Stock markets, inheritance, i don't understand

[Vlinty]

My mother died in 2024 and father this March. Years before they had made me power of attorney (because my husband works in finance he is a lawyer, so could help me. I am clueless and they knew this.)

After mum died, my DH took over, because my dad had dementia.

He changed a lot of their funds over to higher risk , their financial advisor told me they had always wanted low risk.

We sold the house and dh got me to invest with another fund manager. Take the money out of ns&I as well.

So some money with new advisor, some with old advisor but all higher risk than my parents had it

Now this morning he has told me that everything is down 25%.... obviously because the markets have plummeted following trump's tariffs.

I am so distraught, I have 2 siblings who will want their share of the money. I'm really angry with dh and he now won't talk to mr because I'm panicking and he won't help me - just says I won't listen. When it is him who will not answer a straight question.

Please help me calm down.

This is a much more reasoned approach.

Your DH hasn't done anything wrong that I can see and you need to stop panicking. You'll only make a loss if you panic sell the shares/investments now. Don't panic sell. It's almost always a very bad idea.

You don't have to sell at all. You can just take a sensible long term view and wait for the markets to stabilise and recover. If you sit tight, the markets recover and the share price does too then you very likely won't make a loss at all and could even turn a profit.

With regard to the investments and your siblings' inheritance, you can still split them equally three ways without selling them. Everyone can then make their own decisions about when to sell (or sit tight if they have any sense).

Stop the panic. It's really unnecessary.

Yes there is. There's no rush to sell the investments and you and your siblings will only make a loss if you all panic and sell them right now.

Split the investment three ways. Each sibling will get their own account in their own name and can decide what to do with it (and when) for themselves. No need to rush to sell.

There really is no rush here. Stop panicking, get probate granted, divide the investments into three equal accounts and then sit tight. That would be my approach.

Sorry to hear this.

@Vlinty I dont know what possessed you to let your dh get his hands on your and your siblings inheritance! you will just have to sell everything and divvy up. hopefully your dh has not let that power go to his head too much. looks like he wanted to play the big man and didnt really have the big funds needed to do that till your parents funds were available! now he has realised that he is not as good as he thought he was!! I would not have let him touch them at least no without informing your siblings who are going to be affected by this.

You can divvy it up without selling the investments. Why are those of us pointing that out being ignored?

Then each person sits tight on their portion of the investments and takes a long term view (if they've any sense anyway) waiting for the markets to recover.

They can, of course, sell their own portions whenever they wish to, but if they were to do it right now they would be choosing to make a loss. If they wait then in time there will be recovery and more.

I know i think we were planning to pay sone mortgage off and my brothers also wanted cash

To the poster who said why are we being ignored when we advise waiting it out, not everyone can afford to wait these things out. Maybe the OP's siblings have been living hand to mouth throughout the cost of living crisis, and are desperate to get their hands on a nice big lump of cash, which, thanks to the OP and her feckless DH, has shrunk dramatically. Although it now sounds like the DH is back peddling because he realises what a shit show he's created.

As a lot of other posters have said the markets have gone crazy this week. My investment has went down by about 45% this week. Was a bloody shock when I first checked it and then I clicked about it being linked to the US

You can take the hit now or see how the markets (hopefully) calm down over the next few weeks

Until a month ago the father was alive. The husband had no right to play silly buggers with his father in laws money.

Since the father died his estate should have been protected. Again his Son in law shouldn’t have been playing silly buggers with it.

All stocks are wildly down due to Trump. They will go up again in time. This drop could work to your advantage if you are over the inheritance tax threshold. Get the stocks valued asap for probate purposes while they are low. Assuming they are sold at a point in the future at a higher price then you will be liable for capital gains tax but that will be 18% if you are a basic rate tax payer and 24% for a higher tax payer ie considerably less than paying 40% IHT now.

Because it isn’t his money to risk. It was his father in laws and after his death his wife might be in for a 1/3rd of that money but the other 2/3rds never belonged to him

Everything is down at the moment even the low risk investments

He didn’t put it high risk though, he said it was higher risk: low/medium and we don’t know the net impact yet.
selling the house may have been for practical reasons, having a house sitting there empty with ongoing costs is not really great.

That’s not correct - the tax value crystallises at date of death.

