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If one of your adult kids won the lottery

202 replies

Hedgeoffressian · 04/05/2024 08:37

If you have two grown children. One of them wins a substantial sum on the lottery. Your other child is very poor living from one pay day to the next and has to budget to make sure they can pay for life’s essentials. Would this affect what you leave your children in your will and would you leave the majority of your assets to the child who needs it most? Or would you split it between them evenly?

I personally would leave the majority to the child who has nothing. Would you do the same?

Disclaimer to add this hasn’t affected me in real life. It’s something I have wondered about though.

OP posts:
SleepingStandingUp · 04/05/2024 17:07

MargaretThursday · 04/05/2024 14:25

I think people who are saying they'd expect them to share anyway are seeing them as children.
I'd assume if they won the lottery that they're all adults, with jobs and families. So if they shared within your family, they'd also have to share within their partner's family, and maybe that cousin their partner was closer than their brother etc.
A "substantial sum" split maybe 6 ways; maybe not so substantial now.
If they've got children too, then they may want to make sure they've got some to fall back on, so now it's an 8 way split...

Perhaps put it another way. You ds2 wins the lottery. He's doing okay currently, as are ds1 and dd, not luxurious, but getting by okay by working hard and being careful.
Ds2's SIL is a lone parent to three small ones, and can't work after a traffic accident. She's on the council housing waiting list, but has been told she's unlikely to get one within the next 5 years. The partner uses half the money to buy her a house, and they invest the rest of the money for their own children. I suspect that most of the people here are going to say they'd think how lovely and kind and thoroughly good idea.
I suspect in reality they'd be muttering about it and thinking how unfair it was to their dc and how hard they worked.

People are much more generous with theoretical money than the reality. Real money is harder to give away.

We're all adults, working class, single income households due to circs rather than luxury. I couldn't sit on 100M in my lovely new home, driving my lovely new car, with trust funds set up for the kids and then watch my sisters penny pinch for everything, saying no to school trips and experiences because they can't afford it. Maybe that makes mean idiot, but I just couldn't. It doesn't mean they have to have an equal split, for many half a million would be life changing altho I appreciate on MN it's usually the joint income before bonuses 🙄

ThisIsMyRubbishUsername · 04/05/2024 17:06

For me it would depend on how the lottery winner behaved after they had won. If they shared a little of it then I would split inheritance equally. If they kept it all for themselves then I would leave the most to the poorer child.

Neveralonewithaclone · 04/05/2024 17:03

What if it's £150m?

Quentin Tarantino has never given his mother a bean. She says she's fine with that.

Maninthemoonsmiles · 04/05/2024 17:03

Always equal as otherwise it feels like favouritism to child.

Mintyt · 04/05/2024 17:02

I would talk to my children

SleepingStandingUp · 04/05/2024 17:02

rosaleetree · 04/05/2024 17:01

No, I wont be sharing any lottery wins with siblings. My first priority and responsibility is to my own children so I would be setting them up for life if I came into money.

My siblings are more than capable of taking care of themselves and equally, I would also expect them to put their own kids first, as most people should.

So even if you won 100M, they wouldn't get a penny?

rosaleetree · 04/05/2024 17:01

No, I wont be sharing any lottery wins with siblings. My first priority and responsibility is to my own children so I would be setting them up for life if I came into money.

My siblings are more than capable of taking care of themselves and equally, I would also expect them to put their own kids first, as most people should.

Tospyornottospy · 04/05/2024 16:57

Do people understand how hard gifting money to siblings would actually be in practice? You aren’t just throwing a tax free sum at them!

OhmygodDont · 04/05/2024 16:52

Thing is how much do people need to live say a comfortable life and I mean easy life. 80k a year? So you never worry when shopping and can have a few holidays? As in a lovely life, pay for kids uni retire etc.

so say you win the lottery at 30 plan to live till 80 that’s 50 years. That’s 4mil, now 80k in todays money would be a very different amount of money in 50 years time.

yes I know people live perfectly fine below 80k a year but to feel rich where you would genuinely consider just giving some away.

so that’s 4mil before buying houses, before paying for childrens weddings or setting up funds for grand children. Where I live 5 decent ish but not magnificent houses can be 250k ish each want something actually lovely or rich person ish your around 600k each.

So no I wouldn’t share nor would I tell a soul. I would help in the sense of oh niece has a school trip let me help with that, hey let’s all go out for dinner my shout, nice things without financially supporting someone who may actually end up feeling entitled to it and always thinking they should have more because I have more.

JustMarriedBecca · 04/05/2024 16:48

I would discuss with the lottery winner

Emotional items would be shared equally. Equity and cash to the siblings with no cash.

Saying "you don't know what is going to happen in the future" doesn't apply to a lottery win. Nor does ongoing income in terms of job security etc. I'm presuming when we're talking lottery wins, we're talking jackpot life changing amounts.

wompwomp · 04/05/2024 16:45

Hedgeoffressian · 04/05/2024 09:09

I’ve just asked my family what they would do in this situation. My children (7 and 9) both said they would split it equally between both kids. Youngest child said they would tell their lottery winning child to give some of their winnings to the sibling. My husband wasn’t so sure and was more of the opinion that he would split it evenly between the two. Interesting to see the difference of opinion between children and adults.

