Inheritance

Gosh, yes, fil would have so done that!

I am giving a wry smile here. DF brought round a box of out of date biscuits and wanted them shared around at Xmas. They wanted the tin back because it would be useful for storage.

Same with pil. They had £400k in their current account! I can’t imagine how they accumulated so much as fil had a very modest job.

They were generous to themselves but really mean to their dcs and families. When they came for Christmas one year their sole contribution was a box of crackers - with two extracted for their own use at New Year.

As I previously detailed all their ill gotten gains went to Mr Care Home - so be it - but dh and siblings were rather cheesed off that they had been pleading poverty for 30 years and never once putting their short arms in their very long pockets.

It is shocking that due to house prices especially in the SE and London that a number of older people have huge amounts in assets/savings and just seem to be hoarding it. Its for them! They dont want to give out anything very much because they might just need it.

My DF had a large amount of assets but he never said. He didnt want anyone to know. It was only when as POA when I went into what he had and literally took a deep breath and said 'you have how much??'

In the end the care home took the majority of it as he lived for far longer than expected but hey ho. It was his money.

In fairness, I suppose it doesn’t really wind me up because it won’t be as life changing for me - selfishly - PLUS we’ve had the best part of 40 years of my father saying he’ll do proper estate planning to minimise IHT (gifts etc) but he never does. He’s now in his late 80s and he was talking the other day about what he can do to accumulate capital. I said to him he shouldn’t be accumulating anything right now.

Just so you all know, while gifts are limited to £3000 per annum, if parents / grandparents have fat pensions they can give as much as they want from excess income after their bills are paid as long as it’s a regular amount. E.g. £1000 per month, every month. This then does not count as a gift

We have to listen to similar plus a hefty dose of hard times - chocolate rationing, electricity four day week

Sadly a rainy day has actually arrived but because they are in a mess with shares not in ISAs, houses split in weird ways and tight fisted ness, tax will be paid in multiple ways.
I suspect they owe on uncleared income, there will be capital gains plus inheritance tax plus claw back from what could have been a gift. Mostly it's all about having nicer stuff than the following generations. Heaven forbid someone younger should have a new kitchen or a new dress when they used to buy in charity shops.

My friend’s parents are in their mid 80’s and not in great health. They’ve done no inheritance planning and probably have £5m in assets including about a dozen properties that the kids only just found out about. Still won’t pass any of it on! Maybe paying all that inheritance tax is their way of being charitable, but it’s driving the kids bananas.

I am getting sick of the lefties who live in their leafy areas demanding that the rich pay more and more. Without any understanding that the very rich are highly mobile. They will just see out this ridiculous Labour government in another country.

So, I wonder who else is left to tax and tax? You CANNOT tax your way to growth. Its one of the rules of economics.

Its the same group of people who want 'others' to pay for the NHS whilst probably having private medical insurance for themselves just in case. No way will they wait their turn for an operation.

Farage isnt the answer to this btw but you ignore his popularity at your peril. Name call all you like and shout your mouth off but the reality is he is very appealing to people who are keeping their powder dry to the next election.

If Reform and Conservatives merge they will catpault this terrible Labour government who are clueless as to what they doing.

By contrast one sibling is actively angered by the fact he hasn’t done more to estate plan and distribute funds as living gifts. But then they have always been grasping as hell

tbh this winds me up with my mother (dad died when I was a teenager) because it’s one of her favourite topics of conversation but she won’t do anything about it. She is probably just under the threshold now, but that may change after the budget and her income is about £3k/month more than her expenditure so her estate is increasing by £36k a year plus the capital gain on her properties and share portfolios etc. She is in robust health and could easily passively gain £500k more before she dies. Fine - it’s all fair enough - there will be an inheritance tax bill and it will be paid, but stop wittering about it and stop telling us you are going to give us money when you aren’t. She said she was going to start giving money every month to the dgc in savings/junior ISA explicitly to “get money out of my estate” when my eldest niece was born - she’s 26 and there has been nothing. She brings it up every few weeks but nothing. “I’m allowed to give away £3000 a year so I could give you (2 siblings and I) £1000 each every year!” - yes you could but you aren’t going to. She buys us all bday and Christmas gifts of around £50 and always gives whoever hosts Christmas £100 to help cover the cost of that which is all very lovely but stop telling us you could give us money when you won’t. She also can’t spend money on herself (which is one of the reasons why she has so much).