Everyone saying that you will pay less inheritance is actually incorrect.
The tax value is at date of death.

If over the weekend an all our trade war can be avoided then there may some small recovery of stock. As world and business leaders take stock of the new financial landscape stocks will recover, some more than others.

The aim of Trump long term is to restore the US industrial base which will take time. There maybe US manufacturing stock just waiting to soar as foreign competition is restricted. New trade patterns in the world will emerge and if you are thinking really long term there are probably many Chinese companies eager to benefit from this.

personally I think Trumps domestic poll ratings will plummet as 60% of Americans own stocks and shares. Over time with congressional elections favouring Democrats as the party of economic sense Trump may have to start negotiating tariffs down. It all just takes time.

I’m just watching CNN who are saying that far fewer Americans than that own share unfortunately. They are saying that only 20 percent of Americans are directly affected and so a massive majority don’t really care.

Assuming that the investments also increased before they went down things might not be as bad as you think. If you can just sit tight and as in previous times the investments will recover. As PPs have said you and your siblings should have a better understanding of this rather than relying on your DH

but it may have gone up 20-25% prior to crashing that’s the question you need to be asking.

I suspect you may have just lost what was in effect the gain anyway, just leave it in the high risk they will bounce back in the next few years. In fact if I had some cash right now I’d invest in high risk.

My parents actively wanted my husband to do it, as they didn't think I could do it, nor my siblings sadly.

The parents wanted the husband to take over, it seems. So it could be said that, morally he didn’t do anything wrong? He did what was asked for him.

I am finding the jokes and comments re the OP’s parents being dead, quite disrespectful. I know it’s directed at the many posters who didn’t read the OP properly, but I wonder if it’s hurtful to the OP to be reading stuff about her dad being ‘six feet under’ etc? Just a thought.

What on earth were you in that went down 45%?

And @Vlinty OP how would you have lost 25%?

Sure, markets had a sell off but they were down around 10%. When your parents money was invested in low risk what that means is that it would have been a mix of bonds and equity, higher risk is 100% equity. 100% equity is completely normal for anyone with a long time horizon on the cash. If your dad wasn’t going to spend it immediately then it is not stupid to put into 100% equity because you’re younger.

You say it’s with a fund manager, there’s no way a fund manager would have invested these type of assets in anything more than a diversified equity fund … meaning I’m really sorry but I don’t see how you could have lost 25%.

And if you did, it will come back. It’s only a paper loss until you cash out the investments. And if you do that now then you’re really showing your inexperience. It will come back, it might take a few months or more but quite honestly the probate could be at least 12-18 months so it’s not like you’d have got the money tomorrow.

i think you need to calm down, stop panicking and take a bit more responsibility for educating yourself.

Unless you can tell me that your DH invested in single stocks, weird derivatives, or crypto…. I think you’re overreacting, which is understandable given the emotions you’re going through but unhelpful.

True. About 90% of stock is owned by 8% of americas wealthy. He’s taking from the super wealthy to help the middle classes.

Trump is playing a ridiculously dangerous game but he seems to be ahead.

Crashing the market will push cash into treasuries, which will force the Feds to slash interest rates in May and ultimately refinance trillions of debt at much lower rates.

If you can just hold tight the markets will recover by the end of summer. Also if you have spare cash, now is a fantastic time to buy.

Op is not in a position to sell the investments.

they belonged to her father. He died.

you have to fill in a very long form to tell the investment company this. They want the death certificate, details of the will/solicitors acting on behalf of the estate etc. you then have to fill in whether you want the investment sold for cash and transferred to the solicitors/executors account.

op did not hold power of attorney. Only the executor and/or the solicitor acting for the executors can issue instructions to sell the investments for cash.

op therefore cannot do anything unless she is executor.

btw trackers are generally considered medium to low risk. Op’s dh hasn’t put any money in high risk investments if it’s in trackers.

stop panicking. Get informed (not from Mumsnet).

If your siblings want their money then your husband should make the shortfall.

Don’t panic; but do learn about these things and even find another expert who can go through it with you. I think you possibly don’t trust your DH; in which case I think another set of eyes would be beneficial…

@Letsgflyakite yes it is but if quoted shares and sold within 12 months there is a relief . Look up post postmortem relief