to want my money back...

[ickletickle]

this isnt so much a "AIBU" post as a what would you do. Basically inherited some money in 2000, had already used that years isa allowance, my sister hadnt, so I invested 7k in her name. stock fell massively, thought it was best to leave in place in the hope that it climbed back to original 7k value and then cash it in.

so following birth of dd, we start looking into our finacial affairs and it comes to light that sister cashed the ISA in last year, with a value of 3100. She says she did it by mistake, very apologetic and i'm not to bothered about the fact that she did this without telling me but I do think she should give me the £3100 back.

However, she's now stalling, as she invested the money in something else, which of course has fallen in value.

She's not poor - she just got made redundant with a £50 k payout and walked straight into a £60k pa job, and has a mortgage about 1/3 the size of mine.

dont know how forceful to be with this, thought about saying I have to have the full amount within 6 months, otherwise it will just drag on. is this unreasonable?

also posted on finance/legal....

Ask her for the money back now

Can you ask her what plans she has to remedy the situation? I reckon the moment she cashed it in it became her money, and she has to find a way to pay you you 7 k back.

you your 7 k back

Morally, it's not hers to "stall" over. She knows that it is, theoretically, your money, and therefore she should return it as soon as she can. In this respect, be very forceful. Ask her to return it, and point out that failure to do so could result in a serious rift between you (I'm presuming from the tone of your OP that it could). It is not possible, I should think, "accidentally" to cash in an ISA. She must have known what she was doing.

Legally, however, I doubt you have a leg to stand on. You - in effect - tried to avoid paying tax on your savings/inheritance (which is not a crime), and basically gave your sister the money, in trust. A court would see it that way, I expect - as a gift, unless you have a letter proving otherwise.

What an unpleasant situation: I'm sorry.

She doesn't owe you £7k, however. It's not her fault the markets fell.

She owes you £3100 - the value of the ISA when she cashed it in.

I think that she should give you the £3100 back.
It all sounds a bit messy - It probably wasnt completely legal in the first place for you to invest money in her name for an ISA, and if you had left the £3100 in the ISA then it probably would have fallen further, but I would say that she tool responsiblity for it when she took the money out, so she should give you £3100 back.

But the op did not ask her sister to cash in the investment. She would have wanted it to regain its original value.

You have to think carefully here, what are the odds that your investment would have ever returned to its original value?

What are these stocks trading at today, as opposed to a year ago? WOuld your investement be worth more than 3100 today, or more?

Sorry - I should've said: if you want the money now, she owes you £3100. However, she should agree to reinvest this amount and allow you to "wait it out", as originally you intended to do.

I would ask her for the £3100 back. OK so the OP would have probably left this to regain the original value but to ask for the 7K would I think cause a lot of family problems that I personally would be keen to avoid.

If the value has now dropped below £3100 I think that is tough on your sister and she should suck this up. I also disagree with the fact you could possibly cash in an ISA accidentally - we have just cashed in ours and it took a fair amount of form filling that could not have been done by accident. And even if it wasn't intended she should have given you the money from the sale as soon as she realised what she had done and not reinvested it and not told you until a year later!

If you are sure she has the money (whether as cash or investments) I would tell her that you need the money and could she please send you a cheque now thanks. iF she says it is tied up in investments I would ask her to cash in enough so that she can return the money.

If this was my sister I would probably offer to pay the £7k however!

Cross posted pensethelia - thats a good point. You could ask that she returns the money once it has risen to the £7k you originally invested if you don't need the money now.

Probably easier though to just take the £3100 and walk away to avoid any similar problems in the future

if she cashed it in, perhaps, despite appearances to teh contrary , she is skint and needs money, hence cashing it in and now stalling..

she might have debts or gambling problem or stuff you don;t know about and her redundancy m moeny and salary are being eaten up on that, and she needed the money?

if that is not the case, she should give you the £3100 back and you have to suck up the loss on the markets.. that is waht would have happened regardless of whether you or she invesed it

her husband is mega anal, so dont think she would have got away with illicit spending, happy(ish) with the 3k and was thinking of sending an email saying realise she doesnt have this sort of cash lying around so will wait up to 6 months? just dont want this to be an issue... and i amstaying the night with her tomorrow...

Why send an email if you are seeing her tomorrow? Why not just talk about it face to face then?

Things can come accross so wrong in emails without the intonation behind the words.

I agree alicet, speak to her face to face, say I appreciate it was an accident but I do need the money back. Wouldn't mention 6 months just yet and see what she says first.