No, a UK life insurance policy does not have to name a beneficiary: without a trust, or a nomination on a plan that offers one, the insurer pays whoever is legally entitled to the money.
What decides who is paid is who owns the policy and whether it sits in a trust. With no trust and no other arrangement, the insurer pays the owner, which after their death means the executor or administrator of their estate, or on a joint policy the surviving holder. Curious how a policy of yours, held or planned, would pay out? An FCA-authorised broker will explain it free by phone after your details go in through the form on this page.
Is there a beneficiary box on a UK life insurance policy?
Not on Legal & General’s or Aviva’s policies, though some plans do have one. Legal & General’s consumer guide (18 August 2026) says that naming a beneficiary when you take out a policy is not compulsory. What their terms describe instead is a payee, the person legally entitled to be paid. Legal & General’s policy terms (QGI12849 - 2026/10) pay the owner. If the owner has died, the money goes to their personal representative, which the terms say is usually the executor named in their will. A policy in trust is paid to its trustees; one assigned to someone else is paid to the assignees.
Aviva’s Life Insurance product booklet, Insurance Details (EDCO2264 0126), takes the same approach. It says “We’ll pay out your insurance to the person legally entitled to receive it”, and adds that the answer “depends on the nature of the claim, the circumstances at the time and whether your insurance has been assigned or written into trust.”
With these two insurers, choosing who ends up with the money takes a legal step, usually a trust. Royal London’s Personal Menu Plan is different: its plan details (July 2025, PCP8P10010/17, published on Royal London’s adviser website) let you name up to five individuals when you apply, in shares you specify, and say it can then pay them without waiting for a Grant of Representation or Confirmation. For the meaning of the word and the roles of owner, life insured and beneficiary, see what a life insurance beneficiary is.
Who does the insurer pay when nobody is named?
The Aviva column follows its Life Insurance Plan summary (DA03008 05/2023), a customer summary kept in Aviva’s adviser document library and linked from its life insurance page; the assignee row comes from the Insurance Details booklet above. The Legal & General column follows its policy terms and its claims guide (14 April 2026).
| How the policy is held | Legal & General | Aviva |
|---|---|---|
| One person, no trust | The owner, or after their death their personal representative | “Your estate.” |
| Joint policy, no trust | The surviving policyholder; if both die at the same time, the younger is treated as having survived the older | The surviving policyholder; if the two die together, the younger policyholder’s estate |
| In trust | The trustees | The trustees, who pass it to the chosen beneficiaries |
| Assigned to someone | The assignees | The assignee, once they send in the original deed |
Two things follow. First, money paid into the estate can count towards it for inheritance tax; is a life insurance payout taxable explains how. Second, a joint policy without a trust pays the survivor, and Legal & General’s claims guide adds that on the survivor’s own death the money passes under their will, or under the intestacy rules if they left none.
How do you choose who gets the money, and can it be split?
With Legal & General and Aviva, naming people takes a trust. Aviva says that under a trust the insurer pays the trustees, who must then follow the trust’s terms when distributing the money to the chosen beneficiaries. Legal & General’s guide says a policy can have more than one beneficiary if it is placed in trust or included in the policyholder’s will, and that if neither is done the lump sum forms part of the estate.
On those policies a percentage split is a term of the trust rather than something recorded on the policy; Royal London’s nomination, described above, is the exception. Aviva’s page on its Discretionary Gift Trust says you can change the beneficiaries by writing to the trustees to name “who you want to benefit and how you want any money to be divided.” Different trust types give the trustees, or you, different freedom to change shares later, and life insurance trust options compares them. If you mean to alter a trust or a payee that is already in place, changing a life insurance beneficiary covers it.
Critical illness policies have their own answer in who receives the critical illness payout. The reasons for and against, and the steps, are in does life insurance need to be in trust and how to put a policy in trust. Who to name is on who to put as your life insurance beneficiary.
Whether a trust or a nomination is available on the cover you want depends on the insurer; a broker can go through it at no cost on the call-back once the form here is in.
What happens to the payout if you have no will?
When a policy pays the estate and there is no valid will, the intestacy rules decide who inherits. Aviva’s summary warns: “If you die without a valid will (intestate), your personal representatives will have to distribute your estate according to the laws of intestacy. This could mean that your estate, and potentially any money from this policy, doesn’t go to the person you would’ve wanted it to.” Legal & General’s guide adds that the rules let spouses, civil partners and a limited circle of close relatives inherit, leaving unmarried partners and financial dependants outside them; it says they may need legal advice.
