My kids have an inheritance they can’t access until they’re 30. Is there anything they can do to move it back?

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My mum left both my teenage kids 40k each.

The will stipulates it should remain in trust until they’re 30.

The executor of the will is her husband (not my dad) and I barely know him. He’s not told me anything about how it is invested and I had to get a copy of the will myself to see what was what because it all felt a bit awkward when he was in bits to talk about money. I’m not really in contact with him - there’s no problem, I’ve just only met him a few times and he lives hundreds of miles away.

Does he have the right to release it early? Would it be rude/wrong/unethical to ask him to overrule what my mum stipulated? Even a few thousand of it would help them so much with university, but asking a stranger for money feels wrong, even if it is theirs. I would love to know if it’s invested - with the time frame I’d hope it was all in stocks with very little bonds and cash, but it’s none of my business. Should they just leave it?

I'm not meaning to be troll-ish, but wouldn't you currently already be paying the majority of this amount with them living at home as teenagers? So it's not like you need to find £750 extra from what you're already paying?

I know households differ, but it seems the average cost to raise a teenager in the UK with all expenses included is around £400 a month?

Just trying to spare you some panic, in case you hadn't considered this already

it's not like it's news to you that there will be a couple of years where you have 2 kids at uni, nor that family contributions are required for all but the very lowest-income families. Obviously yes £9k a year for 2 years would be difficult but if you had been saving £3000 per year since the eldest was 13 you'd have been able to coast through with no extra expenditure in those 2 years.

this inheritance is theirs not yours. the university parental contribution is your responsibility, not theirs.

I rather think your mum was very wise making the will like this, very prescient that if your kids had been able to access the money earlier it would effectively be giving the money to you, rather than them, as you would use the inheritance as a way to shirk supporting your kids.

I certainly don't spend 750 a month on two teens living at home!

I didn’t have access to my family trust until I was 25. But as it I was over 30 when my relative died. It really wasn’t a problem (and I rather preferred having my relative than the capital) .

The loan for university is not like other loans and you/ your DC shouldn’t make financial decisions based on avoiding student loans.

At 30 the £40k fund should have increased and a capital lump sum is a rare thing in most people’s lives. Don’t fritter it - and in this case using it to pay university loans is frittering. They’re a different category than personal loans, or credit card debt, or a mortgage.

The student loan is one thing - but the 4k minimum maintenance loan means parents have to find an extra 5k a year to top it up. A few additional k a year from an inheritance would be very helpful.

You need to pay or of yon can’t they need to work through uni, do bith if you work full time>

you’ve still time to be able to save, work and support.

I think I'd be concerned about the radio silence @lightgreen; as the person with parental responsibility for your dc, you should have been contacted regarding their trusts years ago. Did your mum actually set up the trust funds herself beforehand or is it something she expected her DH to do as executor?

There are quite a few pitfalls about leaving the setting up to another party - especially one who is a major beneficiary themselves - as instructions can be ignored and there is not a lot that can be done afterwards. One possibility is that your mum's estate did not have sufficient funds to allow the children's portions to be set aside, or if IHT was payable by her spouse it may not have left enough.

I would definitely start chasing up what has been done with your children's inheritance monies. I really do find the silence from your mum's DH to be quite ominous. (I also think that it is unlikely not a given that he will leave the house to you and the Bluebell Railway as your mum hoped, as he doesn't have to carry out anything not stipulated in her will - and even wishes specifically in the will would be difficult to enforce, wills are notorious for dodgy dealings with frustratingly little comeback).

We have two currently at uni and they do not cost us (or themselves) anywhere near £750 a month each on top of their student loan and maintenance grant.

I think you are worrying unnecessarily.

And I also know someone whose dad passed away and inherited lots of money at 19, and he spent the lot. Leave it til they are 30.

Depends what the maintenance grant is. Ours is 4k. Accommodation alone is at the cheapest 6k,and next year in a shared house it will be 8k. With a very modest 50 a week for everything else thats about 600 a month Each. For 10 months.

To be clear, they will take 100% of the loans they are entitled to. Nobody is avoiding student loans.

Our household income is 55k a year, so they are only entitled to 5k a year in maintenance loans. They cannot take out extra loans - that’s to pay rent, food, travel etc for an entire year.

I have saved 15 per month for each child since the day they were born in a FTSE child trust fund. One is about 6k, the other
nearly 7k.

I don’t want to save me money - we will give them everything we have short of going into debt ourselves. I’m trying to limit the paid work they’ll need to do while studying.

750 per month is 9k divided by 12 - assuming they’re both 4.5k short of the full maintenance loan per year.

Her husband is a thoroughly decent man - a loner and a bit of an oddball, but honest as the day is long. The 80k was her personal savings, other than that all they had was a big rambling rather empty house. She left it to him because it’s likely he might need to go into a home one day. Half of whatever is left comes to me, half goes to his passion, a steam railway. They had mirror wills.

Have a read of this OP
www.limesolicitors.co.uk/inheritance-disputes/trust-disputes/claiming-money-from-trust/

I think the idea upthread about contacting him and saying you are drawing up your own wills and so just need details of the dcs current trust funds is a good one.

I think that any substantial inheritances should be timed for big life moments. We have just inherited some money from DMIL, our DS is 23. He will need a home in an area we can't afford, but we will be able to help fund a deposit. That's as good as it gets.