Of course it's different. A child has no responsibilities so would consider splitting the winnings. An adult sibling with a spouse, dc had a mortgage is much more likely to consider their dc over their siblings.

What is a considerable amount anyway? £200k or £20million?

CelesteCunningham · 04/05/2024 16:31

Neveralonewithaclone · 04/05/2024 15:16

I know! The thought of giving it to my sibling helped me see the light 😂

Grin so many parents are guilty of this. I remember umpteen times as a young adult having to spell out to mine that no, I wasn't inviting sibling to X and they would have never invited Aunt to equivalent so why did they expect it. Took a loooong time for them to understand what I was saying, they just had us as a unit in their head still despite us both being adults and never being that close in the first place.

curiousasacat · 04/05/2024 16:23

I am lol that you must share a lottery win because its down to sheer luck rather than hard work.

Either sharing is morally right or it's not. If I wouldnt share my wages with my sibling why the eff should share a lottery win? I bought a ticket, they didnt. Tough shit I'm afraid.

wompwomp · 04/05/2024 16:21

cryinglaughing · 04/05/2024 08:39

I would leave them an equal share.
Why should the one who makes shrewd financial decisions be penalised because their sibling hasn't done the same?

Because winning the lottery is a screwed financial decision??

BestZebbie · 04/05/2024 15:55

I'm an only child, but I'm very confused by all the people assuming that their child would share with their sibling - to play the lottery they must be adults, so surely they'd use the money for their own immediate family and children, rather than splitting it with various uncles/aunts (who they may not even see that often). If one half of a married couple won, would they also need to split not only with their own sibling(s) but also all the sibling(s) of their partner (as the money would really be their partner's good fortune too)? That could easily be three or four other adults before their own children get a share! If it was multimillions, sure, there is enough to go round, but even £1million wouldn't go that far split that many ways.

gamerchick · 04/05/2024 15:53

Id ask them what they thought would be fair.

SmudgeButt · 04/05/2024 15:49

When my dad died my siblings and I were all given the same amount of money. One brother who runs an international business gave the money back to the estate as he didn't need it.

SecondStarOnTheRight · 04/05/2024 15:48

Think for me it would depend on the finer details.

Why the 'poorer' child found themselves in that situation.
How much the lottery win actually was.
The relationship between the parent and children.
What it was the parents had to leave the children - sentimental over financial value.

If I'd won the £142 million jackpot this week, I'd be more than happy for my parents to leave their estate to my siblings. If it was a win that was say £250k, enough to buy a house but not enough that I would be able to live without employment, I'd think it should be split equally still.

OhmygodDont · 04/05/2024 15:46

Just another reason to not tell anyone if you win the lottery.

Expected to automatically share it out, being treated different because or pure luck or if worked for working harder.

I mean frankly a 1 mil lottery win isn’t going far. My current house 250k, buy each child a house at 250k that’s 1,250,000 gone so couldn’t even afford to house myself and my children mortgage free 😂

Abitlosttoday · 04/05/2024 15:25

EmpressSoleil · 04/05/2024 08:43

I have 2 adult DC and we have discussed mythical lottery wins and already agreed we’d share so it wouldn’t be an issue. Plus I don’t have much to leave in a will! So that wouldn’t really matter.

If you don't have much to leave, it matters more, not less. By leaving the poorer child the full amount you stand a better chance of improving their life. For the rich child, half of your modest assets would deliver no material change to their life. That cash would be swallowed up, unnoticed, while it could have been a significant amount if left to the poorer child.

Neveralonewithaclone · 04/05/2024 15:16

CelesteCunningham · 04/05/2024 14:49

Lol.

Everyone so much happier to share their adult children's wins out than their own.

I know! The thought of giving it to my sibling helped me see the light 😂

CelesteCunningham · 04/05/2024 14:52

Saschka · 04/05/2024 14:37

I’ve read the full thread thanks. I’m not doing an advanced search to see if particular users I disagreed with on page 1 have amended their opinions ten pages in.

She corrected it five posts after her first one, and then repeatedly referenced this throughout the thread. You simply can't have RTFT if you're still posting to correct her.

InterIgnis · 04/05/2024 14:50

it’s wild how many people think they’re entitled to a say and/or expectations over their adult child’s finances.

CelesteCunningham · 04/05/2024 14:49

Neveralonewithaclone · 04/05/2024 13:29

I've rethought! No, i wouldn't interfere but if they didn't share I'd leave 99% to the poorer one.

And I'd give zero to my own sibling.

Lol.

Everyone so much happier to share their adult children's wins out than their own.

CelesteCunningham · 04/05/2024 14:47

Neveralonewithaclone · 04/05/2024 11:57

Me too and I'd tell the lottery winner that I was very disappointed that their very first action wasn't to share the win equally between immediate family members.

I'm an adult with a husband and children. I don't really see my only sibling as an immediate family member any more tbh. Any lottery win would be paying off the mortgage, boosting the pension and setting my DC up, my adult sibling is an independent person all her own with her own family. If it was a huge amount I'd probably give a gift but not a life changing amount, same as I would give my friends.

Would posters really give half (or more than half if you have multiple siblings or you're married and your spouse has a sibling too) of a lottery win to their siblings, reducing the funds available to their own DC? I don't think most people would in reality.