CPF Nomination vs Will in Singapore: What Most People Get Wrong

CPF savings do not form part of your estate and are NOT covered by a will. A CPF nomination distributes your OA, SA, MediSave, and RA balances directly to named nominees in cash within 10 working days. Without a nomination, CPF goes to the Public Trustee, which charges tiered fees and takes 4 to 6 months. Marriage automatically revokes any existing nomination. CPFIS investments are a separate issue and are NOT covered by a CPF nomination.

What a CPF Nomination Actually Does

A CPF nomination is a legal instruction to the CPF Board specifying who receives your CPF savings when you die, in what proportions, and in what form (cash or CPF account credit).

When a valid nomination is in place:

• CPF pays out directly to your named nominees in cash.
• CPF Board contacts nominees within 10 working days of being notified of the death.
• Payment goes via PayNow or bank transfer. No probate required, no estate administration first.
• No Public Trustee fees. No court involvement.
• The funds are paid in cash regardless of whether your nominee has a CPF account.

This is the fastest, cheapest, most direct way to transfer CPF savings to your family. It takes 15 minutes to set up and costs nothing.

What Happens Without a CPF Nomination

If you die without a valid CPF nomination, your CPF savings are transferred to the Public Trustee's Office (PTO). The PTO then distributes them according to the Intestate Succession Act (non-Muslims) or the Administration of Muslim Law Act under Faraid rules (Muslims).

The practical consequences:

• Time: The Public Trustee must identify all eligible family members, gather documentary proof of relationships, obtain legal confirmation, and calculate each person's share. This takes 4 to 6 months on average.
• Cost: The Public Trustee charges tiered administrative fees (see next section).
• Distribution rules: The law, not your wishes, determines who gets what. The Intestate Succession Act follows fixed proportions based on who is alive: spouse gets half, children share the other half equally. If you have no spouse or children, it moves to parents, then siblings, then grandparents, then aunts and uncles.

The Public Trustee Fee Schedule

Many articles say "the Public Trustee charges 3%." That is wrong. The fee structure is tiered and prescribed under the Public Trustee (Fees) Rules:

Minimum fee: $15. All fees include GST and cannot be waived.

Example: $200,000 in un-nominated CPF savings.

• First $1,000 at 2.40% = $24
• Next $9,000 at 1.50% = $135
• Next $190,000 at 0.75% = $1,425
• Total: approximately $1,584 before GST

That $1,584 comes directly out of your family's CPF payout. A 15-minute nomination avoids this entirely.

Does a Nomination Override a Will?

Yes. For CPF savings specifically, the nomination always overrides the will. Even if your will says "I leave everything to my spouse," your CPF follows the nomination, not the will. A will cannot override, supplement, or modify a CPF nomination.

The Central Provident Fund Act governs CPF distribution. Estate law governs wills. These are two entirely separate legal frameworks covering different asset pools.

Marriage Revokes Your Nomination. Divorce Does Not.

This is the most commonly missed fact about CPF nominations.

Marriage automatically revokes any existing CPF nomination. The moment you get married, your prior nomination is void. No formal cancellation is needed. This happens automatically. If you nominated your parents before marriage and then got married, your parents' nomination is immediately cancelled. Your CPF savings will go to the Public Trustee under intestacy rules if you die without a new nomination.

Divorce does NOT revoke a CPF nomination. If your ex-spouse is still listed as your nominee after a divorce and you die, they receive your full CPF savings. CPF Board has documented cases where this happened exactly as written. The ex-spouse received the savings while the deceased's current family bore funeral and medical costs. CPF Board cannot override a valid nomination.

The actions required:

• After marriage: make a new CPF nomination immediately.
• After divorce: update your nomination to remove your ex-spouse.
• After a nominee dies: update your nomination. If all nominees are deceased and you have no valid nomination, your CPF goes to the Public Trustee.

The CPFIS Gap Most People Miss

CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) investments are NOT covered by your CPF nomination.

When you invest your CPF OA or SA savings in stocks, unit trusts, or bonds through CPFIS, those investments sit in an investment account managed through your agent bank (DBS, OCBC, or UOB). When you die, these investments become part of your estate, not part of your CPF balance.

What this means in practice:

• CPFIS investments are distributed according to your will or intestacy rules, not your CPF nomination.
• Your CPF nominees will not automatically receive your CPFIS holdings.
• Your estate's executor or administrator must contact the agent bank to claim and liquidate these investments.
• This can add months to the distribution process.

If you have CPFIS investments, your will needs to address them specifically. Your CPF nomination alone is not enough.

What CPF Nomination Covers (and What It Does Not)

A CPF nomination covers:

• Ordinary Account (OA) cash balance
• Special Account (SA) balance (or Retirement Account (RA) after age 55)
• MediSave Account balance
• Remaining CPF LIFE premium balance

A CPF nomination does NOT cover:

• CPFIS investments (stocks, unit trusts, bonds bought with CPF funds)
• Your HDB flat or private property
• Bank accounts
• Personal investments held outside CPF
• Any other personal assets

Your HDB flat is handled separately. If held under joint tenancy, it passes automatically to the surviving co-owner through right of survivorship. If held under tenancy in common, your share goes through your will or intestacy.

