Deeds of Variation: Rewriting a Will After Death

It sounds impossible: changing what a will says after the person has died. But a deed of variation does exactly that — it lets a beneficiary redirect some or all of their inheritance, and provided the paperwork is right, the tax system treats the redirect as if the deceased had written it into the will themselves. It is one of the most quietly useful tools in UK estate planning.

How it works

Any beneficiary can vary their own entitlement — under a will or under the intestacy rules — by signing a written deed within two years of the death. Crucially, you can only give away what was coming to you; you cannot touch anyone else's share. If the variation increases the inheritance tax bill, the executors must sign too, and where tax is affected a copy goes to HMRC.

Why people do it

• Generation skipping. The classic case: a financially comfortable child redirects their inheritance to their own children. Done by deed, the money never enters the middle generation's estate — no seven-year clock, no potentially exempt transfer risk, one less future inheritance tax event.
• Fixing an outdated will. Wills written decades ago often miss later grandchildren, stepchildren, or charities the person clearly cared about. Beneficiaries can put that right by agreement.
• Tax efficiency. Redirecting enough to charity can bring the estate to the 10% threshold that cuts the inheritance tax rate from 40% to 36%; redirecting assets to a surviving spouse can use exemptions the will wasted. See our guide to reducing inheritance tax.
• Heading off disputes. A negotiated variation is routinely how families settle a threatened will challenge without court.

The conditions that make it work

For the favourable tax treatment: in writing, within two years of death, clearly identifying what is varied, containing a statement that the parties intend the inheritance tax and/or capital gains tax "reading back" to apply, signed by everyone losing out, and not made for outside consideration (nobody paying you to redirect). Get any of this wrong and you have simply made a lifetime gift of your own — with the seven-year clock running.

The limits

A variation cannot redirect assets that passed outside the will — jointly held property passing by survivorship needs its own treatment, and pension death benefits (which usually sit outside the estate anyway) are a separate system. Minors cannot consent, so variations reducing a child's share need court approval — in practice, families plan around this rather than through it. And each gift can only be varied once for reading-back purposes: no second bites.

Worth it?

A straightforward deed drafted by a solicitor typically costs a few hundred pounds — trivial against the tax and family-peace outcomes it can buy. If you have inherited within the last two years and any part of you thinks "this should really go to the kids" or "Mum would have wanted some of this to go to X", ask a solicitor about a variation before you spend or invest the money. The two-year clock does not pause.

This is general information about the law in England and Wales, not personalised legal advice. Rules, thresholds and processes change, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules in places — for anything that depends on your own circumstances, it is worth speaking to a solicitor (ideally one accredited by STEP or Solicitors for the Elderly) or checking GOV.UK and Citizens Advice for current detail.