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Keep your nominations up to date

Even if you’ve already made a nomination, it’s important to regularly check and make sure your nomination is still correct, especially if your circumstances have changed. If you don’t update it, it makes it difficult for EAPF to make a decision and can delay payment.

We’ve created some case studies to help show how people can be affected by forgetting to update or make a nomination. Read more about this and see our case studies.

Joe’s story

Joe died in 2023, leaving a death grant payment of £99,000. He’d last completed a nomination form in 2012 in which he nominated his best friend, Caitlyn. He had not made a will.

Joe hadn’t married, but had left behind his parents, brother, two sisters, nephew and his best friend Caitlyn - all of whom he had a close relationship with. On gathering information from Joe’s relatives and his best friend, all had slightly differing opinions about who Joe wanted his death grant payment to go to.

  • Joe’s parents and one of his sisters believed he wanted it to go to his sister and nephew.
  • Joe’s brother believed he wanted the payment to go to his parents.
  • Joe’s other sister did not comment.
  • Joe’s nephew believed he wanted it to go to his sister (his nephew’s mother).
  • Joe’s friend Caitlyn believed he wanted it to go to her.

As you can see, this makes the decision making for the fund complicated, but also a painful process for those grieving for their loved one.

The decision in Joe's case was to split the death grant payment between Caitlyn and Joe’s sister.

Nina’s story

Nina died in January 2024. She left an entitlement to a death grant payment of £79,000. Unfortunately, Nina hadn’t completed a nomination form. She had, however completed a will in 2020.

Nina hadn’t married or had children of her own. In Nina’s will, she had left everything in her estate to her two sisters who had both unfortunately died before her, and therefore the estate was passed on to her two nieces and a nephew. One of Nina’s sisters had two daughters (Nina’s nieces) and the other sister had one son (her nephew).

Whilst it may have seemed like the death grant payment should be split into 3 equal payments to Nina’s nieces and nephew, her will was to split the estate between her 2 sisters. Had they not pre-deceased Nina, this is how the death grant would have been split.

The decision in Nina's case was based on the will and in line with intestacy guidance, and this was to split the death grant as 50% to her nephew, and 25% to each of her nieces. But this may have been different if Nina had updated her will and her nomination forms before she died.

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