A Deed of Variation after receiving benefit of a Deed of Variation

Astronought

My Aunt died several months ago and I've just heard that my brother is planning to create a deed of variation to our Aunt's will so that his portion is passed equally onto myself and our two sisters. This is obviously very kind of him, but I was also considering creating a deed of variation so that a substantial part of my inheritance from my Aunt is passed directly onto my children and some preliminary reading would indicate, for reasons that I don't really follow, that this could be a problem - something about the destination of assets not being allowed to change more than once.
I'll obviously get some proper advice about this, but that could take time, so I thought I'd quickly ask on here to hopefully calm my fears as to whether it is actually an issue as my brother reckons it is fine but I'm not so sure.

msb1234

Could you not ask your brother to pass your share directly to your children through the DOV? 

Astronought

msb1234 said:

Could you not ask your brother to pass your share directly to your children through the DOV? 

I already have done, but he think he's 100% right and so can't see the necessity of doing so.

Marcon

Astronought said:

My Aunt died several months ago and I've just heard that my brother is planning to create a deed of variation to our Aunt's will so that his portion is passed equally onto myself and our two sisters. This is obviously very kind of him, but I was also considering creating a deed of variation so that a substantial part of my inheritance from my Aunt is passed directly onto my children and some preliminary reading would indicate, for reasons that I don't really follow, that this could be a problem - something about the destination of assets not being allowed to change more than once.
I'll obviously get some proper advice about this, but that could take time, so I thought I'd quickly ask on here to hopefully calm my fears as to whether it is actually an issue as my brother reckons it is fine but I'm not so sure.

You're right that the same assets can't be transferred more than once using a deed of variation, but you can have more than one deed of variation over different assets.

If your brother leaves you part of his share of the estate, there is nothing to stop you executing a deed of variation over the assets you were left in the will.

Getting proper advice doesn't need to take time; any competent high street solicitor (or WFH solicitor!) will be able to confirm, so why not do that on Monday to both set your mind at rest and get the ball rolling in readiness?

Keep_pedalling

Does this inheritance take your estate into, or deeper into, IHT territory? If not you can simply gift any amount you want as there is no tax advantage in using a DoV.

Astronought

Keep_pedalling said:

Does this inheritance take your estate into, or deeper into, IHT territory? If not you can simply gift any amount you want as there is no tax advantage in using a DoV.

I'm likely to move into IHT territory over the next few years, so I thought I'd 'gift' as much as possible through my DOV so that the money does not need to worry about being a PET and my surviving the seven years (though I'm in good health and hopefully have many more years to go).

Marcon said:

Astronought said:

My Aunt died several months ago and I've just heard that my brother is planning to create a deed of variation to our Aunt's will so that his portion is passed equally onto myself and our two sisters. This is obviously very kind of him, but I was also considering creating a deed of variation so that a substantial part of my inheritance from my Aunt is passed directly onto my children and some preliminary reading would indicate, for reasons that I don't really follow, that this could be a problem - something about the destination of assets not being allowed to change more than once.
I'll obviously get some proper advice about this, but that could take time, so I thought I'd quickly ask on here to hopefully calm my fears as to whether it is actually an issue as my brother reckons it is fine but I'm not so sure.

You're right that the same assets can't be transferred more than once using a deed of variation, but you can have more than one deed of variation over different assets.

If your brother leaves you part of his share of the estate, there is nothing to stop you executing a deed of variation over the assets you were left in the will.

Many thanks.

And that goes even when the majority of the value of the estate comes from the one asset?

e.g. most of my Aunt's wealth comes from her house, which will have to be sold to get the money which will then be distributed.

It was that which led me to my conclusion, as I thought my Aunt's house was the asset, so if my brother DOVs 1/3rd of his share of the value of that asset to me, then I couldn't do a DOV of my share of the same asset to my kids.

But from what you say, if the only beneficiaries were my brother, my two sisters and myself, then if I've got this right, then I can DOV whatever I want of my quarter share of the estate to my kids, but I can't DOV anything that came from the DOV from my brother.