DEED OF VARIATION - SCOTTISH WILL

MCT56

On behalf of an executor I'm looking for any constructive advice please on the following situation. 

I understand, from what Iv'e read, that you can vary a will within 2 years from the date of death.

The situation is that an elderly parent passes away and they own a half share of a small house. They also had some savings. The combined value of the estate is well below the inheritance tax threshold.

The deceased has one son, an adult, with no siblings and he is the only executor and sole beneficiary from the original will.

Confirmation has already been granted by the Court to administer the Estate but the executor is now considering alerting (via a solicitor) the terms of the will.

Is that allowed ?

The intention is to enable the estate to be more fairly distributed amongst close family members (his sons and grandchildren).

He is concerned that if he sold the house, now, before the deed of variation was in place, the value of deceased's share of the house would become part of the executors own estate, for tax purposes ?

On the other hand would it be a good idea to sell the house and ring fence the value of deceased's half share, then distribute it once the deed is in place ?

Lastly, can a deed of variation appoint a second Executor to assist the son ?

If anyone has been down this road or can comment on the way forward I'd be grateful.

Keep_pedalling

A deed of variation will  just. Change the way he distributes the estate. Whether he sells the house before or after the sale of the house makes no difference as long as the DoV is done within 2 years of the death.

It can’t appoint another executor.

Does he actually need to do this? Does the inheritance take his net worth into IHT territory?

buddy9

MCT56 said:

Lastly, can a deed of variation appoint a second Executor to assist the son ?

An executor nominate can ‘assume’ another executor using a Deed of Assumption, but this would normally be done before Confirmation was issued to allow the Confirmation to be in the names of all the executors.

MCT56

Thanks Keep_pedalling. He was thinking a second executor might be a safeguard, incase he became unable to distribute the estate himself, got unwell, or whatever. He will have to forget about that being an option if the original executor cannot be added to. He said he'd be happy not to accumulate more assets than he needs and of course doesn't want to be taxed too heavily if he doesn't need to be.

MCT56

Thanks for your input buddy9.