In many estates, two sets of instructions sit side by side. There are nominations (the name on a bank account, a demat account, an insurance policy), usually entered years ago, often in a hurry. And there is the will, if there is one, written later and more carefully. They were made at different times, for different reasons, and nobody read them together.
When they agree, the paperwork after a death is simply a sequence. When they point different ways, everything stops until entitlement is settled. That is a legal question, decided by the kind of asset and the documents, not something we determine. What we do is find it early: a full list of what is held and where, whether each account carries a nomination and whom it names, what the will says about each asset, and finally where the two disagree. That last list becomes the agenda for the lawyer.
We settle this before any valuation or transfer for one reason: every institution’s procedure for passing on an asset starts from who is entitled to receive it. If that is unsettled, the paperwork gets done once, then done again. Settling entitlement first is not caution. It is the shortest route.
If you are writing a will now, read your nominations alongside it, account by account, and change whichever is out of date. It is a small habit that removes one of the most common reasons an estate stalls.