Stock markets, inheritance, i don't understand

I agree.

The DF has now died though, so the date of his death is the value of probate I think?

Elderly people don't need high risk investments. When my dad died in 2020, I helped my mum with the probate and we moved everything to cash. She was 80, all the investments were emotional at that stage with no real foundation for holding them. And it was a good job we did this because she died in 2023.

When you have poa you are responsible for doing what is best for the individual, not what you think is a great investment.

DH has behaved appallingly as has the financial advisor here.

She can’t ride this out. The money at some point before Trumps term has finished will need to be divided and given to the siblings.

It shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise to anyone who isn’t a gambler that the American stock market would crash and that would in turn take down the worlds markets.

Know someone who was in very low risk stock and didn’t sell in time and lost around 5%. But they are young and are just going to ride it out

You can't sell anything until you've got probate and that will take some time to come through, by which time the stock market may have recovered.

The FTSE 100 today (8054.98) is higher than it was on November 12, 2024 (8025.77) and higher than it was this time last year (7911.16).

The FTSE 100 today (8054.98) is still 17% higher than it was after the disastrous Liz Truss budget (6858.79) and is almost 50% higher than it was this time 5 years ago.

There is no guarantee that it has hit 'rock bottom' and it won't fall further.

Please don’t panic OP. I work in financial markets. I was sat on a bank trading floor for 9/11, the financial crisis, during Covid and yesterday. Yesterday was without doubt, one of the worst sell offs I’ve seen during my 25 year career, it was complete carnage. I take a very low risk approach to my personal investments, probably because I’ve seen so many crashes it makes me wary - I ‘lost’ about £20k overnight in my share portfolio. I daren’t check my pension fund as that will be worse.

But it’s a paper loss only, I don’t need the money right now so I am happy to sit on them and ride it out. Markets will recover, we just don’t know how long it will take. Whilst I’m sat on those shares, I’m still earning dividends, some of them pay quite well.

Your DH has, in my view, over stepped the mark, although I’m sure he was only trying to get a better return. There’s not much that can be done right now, it’s a damage limitation exercise. If you don’t need to cash anything in right now, all you can do is speak with your siblings. Find out if they are happy to take ownership of the shares instead of selling them and taking a lower amount of cash. They may be happy to have the shares, take the dividend income and also wait for things to recover.

You need to take back control. Insist your DH tells you who is dealing with the investments and contact them yourself.
speak to your siblings and agree what level of risk you are happy with (not high risk surely given the circumstances) and ensure all the investments are at this level of risk.
The current Trump induced storm will pass but you cannot be passive about this. You must be in control, not DH.

If this is true then I don't think your DH should have been dicking around with someone else's investments as they got close to end of their life.

I was under the impression that in the last few years you move investments to somewhere very stable.

On another note, you pay less inheritance tax if value of shares has fallen.

Historically bonds have been considered safe and predictable, however the cost of this is derisory returns and there have been times when they have fallen in value by over 25% in a single year. Over the long term equities outperform bonds. Think of your investment in equities like an investment in a farm, whether the farm is worth more one day than the next is irrelevant.

Everyone is in the same boat. It's not his fault.

There’s not really anything to explain. He took a gamble increasing the risk level, and in the short term at least, it hasn’t paid off. Your options are:

• Leave things as they are and see if the market recovers. Downside is the money may just decline further, possibly at a faster rate
• Move to lower risk, but you’ve already “lost” money, so getting it back to where it was on a low risk level will take much longer
• Diversify more with a mixture of low, medium and high risk accounts, premium bonds, etc to try and hedge your bets
• Lock it away (premium bonds; savings), but that means it won’t really grow at all

I know your dh works in finance but there really isn’t a single correct answer on how to manage money - otherwise we’d all be rich!

You replied to your own post😂 op said her father died in March

Take a course.. loads of them about. Even reading stuff from your banks website can help. Start with the basics- then work up to investing.

If you DH passes, you'll need to know how to manage money anyway- or at least have enough of an understanding so you can make a decision on who you can trust on managing your investments on your behalf.

So may as well start now.

Stocks might recover, or there might be a global trade war leading to a recession. I dont see how anyone can predict anythimg at this point.

Higher risk doesn’t necessarily mean high risk. I think you need to understand what he had invested in. If he’d just chucked some in a global tracker that is very different to him putting it in spicy tech stocks or emerging markets. You’ve been unlucky with timing. Lots of people with have lost a lot post Trump unfortunately.

It wasn’t appropriate for your DH to move into high risk funds, given your parents’ preferences while they were alive. However it is perfectly possible (in fact quite likely) that there’s more value in the estate now even after the drop than there would have been if they had stayed in low risk and NS&I. So try to keep it in perspective. The shares will go up again and possibly very quickly (someone mentioned the Covid crash- that recovered in months not years).

Talk to your siblings now about what they want to do. If people are happy to wait and stay invested, that would be the best option.

OP just said that the parents instructed him to manage their investments. So that puts a slightly different slant on it. He appears to have made a mess of it, but still.

Well you allowed your DH to do this, playing silly games with other people’s money.

I suggest you take back control and discuss a way forward with your siblings. Decide between you how much you want to leave in higher risk investments, and how much you want to transfer to lower risk.

DH “help” is no longer required.

If your DH acted in secret and didn't tell anyone what he was doing, which you would have to prove, there isn't much you can do other than get financial advice about transferring the investments. It all sounds a bit murky but you are where you are.

Your DH acted wrongly but that is a separate issue and should have been addressed by all prospective beneficiaries at the time. You are where you are now and I agree with pp that an independent FI is the best way to go. But there are options and you have time.

you've made a massive mistake not understanding how this works. If I were your siblings I'd be furious.

The value of the NS&I wouldn’t have gone down though…

and as @LighthouseTeaCup says definitely get some prof independent financial advice.

There is time in two ways - one is the delay that occurs with probate admin. if you are the executor you are in charge of how long stuff takes.

second it is always open to all beneficiaries to agree to a different course with the will - this would include spliting it different ways, leaving money to a forgetten person or delaying - provided you all agree you can agree to anything. It will depend on the view point of the siblings and how much they need want money now but you could all agree to leave the investments as is for a defined period - say 2 years and review it then.

or if one wants out now but one is happy to wait for the market to recover, you could get it valued and buy out the 1/3 for the one who wants money now and leave the rest in.

generally with markets time is your friend. it will recover eventually but the question is whether that is one year, three years, ten years or anything in between.