An inheritance one

[Spicyspice]

Did you/will you inherit from your grandparents? Or did everything go to your parents?

Was having a conversation with someone who feels hard done by, I’ll call him Tom. Toms grandparents have left Toms parents a big inheritance. Tom feels that his parents should have shared it with him as his parents are already wealthy.

It’s not really something I’d ever thought about as neither my parents or grandparents have any money/assets but does Tom have a point?

Tom - yanbu
Tom - yabu

Yes I do agree but I think it depends on the situation. My Aunt and cousin are very wealthy and have more than enough money, plus my cousin never actually had any relationship with her grandma ( They moved away when my cousin was young). I on the other never had much at all and I have 3 children to think of too. Again this isn't the whole story, my Mother and my Aunt are very toxic people - I am already estranged from my mother due to years of abuse. My Aunt did come back in when my grandma was on her deathbed but stormed out when she found out how little money she would be receiving. I'll never get over how appallingly she treat my grandma at the end and in my opinion acted very selfishly. I was with her until her last breath and sorted all her funeral and resting place, my Aunt showed no interest in attending any of this. So it just didn't sit right with me to share the money with her given her actions

Only one of my grandparents was alive when I was born..she died when I was 4 and left me £100. Same for my three first cousins. I don't have siblings. I don't remember what it went on but my mum thinks she gave it to me when I went travelling. It would be around £1000 in today's money I think.

I didn't get anything in my dad's will when he died when I was a kid. It all went to my mum. But she says she's leaving everything to me.

I would never expect anything from grandparents but mainly because I didn't know them.

I inherited a modest amount from my parents, I did treat my adult children to some money, while keeping the rest to assist with my retirement

The will could be a very old will and not up to date. If the parents are executors of the will they could have done a deed of variation in effect rewriting the will in favour of grandchildren as well as themselves. They did not choose to do this. If I was in this position I would certainly do this to help my kids out and avoid a larger inheritance bill going forward.

Tom’s being greedy. The grandparents are entitled to leave their estate to anyone they choose, or even the local cats’ home.

I’ll never be in Tom’s position as both my and DP’s mothers live in social housing. (Not together though!) We live in an expensive part of the SE and we are the only people we know where neither partner has a parent or grandparent who owns their own home. It doesn’t matter, we both have jobs and we’re happy to support ourselves.

I have no idea but assume my mother’s parents left whatever to their 8 kids. Same for my father though due to his brother dying in the war he was the sole survivor but again no idea f he inherited anything. My own parents split their estate equally between me and my siblings. My kids were young at the time. They probably assumed (correctly) that we would, in turn, leave what we had to our children. Was Tom close to his grandparents? Is he an adult? I guess if he felt he had a good relationship with them they might have given him something but again it may never have even occurred to them.

From an IHT point of view, it’s sensible to leave a chunk to Grand Children as it will be diluted if it goes through a parent first.