Expression of Wishes Form: The Pension Form Most People Have Never Filled In
There is a form you probably filled in once when you joined your workplace pension and have not touched since. It tells your pension provider who gets your money when you die. After 6 April 2027, it matters more than ever. Here is what it does, why it matters, and how to update it this week.
You joined your employer. You got a stack of paperwork on day one. Somewhere in that stack was a form called an expression of wishes. You wrote a name, signed it, and never thought about it again. That was ten or fifteen years ago.
The form has been sitting in a drawer at your pension provider, telling them who should receive your pension pot if you die. It still says what it said the day you signed it. You have had two children since. One relationship did not survive. Your parents, who were named on the form, may have. The form does not know any of that.
After 6 April 2027, the form matters more than it did before. The pension it nominates is no longer outside your estate for Inheritance Tax. The wrong nomination, or no nomination at all, now means two problems instead of one: the wrong people may get the money, and the right people may get a tax bill with it.
This piece is for everyone with a workplace or personal pension. It walks through what the form does, what happens if you have never filled one in, why the April 2027 change makes the form urgent, and how to update yours in the next thirty minutes.
The Form Is Not A Will
An expression of wishes is a non-binding instruction to your pension provider. It is not a will. It does not override your will, and your will does not override it. The pension sits outside your estate and is paid out by the scheme trustees, not through probate. That is the same reason the April 2027 Inheritance Tax change matters: the form sits in a different legal lane from the rest of your estate.
What The Form Actually Does
When you die with money left in a defined contribution pension, the pension provider has to decide who to pay it to. They do not pay it to whoever is named in your will. They pay it to whoever you have nominated on the expression of wishes form, or, if you have not filled one in, to whoever the trustees decide is appropriate.
That is it. The whole job of the form. It tells the trustees who you would like to receive the money. It does not guarantee the trustees will follow your wishes. It is guidance, not a contract. The trustees have the final say.
In plain English
- - You fill in a form. You name one or more people. You write what share each should get.
- - The pension provider keeps the form on file.
- - When you die, the trustees look at the form, then look at the whole picture, then make a decision.
- - In most straightforward cases the trustees follow the form. In contested or unusual cases, they do not.
- - The form is not legally binding, but it is the single most important document the trustees will read.
The form is sometimes called a nomination form, a beneficiary form, or a death benefit nomination form. Different providers use different names. The legal weight is the same. If you have ever filled in any of these for your workplace pension, this is the form.
Why It Matters More After April 2027
Until 5 April 2027, most unused defined contribution pension pots pass to your nominated beneficiaries free of Inheritance Tax. The pension sits outside the estate by design. Your family receives the pot, and any tax that applies does not apply to the pot itself.
From 6 April 2027, the rules change. The unused pension pot, and most lump sum death benefits, become part of your estate for IHT. The same form, the same nomination, but the money now flows through a different tax treatment before it reaches the people you named.
Before April 2027
A £400,000 pension pot left to your nominated beneficiaries passes to them without Inheritance Tax on the pot. The form decides who gets the £400,000. The trustees follow the form. Your family receives £400,000. The IHT calculation on the rest of your estate does not include the pension.
After April 2027
The same £400,000 pension pot now forms part of your estate for Inheritance Tax. Combined with a £600,000 property and £150,000 of other savings, the estate totals £1,150,000. The combined nil-rate band allowance for a couple is £1,000,000. The excess £150,000 is taxed at 40%, a £60,000 IHT bill that would not have applied before April. The form still decides who receives the pot. The form does not decide who pays the IHT. The estate does.
The change does not make the form less important. It makes it more important, because the form now interacts with the IHT calculation on the rest of your estate in ways it did not before. A wrong nomination, an old nomination, or no nomination at all compounds the tax problem rather than just creating a distribution problem.
The Number That Surprises Most People
The Pension Ombudsman upheld 1,256 death benefit disputes in 2023/24. The single most common reason for dispute was an outdated nomination form, often one that named a former spouse or a parent who had since died. Most disputes would have been avoided by a five minute update to the form. After April 2027, those disputes now also carry an Inheritance Tax dimension.
Discretionary Versus Nominated Benefits
Almost every UK defined contribution pension pays death benefits on a discretionary basis. The trustees decide who receives the pot, taking your expression of wishes form into account along with everything else they know about your situation.
There are two practical cases to understand.
