It does pay off to get a bit of legal advice
I acted for clients who were beneficiaries of an estate. The deceased left them gifts worth several hundred thousand pounds each. However, the beneficiaries were told by the executor that the estate was in so much debt that it would be unable to pay the gifts in full, if at all. The executor advised the beneficiaries that it would be in their interest if they signed over their legacies to the spouse of the deceased, thus reducing the estate’s tax bill (gifts to spouses are exempt from inheritance tax). They were told that this was maximising their chances of getting anything, albeit via the deceased’s spouse, not direct.