Newly Married: Three Nomination Forms to Change

You are back from the honeymoon, the thank-you cards are half written, and somewhere in the back of your mind is a nagging admin list. Here is the part of it that actually matters if the worst happened tomorrow: three forms decide who receives your money before anyone even reads your will. If you are wondering what to update after getting married, start with the pension nomination and the other two documents that sit alongside it, because a will is not the first thing that pays out when you die. These forms are.

They matter because the biggest sums most people leave behind never pass through the will at all. Your pension, your employer's death-in-service lump sum and any life policy written in trust are paid outside your estate, directly to whoever the relevant form names. Getting married does not update any of them. Neither does making a new will. If the forms still name a parent, an ex-partner or nobody at all, that is who the decision-makers look at first.

So the honest answer to "what should we sort out now we are married" is: change three forms, then make new wills. In that order, because the forms move faster and cover more money than most newlyweds realise.

Why three forms beat your will

Most people picture their estate as one pot that the will divides up. In reality, several of the largest assets sit outside that pot entirely and are governed by their own paperwork. That is deliberate, and mostly it works in your family's favour, because money paid outside the estate reaches people faster, usually avoids probate delay, and often sits outside inheritance tax. The catch is that it goes exactly where the form says, and the form does not know you got married.

The three that do the heavy lifting are the pension expression of wish, the employer death-in-service nomination, and the trust or nomination on any life policy. Update those and you have redirected the bulk of what you would leave behind. Ignore them and a carefully written new will can still leave your spouse watching the important money go elsewhere.

Form one: the pension expression of wish

Almost every pension asks you to name who should receive the death benefit, on a form called an expression of wish or nomination of beneficiary. For a defined contribution pension this can be the entire pot; for a defined benefit scheme it can be a substantial lump sum on top of any spouse's pension. It is easily the largest of the three for many people, and the one most often left pointing at the wrong person.

The wording matters: it is an expression of wish, not an instruction. Scheme trustees usually retain discretion over who is actually paid, which is what keeps the money outside your estate for inheritance tax. But discretion is exercised on evidence, and your most recent form is the strongest evidence there is. Trustees who see a form naming your mother, or a partner from a relationship that ended years ago, will start there. Marriage does not overwrite it, and a new spouse who assumed they were the obvious beneficiary can be passed over in favour of whoever the paperwork still names.

Update the expression of wish on every pension you hold, not just the current one. Old workplace pensions from previous jobs each carry their own form, and each is still live. If you have lost track of them, the government's Pension Tracing Service can help you find the schemes so you can update each one. The trap of a stale nomination is common enough that we cover it in detail where an old form still names an ex-partner.

Form two: the death-in-service nomination

If your employer provides death-in-service cover, a lump sum of typically two to four times salary paid if you die while employed, it comes with its own nomination form, entirely separate from your pension. Many people fill it in once on their first day and never look at it again. For a newlywed that first-day form might name a parent, or a sibling, or a partner who is no longer in the picture.

Like the pension, death-in-service benefits are generally paid through a discretionary trust, so the scheme trustees decide, guided by your nomination. The benefit is often large relative to a young couple's savings, which makes it precisely the thing you want reaching your spouse quickly rather than being routed to whoever you named years ago. Updating it is usually a two-minute job through an HR portal or a single form.

Bear in mind that this cover exists only while you are employed by that firm. It is not something you own, and it disappears if you change jobs, retire or are made redundant, which is a separate planning point but worth holding in mind when you decide how much of your family's security rests on it. Some public sector schemes have their own rulebooks layered on top; firefighters, for instance, can be members of more than one scheme with different survivor benefits, so if you work in one of those it is worth checking which rules apply to you.

Form three: the trust or nomination on a life policy

If you already hold a life insurance policy, check whether it is written in trust, and who the trust or nomination names. A policy in trust pays the named beneficiaries directly, outside your estate, without waiting for probate and usually outside inheritance tax. That is exactly what you want, provided the beneficiary is the person you would now choose.

