Life insurance held outside superannuation typically pays directly to nominated beneficiaries and bypasses your will and probate process — beneficiaries usually receive funds within weeks of submitting documents, not the months or years that estate distribution can take. This is one of the practical advantages over leaving assets in your estate. However, if you nominate your 'estate' as the beneficiary (or do not nominate anyone), the proceeds become part of the estate and will be distributed according to your will, which means waiting through probate and potentially being subject to creditor claims. Life insurance held inside superannuation is more complex — super death benefits are governed by superannuation law, not your will. Even with a will leaving everything to a specific person, your super (including any insurance held in it) goes to your dependants or estate based on your binding death benefit nomination, or to whoever the trustee decides if no nomination is in place. To align life insurance with overall estate planning: review beneficiary nominations whenever your will is updated, check that retail-policy nominations are current (especially after marriage, divorce, or new children), and discuss any complex situations (blended families, financial dependants outside the immediate family, charitable giving) with both an insurance adviser and an estate-planning solicitor.