Do you 'Expect' to Benefit from Your Parent's Will

[Pembsgirl]

My parents had nothing, so having no 'expectations' of an inheritance in years to come, I worked hard for everything I've got, but so many people own their own homes now, so am I being unreasonable in thinking that the vast majority of people these days 'expect' to benefit from their parent's Will, and wonder how they'd feel if parents left it all to people other than their children?

My mum has been very open about it, including expected amounts. She has a financial advisor and has been savvy about finances. She also has a trust fund for my DD. She keeps me up to date with any changes to her financial planning.

I've already had a decent chunk of what would have been inheritance from her as she wanted us to have it to buy a house rather than wait and get it when we perhaps didn't really need it any more.

I don't really know about my dad but I'm an only child and he is financially and emotionally very sensible, so I imagine I will inherit pretty much everything from him too.

I don't live in expectation of it, though, as hopefully it won't be something we need to think about it for a long while yet.

Our kids are aware of our wills and therefore might have an expectation but who knows what we’ll have when the time comes.

I will inherit everything whenever the 2nd parent dies. They are worth a fairly decent amount
My mum says she intends to die penniless and quite frankly I've told her to go for it! They have worked their backsides off from nothing so they deserve to be the ones who enjoy it!

No expectations at all. We’d rather they spent anything enjoying their old age in comfort. That said my mother has nothing much to leave. The sale of a flat is it really. We know the terms of the will and will likely get a small amount eventually, as she’s at a point where we are waiting for a phone call and won’t be spending anything more.

We bought part of my mother in laws house rather than her using commercial equity release. It meant she didn’t worry about interest or anything else and has plenty to live on. We’d expect to get our investment returned with a small amount of interest that we would have received had it been in a savings account.

We imagine we will inherit from my parents (a little) and DH’s parents (a very decent amount), but we don’t EXPECT it, I.e we also work hard to earn and save and invest to fund our future and retirement.

Yes because she has told me so. My sibling is sadly dead so there is just me.

She's inheritance tax planning atm and I hate it. She has an ok pension (civil service pension plus half of my dads after his death) plus property left to her by her relatives. Her and my dad were savers as were their parents and the money rolls up.

I keep telling her to make sure she had enough. I try to gently introduce the notion of making sure she has the best care in the future but she gets very grumpy about that. She's incredibly generous but needs to look after herself first and her family all lived to their 90s so hopefully I've got a good few years of the old bat left

I expect to inherit provides that the money doesn’t have to go on care / anything unexpected before they go. However I believe - hope - that they have a good couple of decades left and therefore I’m certainly not planning anything around it. I would like to think that We ourselves will be well off enough to ensure that a large chunk of it will go to our children who will likely be needing as much help as they can get with mortgages / house buying / their own children by then.

But none of it’s a given 🤷🏼‍♀️

Not a chance of anything for me- my mum has a very modest house that she owns with my step dad and is still mortgaged.

My dad and his wife have 6 kids between them so also nothing there.

There’s also the step parent issue, if my birth parents die first then I’ll potentially get 0 of a very small amount.

I’m not expecting anything at all. Same for DH, his parents sold their house and plan to rent forever- they helped us with a deposit for our first house (paid back now) so we’ve been incredibly lucky there.

Yes I expect to inherit from my parents and from my in-laws. It would be crazy to plan our life around that though! They could (and hopefully will) be around until we're in our 50s or 60s. Our 70s even, if we're really lucky! My two grandparents both lived to 95.

And that's the other thing - one of them required years of 24/7 care at the end, which meant selling her house and using up basically all of her money. So then there's nothing left to give!

So yeah, you can't assume anything really.

We'll inherit approximately £200,000 when the in-laws pass away.

My parents and my in laws had nothing and didn't own their own home so we did not inherit anything. I want to at least leave our house to our children and have told them that. Hopefully we have many years to live and they will be in their 60s before they get it so it will help them to retire because neither of them have been able to put good pension plans in place.
That is of course if we don't have to sell our home to pay care home costs when we are older.

I'm an only child so I know. Still encouraging them to spend their money on themselves while they're young enough to enjoy it. So many people my age are losing parents, I'm incredibly lucky to be 40 and still have a grandparent.

