Deed of Variation Criteria

getmore4less

There are tax implications as gifts use up nil rate band.

Not enough information on your mums estate to have a clue if DOV might be needed.

ChilliBob

My mum and dad have a modest amount of savings (read not very much) and a property you'd guess was about 450k, so all told less than 500k.

As regards my cousin, she's the daughter of one of my Mum's (deceased in the 80s) sister. My aunt didn't have children, my uncle did but that's a separate matter.

From my perspective it seems that doing a DOV would mean:
1. Anything my Mum wants to gift from the aunt/uncle estate to her family doesn't eat up any tax bands in any way.
2. This would be a safer option to minimise/prevent IHT on her estate when she passes, especially relelvant if this were to be < 7 years.

It doesn't seem that doing a DOV would actually have any downside, apart from cost (which I believe is low). 

The complication is perhaps this 2 years thing - the entire value of the estate and the conclusion of everything will take at least 18 months - 2 years longer due to some complication with US shares.

Is it possible to do a DOV before things have fully concluded and to re-distribute what money has been received thus far?