a genuinely large number of people, precisely because it runs against the common-sense assumption that "my will covers everything." In practice, your pension needs its own, separate instruction, held directly with the scheme or provider, updated independently of — though ideally consistently with — your will and the rest of your estate plan.

Practical steps to nominate correctly

Getting your pension nominations right starts with knowing exactly how many pensions you actually have. Many people accumulate several pensions over a career — one or more workplace schemes from previous employers, a current workplace pension, and perhaps a personal pension or two — and it is easy to lose track of older ones, particularly after a job change or a house move where paperwork gets misplaced. Each of these separate arrangements holds its own expression of wishes, and updating one does nothing to update the others.

A step-by-step approach to reviewing multiple old pensions

• 1

  List every pension you've ever paid into, including short periods of employment you might otherwise forget about. Payslips, old auto-enrolment letters, and your P60s from previous jobs are a good starting point if your memory has gaps.

• 2

  If you've lost track of a scheme entirely, use the government's Pension Tracing Service, or ask your former employer's HR department, to track down contact details for the provider.

• 3

  Contact each provider in turn and ask specifically for their expression of wishes or beneficiary nomination form — the name varies slightly between providers, but the concept is the same.

• 4

  Complete each form with your current wishes, being as specific as possible about names, relationships, and percentage splits if nominating more than one person.

• 5

  Keep a simple personal record — a spreadsheet or document — listing every pension, its provider, and the date you last updated its nomination, so future reviews are quicker.

• 6

  Set a reminder to review all your nominations every few years, and immediately after any major life event, rather than relying on memory alone.

When to review your nominations

Certain life events should always trigger a review of every pension nomination you hold, not just your will. Marriage or entering a civil partnership is an obvious one — many people assume a spouse is automatically covered, but if an old nomination still names a parent or previous partner, that old nomination is what the trustees will see. Divorce or separation is equally important, and arguably more urgent, since failing to update a nomination after a divorce can mean an ex-partner remains named as a beneficiary for years without anyone noticing.

The birth of a child or grandchild is another natural trigger, particularly if you want to include them directly or adjust percentage splits between existing beneficiaries. Similarly, if someone you had previously nominated dies before you, your nomination for that pension effectively becomes out of date and should be revisited promptly, both to name a new beneficiary and to avoid the trustees having to exercise wider discretion in the meantime. As a general habit, reviewing every pension nomination every two to three years, even without a specific trigger event, is a sensible habit that costs very little time but can prevent a great deal of confusion and unintended outcomes later.

Common nomination mistakes worth avoiding

A handful of mistakes come up again and again when people complete expression of wishes forms. The most common is simply never completing one at all, on the assumption that "it'll sort itself out" or that a will already covers it — as explained above, it usually does not, and trustees are then left with much less guidance about your actual wishes. Another frequent mistake is naming a single beneficiary by relationship rather than by name — for example, "my spouse" rather than a named individual — which can create ambiguity if your relationship status changes and the form isn't updated in time, or if there is a period where your marital status is unclear to the scheme.

A third common mistake is forgetting about old pensions entirely. It is not unusual for someone to have three, four, or even more separate pension pots by the time they retire, accumulated across a career of job changes, and it is easy to lose track of a scheme from a job held fifteen or twenty years ago. If that old scheme's nomination form was completed once, early in adult life, and never revisited, it may still name a long-past partner, a parent who has since died, or simply reflect circumstances that no longer apply. Finally, some people complete a nomination form once and assume it is permanent — in reality, an expression of wishes should be treated as a living document, reviewed periodically rather than filed away and forgotten.

What happens if trustees have to decide without a clear nomination

If you die without an expression of wishes on file, or with one that is clearly out of date or ambiguous, the scheme trustees still have to decide who receives any death benefits — they cannot simply leave the money unallocated. In practice, this usually means the trustees will investigate your circumstances at the time of death: contacting your next of kin, reviewing any will you left, and considering who was financially dependent on you, such as a spouse, civil partner, or children. This process can take considerably longer than a straightforward payment to a clearly nominated beneficiary, sometimes delaying access to funds for months while the trustees gather the information they need to make a reasonable decision.

Beyond the delay, there is also a real risk that the outcome does not match what you would actually have wanted. Trustees are required to act reasonably and in good faith, but they are working from limited information and cannot read your mind — they can only make the best judgement available to them based on what they can find out. This is really the core argument for keeping a nomination current: it removes guesswork from what can already be a difficult and emotionally charged process for your family, replacing it with a clear, documented, and easily actioned instruction.

Frequently asked questions about pension nominations

Is an expression of wishes legally binding? In most defined contribution schemes, no — it is usually described as guidance for the trustees rather than a binding instruction, though in practice trustees follow it in the vast majority of cases. Some scheme rules, particularly certain older or bespoke arrangements, may give a nomination more binding force, so it's worth checking your specific scheme's rules if you want certainty on this point.

Can I nominate more than one person? Yes, most schemes allow you to nominate multiple beneficiaries and specify a percentage split between them — for example, 50% to a spouse and 25% each to two children. This can be a useful way of reflecting a more complex family situation than a single named beneficiary would allow.

Can I nominate a charity instead of a family member? Many schemes do allow charitable nominations, and this has historically carried its own inheritance tax advantages; check with your specific provider if this is something you want to include as part of your wishes.

Do I need to tell my nominated beneficiaries that I've named them? There is no legal requirement to do so, and some people prefer to keep their wishes private. However, letting beneficiaries know they are nominated — and roughly what to expect — can make the eventual process smoother, since they will know to contact the right pension provider promptly after a death rather than discovering the pension exists only much later.

Why this matters even more with the 2027 IHT changes

From April 2027, most unused pension funds will be brought within the value of a person's estate for inheritance tax purposes, making pensions a more prominent and consequential part of overall estate planning than they have been before. Against that backdrop, a clear, current, and well-considered set of pension nominations becomes part of a genuinely holistic estate plan, not just a standalone administrative task. Coordinating your pension nominations with your will, any trusts you have set up, and your wider financial plan helps ensure that the people you intend to benefit actually do, and that the overall tax position — inheritance tax on the estate and income tax on withdrawals for the beneficiary — is understood rather than discovered by surprise.

This is also a good moment to think about how, not just whether, a beneficiary receives a pension. Many schemes allow flexible options such as ongoing drawdown for a beneficiary rather than a single lump sum, which can sometimes help manage the income tax due on withdrawals over time. Discussing these options with your pension provider, and with a financial adviser familiar with your full circumstances, alongside reviewing your nominations, ensures that the practical mechanics of how money passes to your chosen beneficiaries are as tax-efficient as the rules allow, both before and after the 2027 changes take effect.

It is also worth having a wider family conversation about your nominations, particularly if your estate is likely to be affected by the 2027 changes. Beneficiaries who understand roughly what to expect — both in terms of who is nominated and what tax might apply once the money reaches them — are generally better placed to make sensible decisions about how and when to draw down an inherited pension. This kind of openness can feel uncomfortable to raise, but families who have these conversations in advance tend to find the eventual administration of an estate considerably less stressful than those who are left guessing.