Key takeaways
- Under section 12 of Malaysia's Wills Act 1959, marriage revokes a will made earlier unless it was expressed to be made in contemplation of that marriage, so newlyweds should write a new will.
- Marriage does not revoke an insurance nomination: Schedule 10 of the Financial Services Act 2013 lets only the nominees' death, a written notice or a new nomination end it.
- If you nominated a parent while you had no spouse or child, the policy became a trust policy, and removing that parent needs the trustee's written consent, which is the parent if no one else was appointed.
- EPF nominations survive marriage too: KWSP ends a non-Muslim member's nomination only on the nominee's death, a KWSP 4A form or a new nomination, and pays only the person named.
- For YA 2025, LHDN allows RM3,000 relief for life insurance on your own or your spouse's life, RM4,000 for medical or education insurance for self, spouse or child, and RM4,000 spouse relief.
- A new life policy in Malaysia can be returned within 15 days of delivery for a refund of premium, less medical examination costs (Financial Services Act 2013, Schedule 8).
What changes when you get married, and what does not?
Many newlyweds assume the wedding updates everything automatically. In law it works the other way round: marriage cancels one document and leaves the rest exactly as you signed them years ago. Here is the short version before we go through each item.
| Item | What marriage does | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Your will | Revoked by your marriage under section 12 of the Wills Act 1959, unless it was expressed to be made in contemplation of that marriage | Write a new will |
| Insurance nominations | Not revoked. Schedule 10 of the Financial Services Act 2013 says a nomination is not revoked by a will or by any other act, event or means, apart from the nominee's death, your written notice or a new nomination | Check every life and personal accident policy you own |
| A parent you nominated while single | The policy stays a trust policy for that parent | Changing it needs the trustee's written consent |
| EPF nomination | Marriage is not on KWSP's list of reasons a nomination ends | Check and update it in the KWSP i-Akaun app |
| Tax relief | Premiums on your spouse's life and medical cover can now count | Agree who pays which premium and keep the receipts |
| Your details with the insurer | Unchanged until you tell them | Update your address and contact details |
If you are not sure the old will was written with your marriage in mind, assume it no longer works. My will writing page explains what happens without one and how a Rockwills will is prepared. This guide is general information for non-Muslim policy owners, not legal or tax advice. Muslim policy owners follow different nomination rules.
I nominated my parents before marriage. Do I need to change it?
This is the situation I meet most often with newlyweds. When you bought your first policy in your twenties, you probably named your mother, your father or both. Under paragraph 5 of Schedule 10 of the Financial Services Act 2013, a non-Muslim policy owner who nominates a parent when there is no spouse or child living at the time creates a trust: the payout belongs to your parents and stays outside your estate.
Getting married does not undo that. Three rules from the same Schedule decide what happens next:
- The nomination stays in force. Paragraph 3 lists only three ways it ends: all your nominees die before you, you give the insurer written notice, or you make a new nomination.
- A trust policy needs the trustee's consent. Paragraph 5(5) says you cannot revoke the nomination, vary or surrender the policy, or assign or pledge it as security without the trustee's written consent.
- If you named no trustee, your parent is the trustee. Paragraphs 5(3) and 5(4) make the nominee who is competent to contract the trustee, and where there are two nominees, both must consent.
In practice, your parents sign. Great Eastern's Appointment / Change of Nominee(s) / Trustee(s) form has a Part 3 in which the nominees or trustees of a statutory trust consent to revoke all earlier nominees. Part 1 of the same form says a new appointment revokes all existing nominees, so even adding your spouse beside your parents goes through that consent.
You do not have to remove your parents. If they depend on your income, a split can be fair: the form lets you set a percentage for each nominee, and the shares must add up to 100%. What matters is that the split is a decision you both understand, not something left over from your single days.
| Your situation now | Who receives the payout today | What a change needs |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Muslim, parent nominated while you were single | Your parent, under a trust; your spouse receives nothing from this policy | A new nomination form plus the trustee's written consent (your parent, if no one else was appointed) |
| Non-Muslim, sibling, fiancé(e) or friend nominated | That person, as an executor who must share it under your will or the law on intestacy | A new nomination; no trustee consent is needed |
| No nomination at all | Whoever obtains a grant of probate or letters of administration, which Great Eastern says may take several years | Make a nomination now |
| Muslim policy owner | The nominee, as an executor who distributes it under Islamic law | See my nomination guide on executors and hibah |
How do we nominate each other, and who should be the trustee?
Once you are married, naming your spouse creates the same kind of trust. Under paragraph 5(1) of Schedule 10, a spouse or child nominee of a non-Muslim policy owner receives the policy money as a beneficiary, and paragraph 5(2) keeps it out of your estate and away from your debts. Great Eastern's form asks you to appoint a trustee other than yourself; you cannot name yourself.
If your spouse is the only nominee and you appoint no trustee, your spouse becomes the trustee, which is simple while you have no children. Look at it again when a baby arrives: if a nominee is a minor and no trustee was appointed, the law makes the child's other parent the trustee, and if there is none, the Public Trustee or a trust company you nominated. Some couples name a trusted sibling as trustee so that someone can act if both of them are gone. My insurance nomination guide goes deeper into trustees and executor nominees.
Steps to update your nominations
- List every life and personal accident policy each of you owns, including old ones from before you met. Schedule 10 covers both kinds.