The rules differ in each nation; the table follows GOV.UK’s checker, with Scotland from the Scottish Government’s guide and Northern Ireland checked against nidirect. The table covers a spouse or civil partner and children only. Where there are no children, a spouse or civil partner in England and Wales takes the whole estate, but in Scotland, and in Northern Ireland when the estate is worth more than £250,000, parents, brothers and sisters can share in it. The England and Wales row is for deaths on or after 26 July 2023. There, as in Northern Ireland, a spouse or civil partner who dies within 28 days of the person does not count as surviving them. This is the general position, not legal advice, and the figures can change.
| Nation | Spouse or civil partner, and children | Children only |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | With no children, the spouse or civil partner gets all of the estate. With children, they get everything up to £322,000, and above that £322,000 plus personal possessions and half the rest; the children share the other half | Shared equally between the living children, with grandchildren taking the place of a child who has died |
| Scotland | If they lived in the house, the spouse or civil partner can take it up to £473,000 (£473,000 in money if it is worth more), plus furniture up to £29,000 and the first £50,000. They also have a claim to a third of the moveable estate (money, shares, cars and the like), the children to another third, and the children inherit the rest | Shared equally between the children or their descendants |
| Northern Ireland | The spouse or civil partner must survive by at least 28 days. If the estate is not likely to be worth more than £250,000 they get all of it; above that, with children, they keep the first £250,000 and the personal possessions, then a third of the rest if there is more than one child, or half if there is one | Shared equally between the children, a dead child’s own children inheriting in their place |
GOV.UK says in each nation that a partner who never married or formed a civil partnership with the person who died has no automatic right to inherit. Life insurance for unmarried couples covers couples who live together without marrying.
How long does the payout take when it goes through the estate?
The insurer can pay only someone who has legal authority to receive the money. Legal & General’s claims guide says that where there is a will the executor applies for a Grant of Probate, and where there is none an administrator applies for a letter of administration. Without a will this “could cause, not only a longer delay in paying the claim, it could mean that the policy proceeds being passed to an unintended beneficiary.”
Aviva sets out the paperwork: personal representatives “need to send us the original Grant of Representation, Letters of Administration or Confirmation before we can pay out your insurance amount to them.”
In England and Wales, GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting your application, and that it can take longer if you need to provide more information. GOV.UK also says each financial organisation has its own rules on whether probate is needed to release money, so ask the insurer what it requires. The claim process after a death, step by step, is in what happens to life insurance when someone dies.
Anyone arranging cover who wants the money to reach a chosen person without waiting for an estate can put that to a broker, free, through this page’s enquiry form.
Frequently asked questions
Can money be released for the funeral before the estate is sorted out?
Legal & General says it will “advance up to £10,000 on any valid life claim to cover the cost of the funeral” under its Funeral Payment Pledge, for customers making a bereavement claim on a valid life policy. Other insurers set their own terms for early payments.
What does a trustee or assignee have to send the insurer?
Aviva says trustees need to send the original trust deed and any deeds altering the trust, and that an assignee needs to send the original deed of assignment, before it pays them. It returns the trust documents when the claim is paid.
If the policy is in trust, do I still need a will?
Probably, for everything else you own. Aviva says anything placed in a trust is not counted as part of your estate when you die, so savings and property still pass under your will or the intestacy rules. Aviva’s summary also says a will can set out wishes about the care of your children.
Sources
- Legal & General, Life Insurance Policy Terms and Conditions (QGI12849 - 2026/10, pages 1, 5 and 6 of 46), read 22 October 2026. legalandgeneral.com policy terms (PDF)
- Legal & General, Who should be your life insurance beneficiary? (18 August 2026) and How do life insurance payouts work? (14 April 2026), read 22 October 2026. beneficiary guide; claims guide
- Aviva, Life Insurance - Insurance Details (EDCO2264 0126, customer booklet for Aviva’s Life Insurance product, page 9 of 17), read 26 October 2026. protection.aviva.com booklet
- Aviva, Life Insurance Plan policy summary (DA03008 05/2023, pages 2 to 3 of 5; held in Aviva’s adviser document library and linked from aviva.co.uk/life as the summary to read before applying), read 26 October 2026. static.aviva.io policy summary (PDF)
- Aviva, Aviva Trust for Life Insurance (undated web page), read 22 October 2026. aviva.co.uk/life/trusts
- GOV.UK, Check who can apply for probate and inherit if someone dies without a will (checker; no date printed), read 26 October 2026. gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will
- Scottish Government, What to do after a death in Scotland (revised 11th edition 2016, web only), sections 19 to 21, read 26 October 2026. gov.scot guide
- nidirect, What to do if there is no will (no date printed), read 26 October 2026. nidirect.gov.uk
- Royal London, Personal Menu Plan, Life or Critical Illness Cover: plan details (July 2025, PCP8P10010/17, pages 8 and 9 of 84; published on Royal London’s adviser website), read 26 October 2026. adviser.royallondon.com plan details (PDF)
- GOV.UK, Applying for probate (England and Wales guide; no date printed), read 26 October 2026. gov.uk/applying-for-probate