Yes all very true. And there are ways of handing property on way before you are likely to need care. But some people like to dangle an inheritance like a carrot.
My grandparent's house paid for my grans care very little was left for my mum and aunt but hey that's life they had years to plan for it . They both received over 25 years of state pension gran over 30 years so it's swings and roundabouts really.
Lack of proper planning is the real problem .

Totally agree with you.

Yet I know quite a few people who are racking their brains trying to think of ways to avoid paying for their care.

Same here

My mother died about 20 years ago. She and my father organised their wills so that us children would split the inheritance tax free amount between us and my dad just kept the rest. The devastation of everything aside - she was too young and much loved -, that money was fundamental to me being able to buy a property.

We all have a very good relationship with our father and he hasn’t remarried so at some point, unless there are care fees, we could receive a substantial amount. But I certainly don’t have any expectation of it. By contrast one sibling is actively angered by the fact he hasn’t done more to estate plan and distribute funds as living gifts. But then they have always been grasping as hell

Yes oh Bridget!
Depends on age group you're talking about but im in my sixties and received no financial inheritance from my parents. And knew lots of people who didn't. Because home ownership has increased, its more likely that people will inherit something but also because of longer life dpans, more money will be needed for care. But of course, not everyone is a homeowner.

Or the poster could spend the lot right now on fine wine and fast living and end up on a par with those who are council paid not self funding? Or she could split her assets so that only her money funds her care? Or the UK could come up with an equitable system that minimum, stops self funding patients subsidising council funded places as happens now, and/or caps care costs as per other countries, one mentioned already upthread.
.

My mum gave me, my sister and grandchildren her half of the savings when she died . Mostly in case dad remarried , dad has his half and the house. We may get it, we may not there’s no way to know.

Well your kids could always do your care cheaply and inherit the lot.

This is why when people remarry it's necessary to re do a will to prevent this kind of thing happeninh

Why shouldn’t be meant for them.

Wish it was the law in England. Although I always knew I wouldn’t receive a penny from my mother who told people that I would inherit everything. I think she actually did believe it at some point. Unfortunately I had seen her will and I was definitely not mentioned

The premiums would be ferocious and no one would pay otherwise it would exist. You probably have about a 25% chance of needing long term care at a cost of low six figures. Can you imagine what the premiums would be? The tories kicked it into the long grass when even they, the pensioner’s party realised it was completely unaffordable.

I think that’s the current government’s answer to everything. Spoiler alert the billionaires already pay a lot and guess what, if you make them pay more, they’ll bugger off to Monaco and pay nothing. Then we will also have to cough up for what they were originally paying. Lunacy

I didn’t inherit anything from my grandparents as they didn’t have anything money or asset wise to leave. I did get the family photos when my granny died and a few other things from her house. I also inherited some money when my mum died although she rented so there was no property.

My dh got a little bit of money when his granny died but nothing from the other 3 grandparents, possibly his parents did though.

Dh has inherited from his dad, or at least he should do when his dad’s wife dies. But that could be 20yrs from now and Dh will be in his 70’s by that point so it’s not something he’s counting on. We’re pretty sure though that he’ll probably end up with either very little or nothing at all because if his dad’s wife can prevent him from inheriting anything she will. She hasn’t given him anything of his dads to remember him by either, no family photos or anything. So we don’t hold out much hope of him getting anything.

Yes. I don’t blame you. A friend had similar happen though the loss wasn’t unexpected. Didn’t get so much as a family photo. Wife, in this case was quick to claim that no one has the right to inherit which is true but quite rich coming from a person sitting on a large inheritance that will pass to her kid.

My grandparents died leaving everything to my mum. My mum then died unexpectedly shortly afterwards and everything went to her horrible abusive husband. He’s made it clear that when he dies everything will go to his kids.

And yes. I am bitter.

But to work your whole life, just for it to go back into overpriced care and not my children, would devastated me.