To think inherited money is not family money

[Viviennemary]

There have been a lot of threads about partners not sharing their earnings when the other person earns less or is a SAHP. And of course money needs to be dealt with in a fair way and shared with the other person having access.

But what about inherited money. I think that belongs totally to the person inheriting. Of course if it was a huge sum you would probably give something to your partner but I certainly wouldn't think it was half theirs.

@Casiloco

I have seen all sorts of negative, unintended consequences

Could you explain a little more about what these might be? I’ve had advice and feel very content with my set up but would be interested to hear an alternative perspective

One example would be that there is insufficient knowledge about each other's financial situation and that gets very difficult when one spouse has developed confusion and short-term memory loss and cannot therefore share the information when it is needed for financial assessments - for care, etc.

Also the taxman sees a married couple as one unit as far as IHT is concerned and so arrangements which do not take account of a spouse's assets can end up being counter- productive.

There are other problems but these are just two which have ended up causing a lot of stress and heartache with clients of mine.

Thanks @Casiloco seems those can both be managed with transparency

insufficient knowledge about each other's financial situation

This appears to be to be a potential issue regardless of the state of who owns what. So long as it is recognised that both need to know what is where and how to access it. I imagine there are many more families where one is responsible for 'financial' things and the other knows nothing.