Case 1: You have a current expression of wishes form
- - The trustees will usually follow the form.
- - The form names one or more individuals and the share each should receive.
- - If the named people are alive and eligible, the payment is straightforward.
- - If one of the named people has died, the trustees will usually redistribute that share to the remaining nominees or to the estate.
- - After April 2027, the payment still happens. The IHT calculation now includes the pot.
Case 2: You have never filled in an expression of wishes form
- - The trustees have to decide who receives the pot without your written guidance.
- - They will consider your marital status, dependents, your will, your family circumstances, and any other evidence of your wishes.
- - The decision takes longer, often several months, while the trustees gather information.
- - The outcome is not guaranteed to match what you would have chosen.
- - After April 2027, the payment still happens. The IHT calculation now includes the pot, and the trustees may delay the payment further while Inheritance Tax is settled.
The practical difference between the two cases is not who eventually receives the money. In most straightforward families the trustees reach the same outcome either way. The difference is speed, certainty, and the chance of a dispute. A filled-in form removes all three.
What To Write On The Form
The form has three sections. Each one matters.
1. The primary beneficiaries and their shares
Name each person, state their relationship to you, and write the percentage of the pot each should receive. Shares should add up to 100%. Most providers accept any combination of percentages. Most forms also let you add a contingent beneficiary, the person who takes a share if one of the primary beneficiaries has died.
Common sensible structure for a married parent with two children: 100% to the spouse, or 50% to the spouse and 50% split between the children. The choice depends on your family and on what you want the trustees to do if the spouse has also died.
2. The reason for the nomination
Most forms include a free-text box. Use it. Write one or two sentences about why you have chosen this split. A short note like "to provide for my spouse and, if my spouse has predeceased me, to my children in equal shares" helps the trustees interpret the form years later when circumstances have changed.
3. The signature and the date
Sign and date the form. If you have an old paper form from when you joined the employer, the date on it tells the trustees when your wishes were last confirmed. An undated form, or one signed fifteen years ago, carries less weight than one signed and dated recently.
How To Update Yours In The Next Thirty Minutes
For most providers the form lives online and can be updated without speaking to anyone. The whole exercise takes under thirty minutes, including login time and the moment of thinking about what you actually want.
Step 1: Find the form
Log in to your pension provider's portal. The form is usually under "my details", "documents", "nominations", or "beneficiaries". If you cannot find it, call the provider and ask. Have your National Insurance number to hand.
Step 2: Check what the form currently says
Read the existing form. Write down the names, the percentages, and the date it was last signed. If the date is more than five years ago, the form is almost certainly out of date. If a named beneficiary has died, or if you have separated from a named beneficiary, the form is wrong.
Step 3: Update the nominations
Replace the old form with a new one. Name each beneficiary with their full legal name, date of birth, and relationship to you. State the percentage each should receive. Use the free-text box to explain the reasoning, especially if the structure is conditional on someone being alive at your death.
Step 4: Submit and save the confirmation
Submit the form online or post the paper version. Save the confirmation email or note the date you sent it. The new form supersedes any earlier version, but only from the date the provider receives it.
Step 5: Do the same for every other pension you have
The form is per pension, not per person. Each workplace pension, each personal pension, each SIPP you hold has its own form. Repeat Steps 1 to 4 for every pension you can find. Use the Pension Tracing Service at gov.uk/find-lost-pension for any old schemes from previous employers.
Step 6: Set a calendar reminder to review in two years
Put a recurring reminder in your calendar to review the form every two years. Life events that change the form: marriage, divorce, a new child, a beneficiary dying, a change in your financial circumstances, the April 2027 Inheritance Tax change itself.
The Expression Of Wishes Checklist
- Log in to the current workplace pension provider portal
- Find the expression of wishes form under "my details" or "nominations"
- Read the existing form and note the date it was last signed
- Decide who should receive the pot, and in what shares
- Use the free-text box to explain the reasoning
- Submit the new form and save the confirmation
- Repeat for every other pension you hold, including old workplace pensions
- Set a calendar reminder to review in two years, or after any major life event
Common Situations That Need An Update
The form is wrong more often than people realise. Four situations cover most of the cases the Pension Ombudsman sees.
