To think the Uk will move to an iheritocracy

[nappyvalley1992]

In the UK (especially the south east) PAYE earnings seem to increasingly play little part in overall wealth and what matters more of background/family wealth and increasingly the only path to a comfortable middle class life is via inheritance.

I am a late millennial of the south east whose parents own a very average home worth £1 million which under current rules I should inherit tax free. It's a similar story for almost all of my friends (amount almost equivalent of a lottery win). My parents were not even very middle class and had average jobs, they have just got lucky through house price inflation. Its not often spoken about, but I can foresee a wave of very wealthy millennials emerging in the next 15-20 years, and increasingly it wont really matter what someone earns in their day job, the biggest determinant of wealth will be those who are lucky enough to inherit.

Some millennials might even inherit large sums 2 or 3 times via grandparents, and inheriting from parents on both sides of the couple.

Will the government eventually start taxing inheritance more or what will the future look like in this area?

Wow, ok then.

Make a will and leave it all to some virtue signalling charity if you dislike your own kids that much.

Have house prices gone mad in the last two years? A relative has a bungalow in the South West which has just been valued at 450k. When she was looking to sell 2 years ago it was valued at 2 something.

I never said I disliked them. I love them very much, I just expect them to stand on their own two feet without any ‘expectation’. It is a very very poor attitude. Work hard, play hard and be independent is how life should be. Anything else that comes in should be a bonus. Incidentally, as you obviously didn’t read… they WILL profit from our properties and I paid towards the deposits for a house for both my children. You obviously think you ‘deserve’ to be left something. Poor attitude.

How have you missed all the acres of newsprint about how Londoners sold up en masse post lockdowns to buy properties in the SW thus pushing up prices beyond the reach of locals??

It's been all over the news topics everywhere for at least 2 years!

I doubt very much Londoners are moving into my relatives depressing uncool poor town! It's nowhere near Bruton 😅

Where the Jeff is Bruton?

How have you missed the acres of newsprint about the part of the south West that Londoners are flocking to??! It's been featured in every paper and Sunday supplement for about 4 years!

@nappyvalley1992 ha you don't get out much if you don't know people with parents who rent.

Mr Monkey and I both have (or had in his case) parents who rent. His dad was a publican who moved in to a council flat when he retired and my dad is a tenant farmer. We will inherit fuck all.

I can see a huge wealth gap opening up between us and our friends who have parents who own property in London and the South East in the next few decades.

No, they are all moving to Essex, Sussex and Kent!

Sounds as though that would have happened in any lifetime if they come from wealthier families.

Hope it tastes good 🤣

We are not in London or Greater London or Home Counties. I don’t like the house prices here, it’s just a sad fact they are so ridiculously high

OP rubbing hands together thinking of the inheritance

Aha, I'd think perhaps you must be in this "world famous" Bruton 🤣 but I see the most expensive property for sale there atm is a 5 bed detached house for 850k........

Or perhaps Edinburgh

This 'millennial/genZ I find confusing but that's an aside. So you were born between 1980 and 96, making you somewhere between 32 and 44, give or take.

Dear millennial, I'm really sorry but it's always been like this. I asked my mum once, what I needed to do to be rich and her answer, said with humour, was that I should have chosen my parents better. My family comes from dire poverty on both sides.
Any money my parents had came from years and years of prudent living, careful pension planning and a rise in house prices that they had no influence or control over.

My daughter is also a millennial and every one of her friends or contemporaries who has entered the housing market has done so courtesy of a gift or inheritance. The supply of houses simply can't meet demand-rising population/air b and b/second homes/holiday lets/investment properties.

I think wealth will come to people if their parents can leave them a house.

I know care home fees are not relevant to all but don't overlook them. Mum has burned through hundreds of thousands of pounds in care home fees, probably around £400 000 including her pension which now gets claimed for fees.
I don't own a house and will never be wealthy and have no inheritance.
This is a bit waffly as I'm thinking as I write.

Love
A boomer who rents.

@Blanketyre oh indeed - there has been many a career and artistic endeavour underwritten by the availability of family property and wealth. But I think it is more pronounced these days.

Hello. Boomer here in a rented house.

Well, hallo, but she still doesnt know anyone in your situation.

Fair enough but we do exist!

The UK has always been an inheritocracy. We still still have people who decide our laws due to who their father was. i think the "problem" now is that people generally are inheriting later and later in life as life expectancy increases, when life expectancy was 60 people inherited in the 30/40s. Now it is 85 and people will inherit in their 50s/60s.

Yes, it's already happening. DP and I are unlikely to receive any inheritance (which we're fine with on the face of it, would rather our parents enjoy the savings they've managed to build). Most of our friends are high earners but not obscenely so, say £50-80k a year, yet the only ones who are able to buy or even rent properties suitable for raising children in the SE (where the jobs in our industries overwhelmingly are) are the ones who have inherited or been gifted £100ks from family. Another unfortunate result of inheritocracy as often seen on MN is people get grabby over inheritance and it splits families apart, because it has a much more significant impact on your quality of life than it would in the past for an 'average' family.

The only solution I see is to change rules around inheriting cash from housing. It wouldn't be popular at all, and would affect the former middle classes far more than the extremely wealthy, but at the moment it's near impossible for anyone born into a family without wealth (and owning a property in SE has to count as wealth even if it didn't when first bought) to catch up to their peers with that advantage.

Trouble is, if you need care in later life you are expected to use your home to pay for it. So you can't have no wealth passed on but also have a home as security for care fees.

Yep - while care home fees will only hit half of the elderly, you have to plan for the expectation your parents (both or only one) will need care. Given you usually only know until later in your own working career if this is going to happen, you need to plan on getting nothing and anything is a bonus

it’s worth remembering that while “only” less than 50% of elderly people go into care homes, that doesn’t equate to less than 50% needing care. Those numbers reflect a lot of elderly wives caring for their DHs, and a lot of daughters /DILs taking parents /PIL into their home and doing the care. (It is very rare for men to do the care, although some do.)

If you are a SAHM moving to caring for parents as they age might make sense, but if you work, don’t have space to take in a parent, have your own health limitations etc it might not be possible.

I do think you’re right OP, but equally I think you’re being quite dismissive of the possibility of it being very two tier not just on those who inherit but also on whose parents have very short illnesses vs long complex conditions.

My parents are classic asset rich cash poor boomers but my Mum’s care needs are likely to make life significantly less comfortable for my Dad financially due to the cost, let alone inheritance.

This is why I think we need to try and bring in an£80k limit on assets for care being able to be used and we all pay maybe 2% of household income over £20k into a ringfenced insurance policy for care needs from being young. Obviously if your income is below this it is covered by the state .

I think it would be far easier on financial planning for many families if there was that certainty