ISA or pension?

[Amboseli]

We'll have a £10k lump sum in a few months. Should we put it into a stocks and shares ISA or as an additional lump sum pension contribution?

It would go into DH's pension, he's a higher rate taxpayer. His total pension contribution every year including employers contribution is approx £15k, he's 53.

Thank you!

Put it into Stocks ISA. It will be easily accessible but will also not be lost upon death as a pension would be.

If you put money in to one of he HSBC funds then you don't need the S&P tracker as that just increases your exposure to USA equities, unless that is the outcome you are after?

Technology is very much in fashion, and has done well, particularly through the pandemic, buts that not to say it will continue to do as well in the future

I really do think you should go and see a IFA, as you may well already own shares/funds, that you inherited, that give you sufficient technology exposure and you don't need to increase that, unless, again, you want to

I get the impression that you are doing things piecemeal, which isn't the best way to do it. You need to look at the overall picture, so the inherited investments, current investments, savings, long term plans, future requirements, etc.. An IFA can help you with that

@saleorbouy I don't think a private pension is lost upon death? Afaik it gets passed on but outside your estate so is not subject to IHT. I think the state pension is lost upon death though.

I would also vote for ISA
Also echo everything that @Audit says.
Especially Fundsmith and those that you have identified OP above.
Also wait for some bad /adverse world market news - try and buy in if you can time it at a dip.

[quote Amboseli]@saleorbouy I don't think a private pension is lost upon death? Afaik it gets passed on but outside your estate so is not subject to IHT. I think the state pension is lost upon death though.[/quote]
this link explains about pensions and IHT, and tax

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/pensions-after-death

@Residentnumber1 we will definitely see an IFA. But tbh at the moment we have no other investments of our own. We have our private pensions, the inherited investment and our house, no other assets and not a lot in savings. We don't have any ISAs, these will be the first ones.

We're planning on retiring in about 10 years and will emigrate to a country where the cost of living is very low. We could live very very comfortably on £35k pa there. So we could live on the inherited income and our state pensions which add up to £35k after tax.

We'll sell the house, give the DCs enough for a deposit and invest the rest and use it to buy a property here if we do return to live in the UK at a later time.

We probably won't actually need to use much of the private pension.

I'd like to do some traveling when we're retired but that's it really.

I want to leave as much as possible to the DC, that's my main goal.

You have to be careful about where you emigrate to, as your state pension may not go up after you emigrate, it depends on what the UK has agreed with that country. In that situation inflation would soon devalue what your state pensions were worth.

@Residentnumber1 yes we need to look into that as well. We have dual nationality and will probably come back to the UK for a portion of the year especially if DCs are here.