A policy taken out before you met your spouse may name a parent, an ex, or your estate. Naming your estate means the money falls back into the will and loses the speed and tax advantages of the trust. If the policy is in trust, the insurer can usually supply a deed to add or change beneficiaries; if it names your estate, this is the moment to put it into trust properly. And if you are marrying with a new mortgage or a growing family, it is also the natural point to check the cover is still the right size, not just pointed at the right person. You can get life insurance quotes and have an FCA-authorised broker sense-check the amount against your new circumstances.

What happens if you change none of them

Picture dying a year into the marriage with every form untouched. The pension trustees look at a nomination naming your mother and give her strong consideration. The death-in-service benefit follows a form naming a university flatmate. The life policy, left to your estate, is swallowed into probate and reduced by any debts before it reaches anyone. Your spouse, who assumed marriage had quietly sorted all of this, is left proving dependency and hoping trustees exercise discretion in their favour.

None of that is a glitch. Every one of those outcomes is the system working exactly as designed, on the instructions you left and never revised. The forms are not cruel; they are just literal. That is the entire reason to spend an afternoon on them now, while it is a piece of admin rather than a crisis.

You still need new wills

Fixing the forms is not a substitute for a will, because the forms only govern the assets that pay outside your estate. Everything else, your share of the house, your savings, your possessions, is governed by the will or, if you have none, by the intestacy rules.

Here is the sting that catches newlyweds: marriage revokes your existing will in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Unless a will was made expressly in expectation of that marriage, the wedding cancels it, and if you do not make a new one you die intestate. Under the intestacy rules a surviving spouse receives your personal possessions, a fixed statutory legacy, and then a share of the rest, with the remainder split with any children you have. It is not always the outcome a couple would have chosen, and it is certainly not the outcome the old will set out, because the old will no longer exists.

Source: GOV.UK, Making a will and Intestacy – who inherits if someone dies without a will.

If either of you brings assets, children or a home from before the marriage, the case for a fresh will is stronger still, and the shape of an intestate estate is worth understanding before you rely on it. For a wider view of how marriage changes what a partner receives, see our guide on whether getting married changes what your partner inherits.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

The three forms work the same way across the UK: pensions, death-in-service benefits and policy trusts are governed by their own paperwork wherever you live, and none of them updates itself on marriage. Fix all three regardless of nation.

The will position differs, though. In Scotland, marriage does not automatically revoke an existing will, so a Scottish couple who made wills before the wedding may find they still stand, for better or worse; reviewing them after marrying is still sensible, but the legal starting point is different. In Northern Ireland, marriage revokes a will as it does in England and Wales, but the intestacy shares that apply if you die without one are set by separate legislation and divide the estate differently. If you are settling in Northern Ireland, our guide on Northern Ireland intestacy for co-owners sets out those shares.

One last point that applies wherever you live: none of this is only relevant in old age. The reason to deal with it now rather than later is that the risk is not zero at any age, which is why it is worth understanding the real odds of dying during a long mortgage rather than assuming you have decades of runway. For the wider set of decisions a marriage triggers, our hub on life events that change who depends on you pulls the related guides together.

Frequently asked questions

Does getting married automatically change who my pension pays?

No. Trustees look at your most recent expression of wish form. If it names a parent or an ex-partner, that is who they will consider first, because the form is the evidence of your intentions. Marriage does not update it, and neither does making a new will. Update the expression of wish on every pension you hold, including old workplace schemes from previous jobs.

Which forms should we change after the wedding?

Three do the heavy lifting: the expression of wish on every pension you hold, the nomination for your employer's death-in-service benefit, and the trust or nomination on any life policy. All three pay outside the will, which is why they are dealt with first. Each usually takes only a few minutes to change through a form or an online portal.

Do we still need new wills if the forms are updated?

Yes. Marriage revokes an existing will in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, so unless it was made in expectation of that marriage you are back to the intestacy rules. Those give a spouse a fixed amount and split the remainder with any children you have. Scotland is the exception, where marriage does not revoke a will, though reviewing it after marrying is still wise.