- Fill in the nomination form completely. Great Eastern asks for all pages with a wet ink signature, and the latest nomination replaces all earlier ones.
- Sign in front of a witness who is at least 18, of sound mind and not a nominee or trustee. Your agent can be the witness.
- If the policy is already a trust policy, ask the existing nominees or trustees to sign the consent part.
- Submit it to a Great Eastern branch or head office, or through your agent. Under paragraph 2(4) the nomination takes effect from the date the insurer registers it, so do not leave the form in a drawer.
- Keep the endorsement the insurer sends back, and tell your spouse where it is filed.
Do the same for your EPF. According to KWSP, you can nominate in the KWSP i-Akaun app with e-KYC face verification, without visiting a branch, and the nomination takes effect two days after you register it. For a non-Muslim member, the nominee receives the savings as an absolute beneficiary, and KWSP pays only the person named. A parent you named at your first job would still receive all of it.
How much life cover do we need now that we are two?
Marriage usually brings the first shared commitments: a joint housing loan, a car, maybe plans for a baby. The question changes from "who would I leave money to" to "could my spouse keep our life going on one income". I suggest you work it out together in four steps: list your debts, decide how many years of income support the other would need, add a sum for final expenses and an emergency buffer, then subtract the cover you already have, including any MLTA or MRTA on the house.
| Worked example (assumed: both aged 30, joint housing loan of RM450,000 with no MLTA, one spouse earns RM6,000 a month and the other RM4,500) | Example amount |
|---|---|
| Housing loan to clear | RM450,000 |
| Income support for the surviving spouse: RM3,000 a month for 5 years | RM180,000 |
| Final expenses and emergency buffer | RM20,000 |
| Total need if the higher earner dies | RM650,000 |
| Less an existing personal life policy (assumed) | RM150,000 |
| Gap to discuss | RM500,000 |
These figures are an illustration, not a recommendation. Your numbers depend on your loan, your incomes and who else relies on you, and the two of you rarely need the same amount. For a joint loan, my MLTA and MRTA page explains whether to take one policy each or a joint one.
Three more checks while you are at it:
- A medical card each. A medical card pays for the person insured under it, so check that both of you have your own, and that neither of you relies only on an employer's group plan, which depends on keeping that job.
- Planning a baby. Ask about maternity cover and its waiting periods before you try to conceive, not after.
- A free look period on anything new. Under Schedule 8 of the Financial Services Act 2013, you can return a new life policy within 15 days of delivery and get your premium back, less any medical examination costs.
What tax relief can a married couple claim for insurance?
Marriage also widens your tax relief. These are LHDN's figures for the Year of Assessment 2025 (income earned in 2025 and filed in 2026), from its tax relief page and the Form BE explanatory notes:
| Relief | Limit (YA 2025) | What marriage changes |
|---|---|---|
| Husband or wife | RM4,000 | Claimable if your spouse has no income, or elects joint assessment in your name |
| Life insurance premiums (inside the RM7,000 life insurance and EPF line) | RM3,000 | Premiums on your own life or your spouse's life count |
| Education and medical insurance premiums | RM4,000 | Policies for yourself, your spouse or your child count |
| Medical expenses, including fertility treatment | RM10,000 | IVF and IUI treatment for you or your spouse count |
| Interest on a first home loan | RM7,000 (price up to RM500,000) or RM5,000 (above RM500,000 to RM750,000) | For a sale and purchase agreement signed from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027, for three consecutive years |
For YA 2026, the Budget 2026 tax measures expand the RM3,000 life insurance relief to cover your children's lives as well. To elect joint assessment, LHDN requires that you lived together in the basis year and did not stop living together during it.
Each of you claims within your own limits, so it is worth deciding together, before December, who pays which premium. This section is general information, not tax advice; check your own position with LHDN or a tax adviser.
Common mistakes newlyweds make with insurance
- Assuming the wedding updated the nominee. It did not. Only you can change it, in writing.
- Switching every nominee to the spouse without a family conversation. On a trust policy your parents have to sign, and if they rely on you, a split may be kinder.
- Forgetting the EPF nomination. KWSP pays only the person named, whatever your family situation is now.
- Leaving the old will in the drawer. Your marriage revoked it, so until you write a new one, the Distribution Act 1958 decides who inherits your estate.
- Cancelling an old policy before the new one is approved. If your health has changed since you first bought it, you may not get the same terms again.
- Not updating your contact details. For Great Eastern policies, you can change your address, phone number and email yourself in e-Connect under My Profile; other personal details go through a Request for Person Changes form and take about 5 working days.
None of these is hard to fix, and most take one form each. The real risk is simply not knowing they are there.
What to do next: a calm review of both your policies
When newlyweds message me, I start with what you already have, not with something new to buy. Send me a list of your policies, from any insurer, and I will go through them with you:
- who each policy pays today, and which ones are trust policies that need a parent's signature to change;
- what each one covers and excludes, so you know where the real gaps are before you add anything;
- the nomination forms, witnessed and submitted correctly for Great Eastern policies, and what to ask other insurers for the rest;
- a new will, if you need one, as a Rockwills representative.
You can read how my free policy review works first. I advise in Mandarin, English and Cantonese, and meet couples around Seri Kembangan, Serdang, Puchong, Cheras and the rest of the Klang Valley. No hard selling: if your cover is already fine, I will tell you so.