Deed of Variation Deadline

The Client

We were approached by a Banker from a leading high street bank who has worked alongside us for many years. She advised that she has a client who had inherited approximately £10m from a distant relative who died intestate.

As the client has a disabled son, she wanted to place approximately half of her inheritance into a trust via a Deed of Variation, with a view to the trust being converted to a Disabled Persons Trust at some point in the future. This would provide the client with peace of mind that funds were set aside for the benefit of her son.

The Challenge

We were approached in early November 2022, and the two year deadline for the Deed of Variation to be completed was mid December 2022 – we therefore had around six weeks to get everything in place!

This included gathering identification information from the client to enable us to onboard her as a client, agree our terms of engagement and fees, instruct ZEDRA Legal Services to prepare a Deed of Variation, send the Deed to the client’s advisers for approval, get the Deed signed and executed and onboard the trust according to internal procedures.

The Solution

All of the above was completed within the timeframe and the trust was created in time to receive funds two days before the two year deadline. This involved daily contact over six weeks between ZEDRA and the legal advisers as well as ZEDRA Legal Services pulling out all the stops to give urgent attention to the deed.

The Outcome

The client was very happy and appreciative of the hard work our team carried out to enable the trust to be set up ahead of the deadline. This has given her peace of mind that if anything should happen to her, the trust is in place to assist with her son’s needs.

We have also appointed a co-trustee in recent weeks who is a close family friend, who will be able to assist with the client’s son’s needs in the future. The Banker was also very appreciative of us turning everything around with little notice, and she continues to refer trust related work to us and recommends ZEDRA to her colleagues.

At ZEDRA we can help you navigate what do to when someone dies, support you as an Executor or assist individual Executors and Administrators as they navigate the process of probate.

We go the extra mile to support families through extremely difficult situations, so they can focus on remembering their loved ones and deal with the more personal matters like organising the funeral.

Contact our experts to discuss your circumstances and find out more about creating a Trust by Deed of Variation.