Pension Nomination Form¶
A pension nomination form, sometimes called an expression of wish or death-benefit nomination, is the document a pension scheme member uses to tell the scheme who they would like death benefits paid to. Most workplace and personal pensions ask for a nomination at enrolment, and members can update it at any time during their working life.
The form is binding in practice but not in law. Pension scheme trustees retain a legal discretion over who receives defined contribution pension death benefits — this is what gives the lump sum its inheritance-tax-free status, because money paid at trustee discretion sits outside the deceased's estate for inheritance tax purposes. In normal cases trustees pay the nominated beneficiary; they only depart from the nomination where circumstances have changed materially (the nominated beneficiary has died, the relationship has ended, the nomination is decades old and now contradicts the will).
Where no nomination form is on file, trustees pay at full discretion. They typically follow the intestacy rules (paying a spouse first, then children, then more distant relatives) but they can also pay the estate directly. Paying the estate is rarely the best outcome: it pulls the pension into the inheritance-tax calculation and forces the money through probate before reaching beneficiaries.
For defined benefit pensions, nomination is less significant: survivor benefits are usually paid to a spouse or civil partner under fixed scheme rules, with little or no trustee discretion. Where a member wants to nominate someone other than a spouse for any lump-sum component of a DB scheme (and some DB schemes do pay a lump sum on death-in-service), the form still matters.
The first call to any pension provider after a death should ask whether a nomination form has been completed and, if so, who is named.
Last verified: 29 April 2026 against published industry guidance from UK pension providers.