I’ve been helping my Dad sort his will out since my mum passed away.
He wants to keep it simple and share everything between me and my brother and sister. But I’m quite happy with my lot and would rather he made my only son the beneficiary instead of me. Is this possible? If my dad doesn’t want to change his will I’m thinking that I could just pass anything coming to me on to my son but would it be more tax efficient if my son is named on the will?

Do you have an LPA in place? Might be easier just to do things that way?

Edit: I appreciate what you’re saying about not wanting anything but if you father wants you to then you should.

No difference except if you are not beneficiary you can witness the will. Either way inheritance tax applies, its is quite usual though for money to be in trust administered by parents until kids come of age (18 or 21) for obvious reasons.
Better still is if possible your Dad starts to gift assets/money each year, that will reduce tax liability.

tbh It’s your fathers will, not yours.

And AFAIK if it’s left to your son it’d have to be in trust until he’s 16/18 etc.

Plus unless it’s a vast amount of cash you wouldn’t have a tax issue (although it’s the estates issue not directly yours), and you could then just put it in trust/savings for your son.

Your dads will should reflect his wishes. He might be perfectly happy to do as you suggest. But if he doesn’t respect that. Once any money is yours you can do with it what you want.

Thanks for the help. I think my Dad would be happy to make the change
but if there is no tax advantage to doing it then I’ll not mention it.
My son is 23 now so a trust may not be possible?
I’m mainly asking about this as we lost our eldest son a few years ago
and I just want our only lad to have a good start to his life of independence which he won’t get for some time without a lot of help.
My Dad can’t give any of his wealth away currently as it is tied up in income paying investments.

BTW I have LPA and I’m also an executor.

The only real tax advantage is that you skip a round of inheritance tax. If you get it you pay, then you pop your clogs , your son gets it and you pay again. Skipping you out takes it down to one round. Worth considering if all you are going to do is leave it invested and it is over the threshold.

As said above it should be your dad’s decision so might be best not to rock the boat at this stage. If you’re acting under an LPA you probably shouldn’t be making large gifts – not usually allowed unless court endorsed.

It might be open to you to vary your entitlement under your dad’s will after he dies to pass assets to your son though..

plop_pants I’ve no advice to offer, just to say what a nice bloke you are.

Have you asked him to make the change?

If he has reasons for not wanting to do it, then you need to respect them, but when you do inherit, you can gift the inheritance to your son as soon as you have probate, and (on current rules) if you survive for 7 years after making the gift, no inheritance tax will be payable anyway.

My Dad can’t give any of his wealth away currently as it is tied up in income paying investments.

No pockets in a shroud…

stealthcat: you’re quite right, but from a tax point of view at least it would be better to vary the will within two years so that the gift was deemed to come from dad’s estate and not plop_pant’s. That way no-one has to worry about the seven year clock