Question: I'm going through a divorce. My wife is currently the nominee on my life insurance policy. Can I change the nominee now? What if I bought the policy under the MWP Act — can I still change it?
Answer: The answer depends entirely on whether your policy was purchased under the Married Women's Property Act (MWP Act) or as a regular policy. These are two very different legal situations.

If it is a regular policy (not under MWP Act):
Under Section 39 of the Insurance Act, 1938, the policyholder has the right to change the nominee at any time during the policy term by giving written notice to the insurer. No consent from the existing nominee is required. You can submit a nomination change request to the insurance company, and the new nomination will supersede the previous one. This is a straightforward process — you fill out the insurer's nomination change form, and the change is recorded.

If the policy was purchased under the MWP Act (Section 6 of the Married Women's Property Act, 1874):
The situation is fundamentally different. When a policy is taken under the MWP Act, a statutory trust is created at the time of purchase, with the wife and/or children named as beneficiaries of that trust. The key feature of this trust is that it is irrevocable — the policyholder cannot unilaterally change the beneficiaries, surrender the policy, or take a loan against it without the trustee's consent.

This means that even if you are going through a divorce, your wife's interest in an MWP Act policy generally survives the divorce. The trust was created for her benefit, and the policyholder gave up the right to alter it at the time of purchase. Modification of beneficiaries under an MWP Act policy would typically require a court order.

You should check your policy document or contact your insurer to confirm whether the MWP Act endorsement was applied when the policy was issued.

Supporting evidence:
title: indiacode.nic.in/2304
quote: any such nomination may at any time before the policy matures for payment be cancelled or changed by an endorsement or a further endorsement or a will
context: to whom the money secured by the policy shall be paid in the event of his death:
Provided that, where any nominee is a minor, it shall be lawful for the policyholder to appoint any person in the manner laid down by the insurer, to receive the money secured by the policy in the event of his death during the minority of the nominee.
( 2 ) Any such nomination in order to be effectual shall, unless it is incorporated in the text of the policy itself, be made by an endorsement on the policy communicated to the insurer and registered by 1 [it] in the records relating to the policy and any such nomination may at any time before the policy matures for payment be cancelled or changed by an endorsement or a further endorsement or a will, as the case may be, but unless notice in writing of any such cancellation or change has been delivered to the insurer, the insurer shall not be liable for any payment under the policy made bona fide by 1 [it] to a nominee mentioned in the text of the policy or registered in records of the insurer.
( 3 ) The insurer shall furnish to the policyholder a written acknowledgement of having registered a nomination or a cancellation or change thereof, and may charge such fee as may be specified by regulations for registering such cancellation or change.
( 4 ) A transfer or assignment of a policy made in accordance with section 38 shall automatically cancel a nomination:

ASSGNMENT OR TRANFER OF POLICIES AND NOMINATIONS

Provided that the assignment of a policy to the insurer who bears the risk on the policy at the time of the assignment, in consideration of a loan granted by that insurer on the security of the policy within its surrender value, or its reassignment on repayment of the loan shall not cancel a nomination, but shall affect the rights of the nominee only to the extent of the insurer ' s interest in the policy:
1. Subs. by Act 40 of 2025, s. 2, for 'him' (w.e.f. 5 -2-2026).
Provided further that the transfer or assignment of a policy, whether wholly or in part, in consideration of a loan advanced by the transferee or assignee to the policyholder, shall not cancel the nomination but shall affect the rights of the nominee only to the extent of the interest of the transferee or assignee, as the case may be, in the policy:
Provided also that the nomination, which has been automatically cancelled consequent upon the transfer or assignment, the same nomination shall stand automatically revived when the policy is reassigned by the assi
title: indiacode.nic.in/2283
quote: shall ensure and be deemed to be a trust for the benefit of his wife, or of his wife and children, or any of them, according to the interest so expressed, and shall not, so long any object of the trust remains, be subject to the control of the husband
context: ny married woman may effect a policy of insurance on her own behalf and independently of her husband; and the same and all benefit thereof, if expressed on the face of it to be so effected, shall ensure as her separate property, and the contract evidenced by such policy shall be as valid as if made with an unmarried woman.
2 6. Insurance by husband for benefit of wife. - 3 [( 1 ) A policy of insurance effected by any married man on his own life, and expressed on the face of it to be for the benefit of his wife, or of his wife and children, or any of them, shall ensure and be deemed to be a trust for the benefit of his wife, or of his wife and children, or any of them, according to the interest so expressed, and shall not, so long any object of the trust remains, be subject to the control of the husband or to his creditors, or form part of his estate.
When the sum secured by the policy becomes payable, it shall, unless special trustees are duly appointed to receive and hold the same, be paid to the Official Trustee of the 4 [State] in which the office at which the insurance was effected is situated, and shall be received and held by him upon the trusts expressed in the policy, or such of them as are then existing.
And in reference to such sum he shall stand in the same position in all respects as if he had been duly appointed trustee thereof by a High Court, under Act No. 17 of 1864 5 [to constitute an Office of Official Trustee], s.10.
Nothing herein contained shall operate to destroy or impede the right of any creditor to be paid out of the proceeds of any policy of assurance which may have been effected with intent to defraud creditors.
6 [( 2 ) Notwithstanding anything contained in s. 2, the provisions of sub-section ( 1 ) shall apply in the case of any policy of insurance such as is referred to therein which effected-
( a ) by any Hindu, Muhammadan, Sikh or Jain-

III . -INSURANCES BY WIVES AND HUSBANDS

(i) in Madras, after the thirty-first day of December, 1913, or
(ii) in any other territory to which this Act extended immediately before the commencement of the Married Women's Property (Extension) Act, 1959 (61 of 1959), after the first day of April, 1923, or
(iii) in any territory to which this Act extends on and from the commencement of the Married Women's Property (Extension) Act, 1959 (61 of 1959);
( b ) by a Buddhist in any territory to which this Act extends, on or after the commencement of the Married Women's Property (Extension) Act, 1959 (61