To think £30k is a really nice windfall?

[OrangePowder]

Friend has inherited from his aunt.

She had no children, but was married to a man with one son. Her husband predeceased her but it was always understood that she would make provision for his son in her will. Which she has done.

Friend and his sister, as the closest relatives of the woman were also told that they would inherit. They were expecting 50% of the estate (c. £300k) between them.

In the event aunt has left 50% to the step son (who she raised as her own) and the remaining 50% is split 5 ways, between her nephew, his sister and three others she felt had helped her a lot during her life.

My friend is furious that he was misled and doesn't seem to understand that to have £30k land in your lap is huge. FWIW he has parents in their late 80s who are very well off so can expect a substantial inheritance there too.

I wouldn' t expect to inherit anything from an aunt (or anyone really) so to me £30k would be amazing.

I can understand his disappointment if he was promised one thing and got another.

30k is nice but depending on where you are in the country or what your life is like currently, doesn't make much of a difference.

I think the moral of the story is never to expect any inheritance.
Even if you are told you will be "looked after"!
It seems a lot of elderly people's estates end up being used up in care fees so he is lucky to get anything. And 30k is really not to be sniffed at.

He's being a brat. He got 30 instead of 75 and feels like he deserved 75 because he put up with her. But he wasn't 5he only person who helped her and so she's honoured them all

If he's so bitter about it, I'll take it. Would be life changing for us

30k is nice but depending on where you are in the country or what your life is like currently, doesn't make much of a difference.

To you maybe, many of us would be overjoyed to receive such a sum and it would make a huge difference.

It's not enough for a deposit on a house, for example, which could be what someone in that situation was hoping for.
Lol!
Its a third of the price of my 24 year old son's house that he has just bought! More than enough deposit.

30k is nice but depending on where you are in the country or what your life is like currently, doesn't make much of a difference. Great, I'll send you my bank details and you can give me 30k

Fair enough to be internally disappointed with getting less money and not being able to do what you had been planning. But you can never rely on inheritance. So anything more than that is a bit

@kitkatsky

I hate this attitude. Nobody deserves an inheritance

100% agree with this. Why are people so entitled now?

I sort of understand this. When my great uncle died I was expecting to inherit his whole estate as he'd told me as much several times in the years before he died. Turns out he didn't even have a bloody will, he was just telling me he wanted me to have it, as if that counted. So his sister (my gran) got it instead.

She got a total of £200,000 which she absolutely didn't need - and has in fact complained relentlessly about the burden of having her brother's money when she just wants him back.

She gave me £10,000 as a goodwill thing because she knew I'd been expecting everything. Now £10,000 is nice, but the whole lot would have set me up for life - it included a decent house. To add insult to injury she gave the same amount to my brother, who never went near my uncle - I cared for him for a decade!

I know people especially the older ones (which is to be expected I guess) who lie about what is in their wills. There is no excuse for this and I dont know why people do it. Having said that they probably dont care... its not as though you can pull them up on this.

I wonder if they do it because they want people to help them out, give them jobs to do etc. Its a horrible trait but sadly not that unusual.

The house deposit is irrelevant anyway, seeing as he's just retired and his own mortgage is long gone.

As a PP says - some people think because its in their heads somehow it will all happen when they pass. They arent the brightest sparks are they to expect that that will happen?

I can understand that if you’ve been told you’ll be getting more then it’s hard when it doesn’t happen as mentally you’ve made plans for that.
30k would be amazing for me but if I’d been expecting 75k then I’d be a bit disappointed that the plans I’d made wouldn’t happen.
My DH has been promised money by his grandparents but we’re working on the basis that it could be 1k or 30k so that were fine with whatever it is

Well if he was told he was getting x and then didn’t I can see he might be cross, but not furious no

@burritofan

£30k is huge. It’s stamp duty and costs and movers and some left over. Or it’s a massive financial cushion. It’s an entire stocks & shares isa annual limit with another £10k leftover. It’s a massive pension boost.

It’s also nothing he was ever entitled to, it’s a gift, and it’s the amount the aunt chose to leave. If she’d wanted him to have £75k, she’d have left him £75k. She didn’t. And where is the mourning her in all this? He should be sad and grateful, not furious.

Exactly right

Whilst he sounds selfish on the face of it, if he was her power of attorney and did admin for her, then I do actually think that it’s reasonable for him to have expected more.

He was her POA, which is a significant responsibility so she obviously trusted him and expected him to behave with integrity. Yet she told him he'd be getting a certain sum when that wasn't her intention. She misled him. Of course he's upset.

@bananapumpkin

Nobody has a right to an inheritance and he absolutely should be grateful for the £30k (although we've probably all reacted badly to a disappointment, so give him time to get over the initial shock).

However, £30k is not "huge" in the way that £150k is. It's not enough for a deposit on a house, for example, which could be what someone in that situation was hoping for.

30k is the deposit I put down on my house in the SE when I bought it in 2019...

If he had actually been told what % to expect then yes I can understand why he feels a bit miffed but then again wills change or can be written a long time before death occurs and the deceased may have forgotten what they said.

If he had just assumed then he is being well out of order voicing his dismay.

Sounds like a right ungrateful bastard.

Friend and his sister, as the closest relatives of the woman were also told that they would inherit.

They have inherited.

Who told them this? What exactly were they told? Did the person telling them have authority to say what they said? Unless their aunt explicitly told them she would be splitting her estate in the way they expected, they're being grasping, presumptuous CFs.

I think £30k is a nice windfall!

What a shitty attitude. Like he didn't give a shit about his aunt at all. I inherited my aunt's Cartier steel tank watch. I wear it daily and it makes me think of her. I wish she had longer here. She was fun to be around and beautiful. Inheritance should never be expected, it's always a bonus.

30k is lovely, but it does sound like he was misled. I wonder whether that would have influenced his level of care for her? She was very uncool to fib if so

@OrangePowder

The house deposit is irrelevant anyway, seeing as he's just retired and his own mortgage is long gone.

It was just an example - the point was that it's not so much whether you get £X or £Y, but if you had expected to be able to do something with the money and what you end up with isn't enough to do that.