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.

If your husbands a lawyer in finance he should have known better. I would say to him you aren’t taking this seriously. Do you realise my siblings could sue me and you for breaching our poa? A poa gives me a legal duty to act in the persons best interest, and it is manifestly obvious to anyone in financial advice that stable low risk is the portfolio for my parents.

that said, he should definitely not sell now. That would be making bad worse. But he may not have a choice, since it’s not his money, what a dick. He must have been pretending he knew a lot more than he did, he clearly doesn’t know fn

@Vlinty @Codlingmoths Do you realise my siblings could sue me and you for breaching our poa? and actually it is not OUR poa it is MY poa. why the hell did she let her dh touch it when it was absolutely nothing to do with him???

Agree. Much if the ‘advice’ on this thread is incorrect. The investments cannot be sold until probate has been granted and only the executors/solicitor can do this. The POA ends with the death of the father. The value of the investments at date of death needs to be noted, but nothing else can be done at this stage so advice to sell/not sell is irrelevant at this time.

Correct, for purposes of IHT the value used is the value of the stocks on the day of death, not at the time the probate form / IHT400 is filled in.

So if there is tax to pay, you could end up paying a higher tax ammount than seems correct if the stock value has gone down from where it was.

I really meant their presumably joint assets to make up the difference. It’s her poa. Perhaps it could be found that she was reasonable in trusting her dh, even though he grossly misrepresented his competency, and he legally had no obligations since he isn’t a financial advisor (would probably be different if he were, could report him to his firm for breach of ethics)

No one has “lost” anything unless they sell. Which would be stupid.

Husband is correct to invest more aggressively on behalf of non-elderly people.

Another voice of reason.

There is no need to sell the investments. Just divvy them up equally between the three siblings and then wait it out. Things will recover eventually and then you will be glad that you didn't panic sell.

Executor or not, nobody should sue you. If you divvy it up equally then they will get their share. They just have to have the good sense to wait for market recovery.

Some of the criticisms of OP's husband are coming from people who seem to know less than OP, frankly.

You've been given some dreadful advice here (along with a few nuggets of good advice). Obviously it would have been better if you had agreed and discussed all this in advance. But money in NS&I has been losing real value for years- it's only recently that there has been any return at all. Having some money in equities- even for retired people- is generally a good idea.

Your DH has been unfortunate in having moved the money so shortly before the current crash, but it doesn't mean that he's done anything crazy or that you would be liable to your siblings if there ends up being a loss. (You haven't said what he is invested in so I'm assuming some sort of normal tracker or managed equity fund, not something souped-up and ultra high risk.) He should have agreed an approach with you, sure, and you should have taken a more active interest rather just playing dumb, but that doesn't mean this is a disaster. Until you sell, there is no loss. Like many people, I'll be putting my money into my S&S ISA on Monday, in full knowledge that it may have further to drop but with confidence that it will come back up and more.

Stay calm. By the time you're in a position to sell or transfer the holdings, there's every chance they'll be in a much better position.

@SophieAnt Exactly.

I am absolutely seeing why OP's parents asked her husband to manage their finances. OP is a panicker and has no clue, and maybe the other siblings are similar.

I agree with you too that now is a time to actually buy stocks and shares if you can even if there might yet be further to fall. Buy while the units are relatively cheap. Take a longer term view and then sell when they have risen. It's not rocket science but you need to hold your nerve and people do panic far too easily.

I feel a bit sorry for OP's DH. He did what was asked of him by her parents and did nothing wrong but now he is incurring her badly misplaced wrath.

Assuming they can wait to sell. You have no idea if the siblings would prefer or need cash.

Then that is up to them.

TBH 25% down is a pretty large fall but you have to look at the “low risk” investments your father had his portfolio in and look at how much they have fallen over the last week.

Then it might not look as bad.

Tried to convince DS to cash out pre tariff announcement but he held and lost around 10% of his investments and he was in a super low risk fund

I know people will suggest that they might be as poor as church mice, but I doubt it. They just want to prove that their terrible advice is correct when it isn't.

I've been on the bones of my arse before and still wouldn't sell an investment under the current circumstances. It would be foolhardy.

The current tumble in the markets doesn't mean that all investments are unwise and should be sold off. Nor does it mean that OP's DH made bad investments and should pay compensation to her or her potentially equally clueless siblings.

It means sit tight for now. You can still divide the portions of the investments three ways and wait for it to come back. Buy more if you can afford it, but at least sit tight and wait. Simple.

The siblings (and OP) can have their cash if they wish because they can sell their own portions of the investments once they have them. That would be very foolish though.

But at least some of the money was in NS&I. That wouldn’t have fallen at all. It might not have grown as much but it was safe as it could be.

To have moved everything out, to have sold the house and to have invested all the money contrary to the FIL’s own wishes, whilst he was still alive, wasn’t ok. Now OP has to have some fairly difficult conversations with her siblings because her husband thought he was savvier than he was.

There's no reason why a lawyer would have a better understanding of investing. I'd urge you to educate yourself- you could start with Money saving Expert- and use your own wherewithal instead of only relying on dh.

Whose name are the shares in? If they're in your dad's name and he's died don't you get the value on the day that he died? Maybe I'm wrong but that's my understanding

Did DH have power of attorney with you when your dad was still alive? Was he investing your dad’s money before he died?

The value on the day he died is used for the probate forms, but clearly between date of death and probate being granted they can increase or decrease in value.

An elderly man with a POA is not someone who should have his money in a high risk investment, it should have been in a very low to nil risk vehicle, especially since it wasn't being invested for income I am assuming?
With regards to shares the markets are really low and anyone who has any idea sold a few weeks ago and are now waiting to get back in.

It's Donald Trump and his chaos. Not your dh's fault.

Even low risk stocks and shares are down.

It is if the money was supposed to be invested low risk

But other posters are saying sit tight .
That was my point

If your Dad only died in March and it's only April now I don't understand why you didn't just leave the investments where they were until the house was sold affairs settled and the money divided as per their will. If you have moved the money and allowed your DH to invest it I think you should make up the shortfall to your siblings from your share so they won't be worse off due to your high risk living DH. You have hugely overstepped in the role of executor. When my Mum died and I was executor I left everything invested as she had it until it could be sold and money divided with siblings.

I don’t understand how your DH invested your DF’s money when he was not POA? And if this was after your DF died why was he investing the beneficiaries of the will’s money?

I think OP's H invested her fathers money after her mother died using her POA.
Now her father has died as well so all the money has to be distributed but some of what was presumably her Mums money but left to her father was invested high risk and its gone.

No they aren’t sold on the day he dies