OP you need to find out the details of the trust - you can't do anything without that. You don't need to make excuses - you are the parents of minors in a trust and I'm surprised you have not had documents yet.

There may be an explicit clause allowing discretion but either way, you are the only person on this thread who knew your mother and can guess what she would have chosen in the situation.

Me, I was determined my DC would not have to work long hours in paid jobs alongside studying demanding courses at good universities. I have no regrets - those qualifications and the training built in got them into professions where they are able look after themselves financially if needs be. A few hours bar work to pay for a social life is one thing, near full time work just to survive alongside study is something else. Some institutes used to ban this as a condition of study, for good reason.

I will do exactly the same for the next generation - however many posters here are of the "we had to compromise study for paid work so everyone should" mentality.

However for engineering its also worth looking into sponsorships/scholarships which come with holiday work and the better apprenticeships with big name companies offering a salary whilst studying/working.

@OhMonDieux ds1 has recently competed a biology degree. He wouldn't have had time to work evenings or weekends. He did however work full time the last week of June, all of July, all of August and 3 weeks of sept every summer as he didn't have work over the summer.

As for maintenance. Ds2 is currently at university. His first year accommodation is £7,500 altogether for the 38 weeks of the year he will be there. That includes electric, internet etc. so he just has to buy food, books etc. minimum loan is £4,250 so parents are expected to pay the rest. Maintenance is means tested, ours gets about £8k loan this year. However dh gets his pension this year so ds's loan will drop to £4,250k University is expensive. In reality we should all be saving from when the dc's are born. But many can't afford to. If the op can gets a few thousand released it would certainly be helpful. Then leave the rest until they are 30.

I admit that I’ve been naive - I took out the full loans and worked in a greasy spoon for several years during my degree and my parents never paid a penny to help me. My mum probably assumed it worked that way for everyone - I certainly did.

Looks like the degree apprenticeships at BAE pay £27k if I've read their website right?! Might be a pretty amazing opportunity if I have and well worth looking into in detail

Augend23 Heck - really? Dd1 got 8 nines at GCSE (boast , sorry) she’s doing Maths, further maths, physics and computer science for A evel - I’m a nobody and don’t know how to help her go anywhere . Her sister is predicted nine nines. I’m a bit lost - I’d love to know how to get them to opportunities. We live in a very deprived area and I know nothing.

University is expensive. In reality we should all be saving from when the dc's are born

You don’t have to go to university. I would say most people would be better off being realistic and looking at alternatives, like college, going down the apprenticeship route or just going out to work.

baesystems.groupgti.com/VacancyPosting/Search?_gl=11qr21em_gaMTU5OTgzMzQ0Ny4xNjczODE1ODYw_ga_YYPH7DRRQF*MTY3MzgxNTg2MC4xLjEuMTY3MzgxNTg3MS4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.79360339.653952409.1673815860-1599833447.1673815860#!/?facet_field=facetstring_VacancyDetail_Programme_Text:Degree%20Apprentice&facet_field=facetstring_VacancyDetail_CareerStream_Text:Aerospace%20Engineering&facet_field=facetstring_VacancyDetail_Intake_Text:2023

Sorry for the hideous link.

You can start going through an application process now I think and see what sort of questions they are asking. TBH it looks like your daughter's would easily get the grades so worth finding out how well regarded their DAs are - probably well but I just don't know.

I used to work for an accountancy firm and we had some school leavers doing their degree and accountancy qualification through us. It used to take 5 years but they would be on £45k a year by the time they were 23/24 and have no student debt. The sacrifice was they didn't get the same "uni experience" that others did as they spent 5 years combing working with studying but it was a pretty amazing deal honestly. If the BAE thing is anything like that it would be amazing.

It looks like you come out with a BEng but that needs some further research as most of the time I would expect engineers to want an MEng. It may be there's an opportunity to do your MEng after/separately or it may be that a BEng combined with the massive experience you'd have would mean it didn't matter. I don't know if you need an MEng for chartered status or not? It is also worth checking the salary after the 5 years.

There may well be others that also offer this kind of thing.

Augend23 gracious that’s a very different and interesting path. We didn’t know things like this existed - good grief I wish I had more idea how to help both of them with their talent and opportunities.

They sound very intelligent. They’ll find their way. What they’ll need from you is as much financial support as you can give. Whatever they study will probably involve long days of lectures and lots of study on top so they won’t be able to work during term time. I doubt they’ll spend much on partying or booze. But they’ll probably earn decent money after that so the short-term expense will be worth it. That’s the view you’ll need to take as a family.

There may be scholarships or similar too as they are so bright and you come from a deprived area. Pick up the phone to the admin of wherever they want to apply to.

Your DC's school should have this kind of information. Head of sixth form or careers/university advisor should have this information. Talk also to the head of science or your daughters' physics/maths teachers who may well have the STEM relationships to some of the many charities in this space - some of them provide speakers to come in to schools and talk about their work and companies.

Bluntly - two bright girls from a deprived area wanting to do engineering is also going to hit all the demographic targets for a company like BAE. We would be biting their hands off to talk to them about apprenticeships (wrong sector for aeronautical engineering but this crosses all branches of engineering).

@lightgreen would it also be possible for one or both of your DDs to take a gap year - planned and organised to support their future studies & careers? As well as earning a wodge of money for university?

It seems to me that you're concerned about the cross-over of their study years because you had DC so close together. Would spacing out their studies help a bit with that?