Expression of Wishes — Does It Override a Will?

It's one of the most common and most consequential misunderstandings in pension planning: many people assume that because they've written a will, their wishes for who receives their pension are automatically covered by it. They usually aren't. Pension death benefits are typically governed by a separate document — the expression of wishes, sometimes called a nomination form — and understanding how that document relates to your will, and what happens if you never fill one in (or never update it), matters far more than most people realise. This page explains what an expression of wishes actually is, why it exists as a separate mechanism from your will, whether it truly "overrides" a will, and the life events that should prompt you to check it's still up to date.

What is an expression of wishes form?

An expression of wishes (sometimes called a nomination, or an "expression of wish") is a form provided by your pension scheme or provider, on which you name the people — or, in some cases, charities or trusts — you would like to benefit from any death benefits payable from your pension. Most schemes let you split the benefit between multiple people in whatever percentages you choose, and you can usually update it at any time, as often as you like, simply by submitting a new form. Unlike a will, it typically isn't witnessed, doesn't need a solicitor, and can normally be completed in a few minutes online or on paper directly with the provider.

Why pensions use a separate mechanism from a will

The reason expression of wishes forms exist at all, rather than pensions simply following the instructions in your will like most other assets, comes down to how most pension schemes are legally structured. The majority of workplace and personal pensions hold any death benefits within a discretionary trust. This structure was designed deliberately: it allows the scheme trustees to pay out benefits relatively quickly, without waiting for the often lengthy probate process to complete, and it has historically meant the money generally sits outside the deceased's estate for inheritance tax purposes (though this is changing from 2027, which we cover further down).

The trade-off for that speed and flexibility is that the trustees, not you, hold the final legal decision over who receives the money — which is exactly why your expression of wishes matters so much. It's the primary way you communicate your preferences to the people who will actually make the decision, even though, as we'll explain next, it isn't a binding instruction in the strict legal sense.

Does it override a will? The honest answer

Technically, no — not in the sense of being a legally binding instruction the way your will is for the rest of your estate. Because pension death benefits are usually held in that discretionary trust structure, the scheme trustees retain genuine legal discretion over who receives the money, and they are not strictly obliged to follow your expression of wishes to the letter. In principle, they could decide to pay a different eligible beneficiary if there were good reason to do so — for example, if your circumstances had clearly changed in a way the form didn't reflect, or if the person you'd named had themselves died.

In practice, however, trustees give an up-to-date expression of wishes very significant weight indeed, and departures from it are uncommon without a clear and specific reason. Most trustees see their role as giving effect to the deceased's wishes wherever reasonably possible, using their discretion mainly to handle situations the form didn't anticipate — such as a named beneficiary having predeceased the pension holder — rather than to substitute their own judgement for a clearly and recently expressed wish. So while it is not, strictly speaking, as legally binding as a will, for the vast majority of ordinary situations an up-to-date expression of wishes is followed closely, and it remains by far the most effective single thing you can do to influence who benefits from your pension.

Why a will alone doesn't direct your pension

This is the detail that catches people out most, and it's worth stating plainly: writing "I leave my pension to my partner" in your will typically has no direct legal effect on who receives your pension death benefits, precisely because the pension sits in that separate discretionary trust structure rather than forming part of your probate estate. The trustees will look primarily to your expression of wishes, not your will, when deciding who to pay. If you've never completed a nomination form for a particular pension, or completed one years ago and never updated it, your will's instructions about that pension may simply not apply in the way you'd expect.

This has led to genuinely difficult situations for real families. Consider someone who nominated a partner on an old pension nomination form fifteen years ago, then separated, remarried, and wrote a fresh will clearly leaving everything — including "my pension" — to their current spouse. If that old nomination form was never updated, the pension scheme may still hold the original nomination naming the ex-partner, and depending on the scheme and circumstances, that could carry real weight in the trustees' decision, potentially leaving an estranged former partner as the effective recipient of a pension the deceased clearly intended for someone else. This is precisely the kind of outcome an up-to-date expression of wishes is designed to prevent — and precisely the kind of outcome that occurs when nominations are left unreviewed for years at a time.

Keeping your nominations current across every pension

Most people accumulate several pensions across a working life — perhaps two or three old workplace schemes from previous employers, a current workplace pension, and possibly a personal pension or SIPP on top. Each one of these typically has its own, entirely separate expression of wishes form, held by that specific provider. Updating your will does not automatically update any of them, and updating one pension provider's form does not automatically update another's. This means keeping your nominations current is a task with several separate parts, not a single one-off exercise.

A sensible approach is to make a list of every pension you hold, note the provider and scheme name for each, and set aside time to check (and if necessary update) the expression of wishes on every single one — most providers now let you do this within minutes through an online portal, by phone, or with a short paper form. It's also worth building this into a wider habit of periodically reviewing your overall pension and beneficiary arrangements, particularly since old pensions from previous employers are exactly the ones people most often forget about entirely. For more detail on locating and understanding what you're actually receiving from a pension when it's paid out, see our guide on what happens to a pension when someone dies.

