Endowment Policy - Deed of Variation

smokeybubbles

Hi all,

I wondered if anyone could offer advice on the following.

Unfortunately I lost my mother early last year and an endowment policy she had paid out to the surviving partner, her ex-husband, my father.

The solicitor we are using explained that although the policy paid out to the surviving policy holder, my mother’s half would still be used in the tax calculations for inheritance purposes. This has been done and submitted to the revenue.

My father has since confirmed he wishes to transfer the half owed to my mother to both me and my sister (the two main beneficiaries), but our concern is this will be viewed as a gift and thus fall under the seven year inheritance tax threshold of his estate.

Earlier today our solicitor called and he mentioned a Deed of Variation could answer the above query, however this begs a question:
As the endowment policy was already calculated in the inheritance tax submission would the deed of variation not necessitate any additional representation in the figures already submitted to the revenue, or would this money coming back to the beneficiaries be added, once again, to the inheritance submission?

Thanks for any advice.

dropsofjupiter

As the half of the policy due to your mother was taken into account when calculating the inheritance tax account, for tax purposes it made up part of her estate. A deed of variation would not change this, only where the money then ended up.

xylophone

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/ihtmanual/ihtm20303.htm
Have a look at this - are the circumstances quite clear in respect of this particular policy?