A pension expression of wish is a form you file with your pension scheme telling the trustees who you want to receive your retirement savings if you die. It is deliberately non-binding: the trustees retain the final decision, and that legal design is what has historically kept pension death benefits outside your estate for inheritance tax. Keeping the form current matters because trustees give the most weight to the most recent version on file.
Why the Nomination Is Not Binding
Under a discretionary scheme, the trustees hold the ultimate power to decide who receives your death benefits. Because you never had legal control over where the money went, HMRC has treated those funds as sitting outside your estate, so no inheritance tax has been due on unused pension savings regardless of the size of the pot.
If the nomination were binding, you would effectively be directing the destination of the funds the way a will directs who inherits a house, and HMRC could argue the pension forms part of your taxable estate. Trustee discretion is the legal mechanism that prevents this. Most UK pension schemes — workplace pensions, SIPPs, and personal pensions — use the discretionary model. A small number of arrangements, particularly certain small self-administered schemes and some public sector schemes like the NHS and judicial pensions, use non-discretionary nominations instead, and those are already treated as part of the member’s estate for inheritance tax purposes.1GOV.UK. Inheritance Tax – Unused Pension Funds and Death Benefits
Because an expression of wish is not a testamentary document, it does not need to meet the formalities of a will. You can complete one online, alone, in a few minutes. It works as a request to the trustees, not a command.
How Trustees Use the Form
When a member dies, the scheme trustees review the most recent expression of wish on file. In the vast majority of cases they follow it. Because the nomination is non-binding, though, they have the legal authority to depart from it if circumstances suggest your wishes had changed or if the form does not reflect your actual dependants.
Pension death benefit rules under the Finance Act 2004 restrict who can receive payments to dependants, nominees, or successors of the member.2Legislation.gov.uk. Finance Act 2004, Section 167 Within those categories, trustees weigh the written nomination against what they know about your personal life. If you named a partner five years ago but have since married someone else and never updated the form, trustees might direct benefits to the spouse who was never on the paperwork.
This investigation can take time in complex family situations. Trustees may contact family members, review marriage and civil partnership records, and consider whether any children were omitted from the nomination. Their aim is to distribute benefits fairly to the people who genuinely depended on you while keeping the payout compliant with pension legislation.
What Happens If You Never File One
If you die without an expression of wish, the trustees do not stop paying benefits; they just have less to go on. They will investigate your circumstances to identify potential beneficiaries, typically starting with a surviving spouse or civil partner, then children, then other dependants. The process takes longer and the outcome is less predictable. The trustees might distribute funds in a way you would not have chosen, and there is no mechanism to correct that afterwards. Filing the form takes a few minutes, and leaving it blank introduces uncertainty into a process that already involves grieving family members navigating unfamiliar paperwork.
Information You Need for the Form
Before completing an expression of wish, gather the following for each person you want to name:
- Full legal name as it appears on official documents, not nicknames or shortened versions
- Date of birth, used to verify identity and determine eligibility for certain benefit types
- Current residential address, including postcode, so the administrator can locate beneficiaries when the time comes
- Relationship to you: spouse, civil partner, child, partner, or other dependant
You will need to assign a percentage to each beneficiary, and the total must add up to exactly 100 percent using whole numbers. Two people named equally is a 50/50 split, but you can allocate any way you choose.
Most schemes also let you name contingent beneficiaries. These are backup recipients who receive the funds only if all primary beneficiaries have already died. Naming contingent nominees adds a safety net that prevents trustees from investigating from scratch if a primary beneficiary predeceases you.
Naming a Trust
You can name a trust instead of, or alongside, individual beneficiaries. This is more common with larger pension pots where you want to control how and when beneficiaries receive funds, for example staggering payments to young children rather than handing them a lump sum. When naming a trust, you will typically need to provide its full legal name, the date of the trust instrument, and its tax identification number if it has one. Standard beneficiary forms rarely have enough space for this, so you may need to attach supplementary documentation. Trust-based nominations are an area where professional advice is worth the cost.
When to Update Your Nomination
Trustees give the most weight to the most recent form on file. An outdated expression of wish is almost as risky as having none at all, because it actively points trustees toward someone who may no longer reflect your intentions. Update yours after any of these events:
- Marriage or civil partnership. Some schemes automatically invalidate an existing nomination when you marry, directing benefits to your new spouse by default until you submit a replacement form.
- Divorce or dissolution. Pension nominations are not automatically revoked by divorce, so your ex-spouse may remain your named beneficiary until you change the form.
- Birth or adoption of a child, or any new dependant whose financial interests should be reflected in the nomination.
- Death of a named beneficiary. The existing form becomes partially ineffective, and the allocation percentages no longer work as intended.
- A significant change in relationship: estrangement, reconciliation, or a new long-term partner.
The divorce point catches more people than any other. Divorce does not automatically revoke a pension expression of wish in the UK. If you divorce and never update the form, trustees may still see your ex-spouse listed as your primary beneficiary. They have discretion to override this, but you are relying on them to investigate and reach the conclusion you wanted, which is an unnecessary gamble.
The April 2027 Inheritance Tax Change
The government announced in the Autumn Budget 2024 that unused pension funds will be brought within the scope of inheritance tax from 6 April 2027. This applies regardless of whether the pension scheme is discretionary or non-discretionary, so trustee discretion will no longer shield the funds from IHT.1GOV.UK. Inheritance Tax – Unused Pension Funds and Death Benefits
Under the new rules, personal representatives administering the deceased’s estate will be responsible for reporting and paying any inheritance tax due on unused pension funds and death benefits, with the standard six-month payment deadline. Death-in-service benefits payable from registered pension schemes will remain outside the scope of inheritance tax from April 2027, regardless of scheme type.3GOV.UK. Inheritance Tax on Pensions – Liability, Reporting and Payment – Summary of Responses
The expression of wish itself remains relevant. Trustees still need to know who you want to receive the funds, and they will still exercise discretion over the distribution. What is changing is the tax planning strategy of accumulating large pension savings specifically to pass them on free of inheritance tax. If your estate planning relied on pensions sitting outside the IHT net, revisit your arrangements before April 2027.
Tax Treatment of Death Benefits
Under current rules, the income tax treatment of pension death benefits depends on the member’s age at death. If you die before age 75, benefits paid to your nominated beneficiaries are generally free of income tax. If you die at 75 or older, beneficiaries pay income tax on the benefits at their own marginal rate. This applies to both lump sum payments and drawdown income.
From April 2027, inheritance tax will apply on top of these income tax rules for deaths on or after that date, creating a potential double layer of taxation on larger pension pots.1GOV.UK. Inheritance Tax – Unused Pension Funds and Death Benefits The precise interaction between income tax and IHT on pension death benefits is an area where professional advice will be essential once the new rules take effect.
How to Submit the Form
Most pension providers offer an online portal where you can log in, enter your beneficiary details, and submit the form electronically. This is the fastest route, and changes typically appear on your account within a few business days. If you are submitting a paper form, send it by tracked post so you have proof of delivery.
After submitting, check your account dashboard or request written confirmation that the new nomination is on file. The previous version should be superseded, because only the most recent form counts. If confirmation does not appear within a couple of weeks, follow up directly with the scheme administrator. An expression of wish sitting in a processing queue is functionally the same as not having one at all.