A pension expression of wish form tells your provider or trustees who you would like paid when you die. It guides them but usually does not bind them.

In practice you name the people, give each a share of the pot, then sign, date and return it. Which form you use, and whether the scheme must follow it, depends on the pension. Would a second opinion help? Over the phone, at no cost, an FCA-authorised adviser can check your own nominations against your family; to arrange that call, complete this page's enquiry form.

How to fill in a pension expression of wish form, step by step

Start with the pension itself. MoneyHelper says you "can usually tell your pension provider or trustees who you’d like to receive your pension after you die, often by completing an expression of wish form". The form therefore comes from whoever runs that pension, so ask each provider or scheme for its own. The words vary: HMRC's Inheritance Tax Manual calls non-binding nominations letters of wishes, while at Nest a nomination is the binding option (more on that below).

Aviva's form for stakeholder and personal pensions (SP03128, printed May 2026) is a good example of what to expect:

  • Your details and the pension. Name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number, and a policy number or scheme details. If you have no policy number or scheme details for a company pension, Aviva asks for your National Insurance number and date of birth instead.
  • Who gets what. Three sections cover individual beneficiaries, the trustees of an existing trust, and a charity. For each person you give a full name, date of birth, address and relationship to you; more than four people go on a separate sheet attached to the form.
  • Shares. Aviva asks you to "use whole numbers which add up to 100% in total". The example printed beside each share box is 34, 33 and 33.
  • Signature and date. You print your name, sign and date the last page, then post it to the address on the form.

Nest runs the same steps online. You log in to your account, add beneficiaries from the My beneficiaries area of the dashboard, choose between a nomination and an expression of wish, and give each person a percentage, with the total coming to 100 per cent.

Two cautions before you send it. Aviva asks you not to complete its form "if you’ve made your pension death benefits subject to a valid pension trust", because any lump sum death benefit is then paid straight to that trust's trustees. And if you want help completing it, or to talk through what your choices mean, Aviva points you to your legal or financial advisers. Keep a note of the date you sent it in: the form records your wishes as they stood that day.

Who you can name on a pension nomination form

Who you can put down depends on the kind of pension and on the scheme's own rules. Take a lump sum paid from a pot you had not started to draw (HMRC's term is an uncrystallised funds lump sum death benefit): the Pensions Tax Manual says the tax rules set no conditions on who can be paid it, although the scheme's rules may limit who it will pay. Since 6 April 2015 a drawdown pension can also be provided to a nominee or a successor, as well as to a dependant. What each of those labels means is set out in nominee versus beneficiary.

Final salary and other defined benefit schemes are narrower. GOV.UK's guide to tax on death benefits says that, usually, only the dependants of the member who died can receive a defined benefit pension: for example a spouse, a civil partner or a child under 23. MoneyHelper's version is that a dependant's pension usually goes to a partner or, up to age 23, to children. Your scheme can tell you what part, if any, a form plays.

An annuity follows the choices made when it was bought: MoneyHelper says any income or lump sum after your death is payable only to the people named at the time you bought it. Changing it later is a question for the annuity provider.

Public service schemes have their own forms and rules, so check the scheme itself: see the NHS pension nomination form, LGPS death benefits and Teachers' Pension death benefits. This guide is about UK private and workplace pensions. Naming a child raises its own questions, covered in whether a child can be a pension beneficiary, and naming a trust is explained in leaving a pension to a trust. If your scheme booklet leaves you unsure who it allows, an FCA-authorised adviser can read its rules alongside you at no cost; the enquiry form starts that.

Is an expression of wish binding? Wish or nomination

Usually not. MoneyHelper says most providers follow your wishes but usually keep the final decision: they "usually choose those listed on your expression of wish form, but they do not have to". Aviva's form is blunt about it: "these wishes are not binding on us". A binding nomination is the exception. HMRC's Inheritance Tax Manual says death benefits are most commonly paid at the scheme administrators' discretion, and that "a binding nomination is most often seen in the case of non-UK schemes and some statutory schemes". MoneyHelper calls the binding approach 'direction' and says your scheme rules should list it.

Nest is one UK scheme that lets members pick either. Its page on what happens to your pension when you die (as archived in September 2026) sets out the difference. With a nomination, Nest says "we'll pay your pot only to who you tell us to". With an expression of wish, it takes your wishes into account and considers any change in your circumstances before it pays.