My brother and I are the beneficiaries of my parents will and they own their own home so we may benefit. But I live 5hrs away from them and my brother lives 4hrs away but spends huge amounts of the year overseas through work so I fully expect most of their assets will used on care and support. Even if they don't spend time in a care home, they may need help around the house & garden, taxis etc and other tasks which my brother or I might have been expected to help out with if I lived closer.

My dad has said that we will all get a share of a rental he has as he wants it to be sold when both mum and him pass. There will be no other money to inherit. My mum has jewellery that she has earmarked for all of us but she intends to give us that before she dies apart from her wedding rings which will be given to is when she passes. I will greatfully receive whatever they give me but am not holding out for any of it. I believe it is best to make your own way in life and do not feel I am entitled to any of it.

My mother left 300k all assets in total to one of her six dc, it was not me.

FIL left his approx 200k to his DD and not DH.

MIL will leave at least 600k if she does not need care and it’s split 50/50. She was horrified her ex DH left it all to only one of their dc.

SIL and my younger sister were openly and unashamedly shown preference always.

From mothers side I know that everything will be split 50-50as she got me and my brother to say if there is anything in particular we wanted.

From Dads side - he has plenty of money but if the stepmother gets her way then probably nothing as she wants to erase me and brother from existance.

Inlaws - would hope they split 50-50 between himself and his sister but SIL husband is a grabby git as is his eldest child and I know he will push to get the house as we have our own and they live in a council house. Have already been informed by his daughter that as me and my kids arent real family then her parents will get the vast percentage of the estate, mainly the house, and she will make sure her side get 'what they deserve'. Not sure how my kids arent MIL and PIL real family as they are DH's.

Yes I know I will get a half share as will DB
DM rents - has a small amount of savings which I’m sure will be swallowed up with care costs soon - as she has Alzheimer’s
I confidently expect to get very little
I’m glad that she has a pre paid funeral plan
The only things I really want are sentimental such as family photos and her engagement ring

I know I'm getting a quarter share of my parents estate.
And I also know that DH is getting a half share of his mum's estate.

I have no idea how much that will equate to however when the time comes but at the moment, it would probably be a combined total of £500k which now I've thought about it has shocked me.

I'd never assume. These days. I think the money they have may well be needed for their comfort and care in their final years and I would be very happy for it to be spent on that. I'd hate them to go without comfort just so they could leave us something.

But tbh their substantial wealth has nothing to do with how hard they worked. It all came from the property boom, partly because they could invest money left to them in property that then went up steeply in value so if there is money left, I'd expect it to be spread throughout the family not left to a charity or a mate. That's only fair.

Yep, my parents are worth a fair bob or two. We’ve discussed their wishes in case of illness, dementia, disability or death. The money goes to me and my sis equal split. My life isn’t planned around it though and I don’t need the inheritance. I’d rather they hung around another 20 years!!

No but I know my Dad would like to leave my sisters and I something.

I've told him to blow it all and live well in retirement, not scrimp and save because he feels like he should leave us something.

I would rather he lived his remaining years well.

I suspect 1/3 of older adults have no assets, they rent.
And a lot of other people have small assets that will mostly go on care.

My folks have a very nice property & probably won't spend it all on care. But I expect my dad to die first & my step-mum to fritter the estate on her bio-grandson & daughters. So I might get some art work & sentimental clothes. That's all I expect.

Yes, I know I will. I've also worked hard for everything I have, and hope that when my parents do pop their clogs the inheritance will be neither here nor there.

No, my dad has a house which will most likely need to be sold for care home fees. He’s trying to convince me to take title of it (not understanding how the whole gifts with reservation thing works) so he can get the tax payer to pay. Obviously I have no interest in defrauding taxpayers so will make sure his care is privately funded one way or another. I don’t expect there to be anything left after care is paid for.

I know my mother has cut me out, that’s fine, we’re no contact. But she also cut me out of a cultural inheritance which I don’t think she should be allowed to do. Same thing happened to my cousin. It’s our legacy and should be passed (not really a monetary thing). My aunt tried to get me to make up recently because of it, i said no, it’s her business what she does.

I think my dad will leave his in equal splits between us but you never know and we don’t talk about it, and it’s not expected in anyway.

I turned down a portion a couple of years ago, of my grandmothers estate in favour of my younger half siblings to give them a bit of a boost.