Your loved ones being covered financially in the event of your death is one of the most important benefits of being a member of the EAPF. The Scheme provides valuable protection for your dependants, whether you die before or after you retire.
You can decide who you wish your lump sum death grant to be paid to by completing an 'Expression of wish' nomination form. The easiest way to do this is via EAPF Online, see our ‘Have you nominated a loved one' news page for more details on how to do this.
Make sure you keep it updated
It’s really important to regularly check and make sure you have an up-to-date nomination in place. Even if it just means reconfirming the same information we already have, at least we’ll know that your wishes are current.
It’s a common thing for a member’s circumstances to change, and it can make it really difficult for us to know your wishes if they aren’t up to date. When a member dies, we always try to gather as much information as possible. But if we have an older nomination form and the information gathered indicates that your wishes have changed, this could have unnecessary consequences that could have been avoided if your nomination was kept up to date.
The implications for your loved ones can mean that making a payment would take longer while we gather more information, but also that they may be subject to the upset caused by answering difficult questions at an already upsetting time.
Making a decision in these circumstances is not something that’s taken lightly and we always want to do the right thing by our members in carrying out their wishes.
We’ve created some case studies below to show how people can be affected by not keeping their nominations updated.
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.