The gap shows when a family changes. In Nest's worked example, a member nominates his civil partner and their child, the partnership ends, he marries again and adopts a son, and he dies without updating the nomination: the pot still goes to the first partner and the first child, and the new family receive nothing. In its expression of wish example, by contrast, Nest gathers details of the member's new family before deciding who is paid. The choice is also one-way at Nest: you can move from a nomination to an expression of wish at any time, but once you choose an expression of wish, "you'll no longer be able to make a nomination".

Inheritance tax is the other difference, and the date of death matters. Nest's page says a nomination will usually put the pot in your estate for inheritance tax and an expression of wish usually will not. That reflects the rules for deaths before 6 April 2027, as HMRC's manual sets them out (IHTM17052, last updated August 2022, which describes the position before the April 2027 change): a nomination the provider must follow gives the member a general power over the money, bringing it into the estate, while a discretionary payment stays outside it. Why discretion has that effect is explained on the nominee and beneficiary page.

That is about to change. Section 71 of the Finance Act 2026 provides that the Act's pension inheritance tax changes (sections 66 to 70) will apply to deaths on or after 6 April 2027. Aviva's form already warns that for a death before 6 April 2027 "death benefits will normally be free of inheritance tax", but that on or after that date, benefits paid to anyone other than a surviving spouse or civil partner will be counted in the value of the estate. How the new charge will work is covered in pensions and inheritance tax, and the wider picture in what happens to a pension on death.

Whether a wish or an instruction fits the people you want to provide for, and how April 2027 bears on it, turns on your own family and estate. Without charge, an FCA-authorised adviser can weigh wish against nomination with you: request a call-back with this page's form.

Keeping your pension beneficiary form up to date

Look at the form again whenever your family changes. MoneyHelper gives marriage, divorce, having children and the death of someone you listed as examples. A form is a snapshot: Aviva will treat it as "an indication of who, at the time the form was completed, you wished to receive your death benefits".

Aviva's notes also list cases in which it will not take your wishes into account at all. Among them: a named person, other than a trustee, dying before you; a named person later divorced from you; a named civil partner once the partnership has been dissolved; and the policy later being placed under a valid trust. Aviva recommends reviewing the form regularly, above all when someone you want to benefit dies before you or your relationship with them changes. Other schemes' notes may differ, so read the ones on yours. Divorce raises wider pension questions, covered in pensions on divorce.

To change a form, ask the provider or trustees for their current version and fill it in again. At Nest it is done online: the View my beneficiaries option on the dashboard lets you add, edit or remove someone. If you hold several pensions, check the form held by each provider.

Pension expression of wish FAQs

Can I change my pension beneficiary while I am still alive?

Yes. MoneyHelper's advice is to keep the form up to date, and Nest lets members add, edit or remove beneficiaries online at any time. For any other pension, ask the provider or trustees for a fresh form.

What if I never fill in a pension nomination form?

It depends on the scheme, which is why MoneyHelper suggests checking what yours would do. Its example is Nest, where the pot value will normally form part of your estate if no expression of wish form is completed. More on this is in what happens to a pension with no beneficiary.

Can I name my unmarried partner or a friend?

Often, for a lump sum from a pot you had not started to draw: the tax rules attach no conditions to who receives it, though the scheme's own rules may. A defined benefit pension is different, as it usually goes only to a dependant.

Can I name a charity or a trust?

Some forms allow both: Aviva's has separate sections for the trustees of an existing trust and for a charity. Check your own provider's form, and see leaving a pension to a trust.

Do I need a solicitor or adviser to fill it in?

The form mostly asks for names, dates and shares. Aviva's notes point you to your legal or financial advisers if you need help completing it, want to discuss what your nomination means, or are thinking of placing death benefits under trust. Tax on what a beneficiary receives is covered in inherited pension tax.

Before you send the form

Find each pension's current form, check whether it records a wish or an instruction, and make sure the names on it still match your family. Where the answer depends on your scheme's rules, the size of your estate or the April 2027 change, send this page's short form; at no charge, an FCA-authorised adviser can then go over your nominations by phone.

Sources