What Happens to MediSave

MediSave is covered by your CPF nomination and pays out in cash to your nominees with no restrictions on use. Nominees can spend it however they choose.

One important exception: if you had outstanding hospital bills, MediSave and your MediShield Life or Integrated Shield Plan are first applied to settle those bills. The remaining balance then goes to your nominees in cash.

If you choose the Enhanced Nomination Scheme (covered below), MediSave can instead be directed to your nominees' own MediSave accounts.

The Enhanced Nomination Scheme

The standard CPF nomination pays out in cash. The Enhanced Nomination Scheme (ENS) is an alternative where your CPF savings are transferred to your nominees' CPF accounts instead.

Under ENS:

• Nominees receive the funds in their own OA, SA, or MediSave accounts rather than as a cash payout.
• This can be advantageous if you want nominees to benefit from CPF interest rates on the transferred funds.
• Nominees must have CPF accounts (Singapore Citizens or PRs).

Most people use the standard nomination for simplicity. ENS is worth considering if your nominees are Singapore Citizens or PRs who would benefit from the CPF interest rate on inherited savings, or if you want to specifically direct funds into a nominee's MediSave.

Muslim CPF Nomination: Faraid and MUIS Fatwa

For Muslims, the question of who can be nominated is more nuanced.

With a CPF nomination: MUIS has issued a fatwa classifying CPF nominations as hibah (Islamic gift). This means a Muslim can nominate anyone, including non-Faraid heirs (such as a non-Muslim spouse, a daughter in a family with sons, or a non-family member). The CPF nomination operates outside Faraid distribution.

Without a CPF nomination: CPF savings go to the Public Trustee, which distributes according to Faraid rules under AMLA. A Muslim Inheritance Certificate from the Syariah Court is required. This takes longer than the standard intestacy process for non-Muslims.

MUIS and CPF Board both recommend that Muslims make a CPF nomination even if they want Faraid distribution, because the nomination process is faster and avoids Public Trustee fees. If Faraid distribution is the goal, simply nominate the Faraid heirs in the correct proportions.

The Syariah Court offers a free Faraid calculator to work out the correct heir shares.

How Each Asset Type Is Treated at Death

The table makes clear why a CPF nomination and a will serve different purposes. Neither replaces the other. Both are necessary for a complete estate plan.

Eight Mistakes to Avoid

1. Not making a new nomination after marriage. Marriage automatically voids your prior nomination. This is the most common gap in Singapore estate plans.

2. Forgetting to update after divorce. Your ex-spouse stays as nominee unless you actively change it. CPF Board cannot intervene once a nomination is in place.

3. Assuming your will covers CPF. It does not. Full stop.

4. Not knowing that CPFIS investments are excluded. If you invest your OA funds in stocks, those stocks go through your estate, not your CPF nomination.

5. Nominating only one person with no backup. If your sole nominee dies before you, the nomination becomes void and your CPF goes to the Public Trustee.

6. Never reviewing a nomination made decades ago. Circumstances change. A nomination set in 2005 may no longer reflect your wishes or your family situation in 2026.

7. Naming a deceased person as nominee without realising it. If a nominee dies and you do not update the nomination, CPF Board will treat that portion as un-nominated and pass it to the Public Trustee.

8. Leaving Medisave planning out entirely. MediSave is included in your CPF balance and goes to nominees in cash unless you choose ENS. Outstanding hospital bills are settled first.

How to Make a CPF Nomination

1. Log in to cpf.gov.sg using Singpass.
2. Navigate to My Requests, then Nominations.
3. Add up to 4 nominees. Enter each person's name, NRIC or passport number, relationship to you, and their percentage share. Percentages must total 100%.
4. Arrange two witnesses. They must be at least 21 years old and not your nominees. For online nominations, they receive a Singpass notification and must complete their confirmation within 7 days.
5. CPF Board processes the nomination within 4 working days after both witnesses confirm.

Cost: free. Time: approximately 15 minutes. The nomination is active as soon as CPF Board processes it.

CPF Service Centres can provide witnessing services if you cannot arrange witnesses independently.

The Complete Estate Planning Picture

A complete estate plan for a Singapore professional covers four separate instruments, each handling a different pool of assets:

• CPF nomination: covers OA, SA, MediSave, RA balances. Review after every major life event.
• Will: covers bank accounts, CPFIS investments, property held under tenancy in common, personal assets. Must be separately drafted and witnessed.
• Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA): covers decisions if you lose mental capacity before death. A separate legal document registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.
• Property ownership structure: if you own property jointly, the choice between joint tenancy and tenancy in common determines whether that asset goes through your will or transfers automatically.

Doing two out of four leaves gaps. The most common gap is a will without a CPF nomination, or a CPF nomination that has not been reviewed since before marriage.

The post on will writing and LPA costs in Singapore covers the other half of this picture. Both documents together give your family the clearest path forward at what is already a difficult time.

Official sources: CPF Board, Making a CPF Nomination | Public Trustee's Office, CPF Money Standard Claim | MinLaw, Making a Will

* All figures, percentages, and projections referenced in this article are for illustrative purposes only. This article does not constitute legal advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product. Please consult a qualified adviser and/or solicitor for your specific situation before making estate planning decisions.