Life events that should trigger a review

Because an expression of wishes only works well if it reflects your current circumstances, certain life events should prompt an immediate check, rather than waiting for an annual review or assuming it will sort itself out:

• 1

  Getting married, entering a civil partnership, or moving in with a new partner — your existing nomination may still name a previous partner or simply not reflect your new relationship at all.

• 2

  Separating, divorcing, or ending a civil partnership — an old nomination naming a former partner will not update itself, and many people are surprised to learn it can still apply after separation if never changed.

• 3

  Having a child, or a new child joining the family through fostering or adoption — you may want to add them as a beneficiary or adjust the proportions between existing beneficiaries.

• 4

  The death of someone you'd previously named — if a nominated beneficiary predeceases you and the form is never updated, the scheme is left relying on discretion rather than your clear current wishes.

• 5

  Starting a new job with a new workplace pension — this is a fresh scheme with its own blank nomination form, and it's easy to forget to complete it amid all the other new-starter paperwork.

• 6

  Writing or substantially updating your will — a natural moment to also check that your pension nominations across every scheme are consistent with your current intentions.

• 7

  A significant change in a beneficiary's own circumstances, such as a child reaching adulthood, developing a disability, or a beneficiary's own financial situation changing in a way that affects how much support they might need.

Why this discretionary structure exists — and how 2027 changes it

It's worth understanding the bigger picture behind why pension schemes are built this way in the first place. Historically, because pension death benefits generally sit outside the formal probate estate thanks to the discretionary trust structure, they have also generally sat outside the deceased's estate for inheritance tax purposes — one of the reasons pensions have long been considered a tax-efficient way to pass on wealth to the next generation, on top of the flexibility and speed benefits already described.

This is changing, however. From April 2027, most unused pension funds and certain lump sum death benefits will be brought within the deceased's estate for inheritance tax purposes for the first time, even though the discretionary trust structure — and the role of your expression of wishes in guiding who benefits — will still generally apply in deciding who actually receives the money. In other words, the mechanism for choosing your beneficiary stays broadly the same; what's changing is the tax treatment of the estate as a whole. We've written a full explanation of this shift on our pension death benefits and IHT from 2027 page, with more general detail at our nominations and inheritance tax guide.

What trustees typically consider when using their discretion

It can help to understand a little about how trustees actually approach these decisions, since it explains why an up-to-date expression of wishes carries so much practical weight even without being strictly binding. Trustees generally start from your expression of wishes as the clearest available evidence of your intentions, then check it against the facts they can establish at the time of death — is the named person still alive, are there dependants the form didn't mention (such as a child born after the form was completed), and does anything suggest your wishes may have changed since the form was last updated. Where the form is recent, consistent with the trustees' other knowledge of your circumstances, and names someone clearly eligible to benefit, it is typically followed closely. Where it's decades old, silent on someone who has since become financially dependent on you, or contradicted by more recent evidence of your intentions, trustees have more reason to exercise genuine discretion — which is exactly the scenario an up-to-date form is designed to avoid.

Common mistakes people make with nominations

A handful of avoidable mistakes come up repeatedly. The most common is simply never completing a form at all — many people assume a pension will "just go to" their spouse or children without realising a nomination needs to be actively submitted to the scheme. A close second is completing one form early in a pension's life and never revisiting it, sometimes for twenty or thirty years, across multiple relationships, house moves, and family changes. Another frequent mistake is assuming that updating your will automatically updates every pension nomination too, when in fact each pension provider needs to be told separately. Finally, some people complete a nomination but never tell their family it exists, or where it's held, which can make it harder for a bereaved family to even know a nomination was made, let alone what it says — mentioning to a close family member or executor that nominations exist, and roughly where, can save considerable difficulty later.

Frequently asked questions

Can I name someone who isn't a family member, such as a friend or a charity? In most cases yes, though some scheme rules restrict payments to financial dependants for certain benefit types, so it's worth checking with the specific provider. What happens if I don't complete a nomination form at all? The trustees will use their discretion to decide who receives any death benefits, typically working through your known family circumstances, which is why leaving no nomination at all removes an important layer of guidance for them. Is an expression of wishes legally binding in any circumstances? Generally not in the same way a will is, though the specific trust deed and scheme rules for any given pension can vary, and in rare cases some benefits may be structured more rigidly — always check the specific scheme's own rules if you're uncertain. Do I need a solicitor to complete one? No — it's normally a simple form provided directly by the pension scheme, requiring no legal involvement at all.

A note if you're going through a separation or divorce

If you're currently going through a separation or divorce, reviewing every pension nomination you hold should be high on your list of practical priorities, alongside the wider financial questions divorce raises about pensions generally. It's a simple, quick task compared with much of the rest of the process, and it directly prevents one of the more upsetting outcomes we see: an ex-partner unintentionally remaining the nominated beneficiary on a pension years after a relationship has ended. Our guide on what happens to pensions in divorce covers the wider financial picture in more detail.