IHT: Couple's Mirror Wills plus a specific bequest

JurassicMe

I have been looking at info on how to deal with wills, probate etc for family members whose estate would probably mean some IHT had to be paid.
Under current wills, the husband leaves everything to the wife, but the wife leaves a small bequest to one of the children, and the balance to the husband.
At the time the wills were drawn up there was a reason for this and it wasn't anticipated that they would fall into IHT paying band. To me it looks as though this legacy will mean that if that wife dies first probate will need to be obtained for that will because it doesn't leave everything to the husband. Wanting to make the end of life admin as painless as possible, we are wondering whether to suggest paying the legacy amount now (which is financially feasible) and re-writing the will, so they are mirror wills. This would seem like the best way to ensure that probate doesn't have to be dealt with until the second death. 

p00hsticks

I've not been in this position myself, so can;t comment from experience but I'm not sure that putting off getting probate (or whatever other steps are necessary) for the first death is going to help in the overall admin required, especially if the two deaths are many years apart and the executor then has to try to track back to the position of the first death in order to fully deal with the second. 

However, even if it doesn't help with the admin, if IHT is a consideration then from my understanding doing what you suggest may help in decreasing the overall IHT payable if the wife dies first, as leaving everything to her husband would transfer her whole IHT allowance over (providing of course that the wife survives at least seven years after making the gift so that it falls out of her estate).

Mojisola

JurassicMe said:

Wanting to make the end of life admin as painless as possible, we are wondering whether to suggest paying the legacy amount now (which is financially feasible) and re-writing the will, so they are mirror wills. This would seem like the best way to ensure that probate doesn't have to be dealt with until the second death. 

This would be easier.

Have the wills got a clause about what happens to the estate on the second death?

Keep_pedalling

You say a small bequest, so no IHT would apply, the gift would need to exceed her NRB of £325k for IHT to be an issue.

If they own a house then their joint net worth would need to exceed £1M before IHT kicked in on the second death (assuming they own a house worth more than £350k) so are you sure IHT is actually going to be an issue at all?

Keep_pedalling

If they are in IHT territory, then yes they should be planning for that by gifting, but that does not necessarily avoid probate, which will be needed for any sole assets they hold that won’t be released without probate such a S&S ISA.