You got divorced and did not update the form
An expression of wishes does not end at divorce. Your former spouse remains a nominated beneficiary on the form until you change it. If you die without updating, the trustees can still pay the pot to the former spouse. Most will not, because the divorce and the rest of the circumstances make clear that is not what you wanted, but the dispute takes months to resolve and the outcome is not certain.
You named a parent who has since died
Many people named their mother or father when they first joined the pension. Twenty years later the parent has died. The form is still in the provider's file, naming someone who is no longer alive. The trustees will redirect the share to your remaining beneficiaries, but if the rest of the form is also out of date the decision takes longer.
You nominated "my estate" or left the shares blank
Leaving the nomination to "my estate" routes the pot through your will, which adds months of probate before the money reaches anyone. Leaving the shares blank or at the default "to be decided by the trustees" gives the trustees the full discretion to decide, with the same delay and uncertainty.
You have multiple pensions and only updated one
Most people with several pensions have updated one and forgotten the rest. Each pension has its own form, its own nomination, and its own trustees. A correct nomination on the current workplace pension does not affect an old pension from a previous employer.
What The April 2027 Change Adds To The Form
The form itself does not change. The trustees still follow it. What changes is what happens to the pot after the trustees make the payment. After April 2027 the pot is in the estate, the estate pays IHT if it is over the nil-rate bands, and the beneficiaries receive what is left.
Three things follow from that change.
- A correct nomination matters more, because the pot now interacts with the rest of the estate in a way it did not before. Wrong nominations create IHT problems in addition to distribution problems.
- An up-to-date form helps the trustees pay out faster, which helps the estate settle IHT faster, which helps the beneficiaries receive what is left faster.
- An out-of-date form creates delay and uncertainty at exactly the moment the family can least afford it.
None of this changes the practical recommendation. Fill the form in, name the right people, sign it, and update it whenever your circumstances change. The form is one of the few pension tasks that takes less than thirty minutes and protects your family from a problem that is otherwise expensive to fix.
What To Do This Week
The action this week is not to make a decision about Inheritance Tax. It is to spend thirty minutes making sure the form is correct.
Step 1: List every pension you have
Current workplace pension. Old workplace pensions from previous jobs. Any personal pension or SIPP. Use the Pension Tracing Service at gov.uk/find-lost-pension for any you have lost track of. Write the provider name and the rough current value of each.
Step 2: Log in to each provider and find the form
The form is usually under "my details", "nominations", "beneficiaries" or "documents". Read what the form currently says. Note the date it was last signed.
Step 3: Update every form that is out of date
Replace any nomination that names someone you would not choose today, or that has not been touched in five or more years. Use the checklist above. Submit and save the confirmation.
Step 4: Tell your family where to find the forms
Write down the list of providers and the rough current value of each. Tell your spouse, your executor, or an adult child where to find the list. If you die without telling anyone, the family will not know which pensions exist, which is a separate and common cause of unclaimed pension pots.
One thing to do this week: Log in to your workplace pension. Find the expression of wishes form. Read what it says. If the form names someone you would not choose today, or if it has not been signed in more than five years, update it now. Thirty minutes, online, no cost. It is the single cheapest piece of estate protection most people will ever do.
See where you stand across all your pensionsThis is financial guidance, not financial advice. Delphina provides financial clarity tools, not personal recommendations. The figures used in this piece reflect UK Inheritance Tax rules as published and the nil-rate bands as frozen since 2009. Tax rules can change. The Pension Ombudsman figure reflects 2023/24 published case volumes. For your specific situation, especially if you have multiple pensions or a complex family structure, a qualified financial adviser can review the form with you and the wider estate plan. The Delphina tools can help you see where you stand today.
Related reading
- Pensions + Inheritance Tax: What Changes on 6 April 2027 - the primer, with the £325k nil-rate band, the £175k residence band, and who is actually caught.
- Should You Draw Down Your Pension Before April 2027? - the three-question framework that uses your expression of wishes form as one of the inputs.
- Reordering Your Retirement Drawdown Under the New Rules - the new drawdown order, with Sarah, 58, £600k pension and £400k ISA as the worked example.
- Multiple pension pots: what to do with old workplace pensions - finding the old schemes so you can update the expression of wishes form on each one.
- What happens to your pension when someone dies - the four steps to claim a workplace pension death benefit, with the typical 4 to 12 week wait.
See Where You Stand
Add your pensions, property and accounts. See your full estate before April 2027 lands, and check whether your expression of wishes forms are still doing what you think they are doing.