C5 Declaration and Annuities

I wondered if anyone had come across this situation before. We have a client who was selling thier father’s flat under a PoA. He died during the sale process. Immediate action was taken to apply for a Grant of Confirmation with just the flat listed in the inventory. We were advised that there were just two other joint bank accounts with the deceased’s child.

The child who was also an Attorney and now Executrix answered the C5 questions. They were all answered “no”. The C1 and C5 were signed by a solicitor in our firm who is also an Executor. Now it transpires - following writing to the various organisations that we were passed paperwork regarding - that the deceased had at least one annuity alongside a shareholding. Therefore it could be said that solicitor has unwittingly provided a false declaration to HMRC via Q6 in the C5.

My initial thoughts are that we now need to do a full IHT 400, especially to protect the position of our Executor solicitor from any potential challenge. It may well be that we will do the full IHT 400 and the IHT 410 will not have to be fully completed because the annuities do not continue after death but I still believe that to be the correct step.

What are other users’ thoughts?