Exciting inheritance! How to hold it?

[Lionessadmirer]

My lovely uncle has left me and my two brothers £450k each after inheritance tax (we have just sent off IHT400).

For my brothers this is life changing. And it means I won’t have to support them financially.

My husband and I have a specific long term financial ambition to do with our house. But until the time comes to action that, we don’t need the money. We are both busy working full time.

my uncle self-invested nearly all his money via hsbc and ii. Given what I say above, is the sensible thing to do the same?

lastly, how should isas be used here please?

thank you and please raise a glass to our uncle who lived well and died content.

Will do, thank you

It’s brilliant that you take pleasure in it! You honour her by recognising how special and unusual it is to inherit

Thank you!

Should this be allowed in society, what about people who will never get inheritance?

I don't know what the solution is but it just breeds inequality. We'll be heading for the Victorian times in society in the coming years as "the great wealth" transfer takes place.

I'll be a "have not" as no one in either mine or my DH family has ever received a penny of inheritance due to generations of poverty before us and nothing will ever come to us.

Just in case anyone is in the same boat as me and in their mid-30's... if you start saving £200 per month (if you can afford to, I cant) and find a savings account at about 4% then you too can have £450k if you save for the next 54 years 🤦 but you'll be dead by then so... 🙈

You need professional advice tailored to your specific situation. It will depend on whether you are married, what debts you have, what mortgage you have, what pension you have, etc. There are loads of sensible ways to invest but you cannot expect posters on MN to advise you without knowing your personal circumstances.

Finding a good financial advisor isn’t easy. If you can educate yourself you will have a better chance of sussing them out if you chose not to do your own investing and imo it’s perfectly possible for most people. You do need a bit of time to work through it all though.

Teacup - that is what the tax system is for. £550,000 of my uncle’s money will go to the state where it will, I hope, be spent wisely on hospitals and schools and a justice system, etc.

thats the logic of inheritance tax. About 25% of the estate in our case. Would have been more but 10% of the estate is going to charity.

Thank you and I agree.
until this happened I had very little idea. But handing the estate is a quick learning curve!

I have also inherited, about half of this. It is overwhelming as you want to honour your relative by doing your best with it! I will spend a good chunk on a home makeover and top up my pension/buy AVCs also to max tax breaks.
I'd be interested in either a small property investment or investing where I'm getting dividends.. so I see some of it! Following with interest.

You're more patient with TeaCup than I would have been, OP: 'Should this be allowed?' & 'what about poor little old me?' I suspect TeaCup is really Rachel Reeves.

Tough luck, TeaCup.

Why poor man? He lived a good life and left significant sums for his niece and nephews. The amount is life changing so yes it is exciting, that doesn't mean they think his death is exciting or that they are happy he is dead.

Exactly. Why can’t some people realise that these are two different things causing two different emotions?
For all we know OP may have been devastated by his death.

I work in charity legacy management and can assure you that no one at a charity thinks of it as being a drop in the ocean….every legacy gift to charity is incredibly important and gratefully and graciously received…..more importantly though, around 65% of the time we aren’t aware of the gifts and don’t get the opportunity to say thank you (please tell the charity if you have left a gift in your will so they can do this) and I feel very personally responsible for ensuring that their final wishes are carried out….I have a responsibility to the person who has left the gift to make sure there has been no mistakes in the administration, that there is no discrepancies in the tax paid, the expenses are legitimate and the gifts distributed are correct. I absolutely love my job, it gives me great satisfaction.

I think your uncle would be delighted you’re happy and that you’re assisting your brother as well. I love it when family members do the right thing, because it is very rare when money is involved!

It’s a life-changing amount of money and you are right to seek advice as well as doing your own research. I don’t get the grim/poor man comments - he left it to you and your brothers by choice, to benefit you, and I hope it brings you all peace and security.

So because you may not get an inheritance and no one in your family never got one then no one should?
Wow

There's heaps of things I'd like other people have I never will.. Should they not have them so they don't upset me?

Maybe try and change that for the future kids in your family. Seems a much better use of time than posting that tripe.

Definitely find a financial adviser - not that easy unfortunately, but essential to get the tax side right. Look carefully at their fees, a proportion of your investments, as this mounts up. Note you can invest some in your kids' isas too but for both isas and general investing you need to make a call on risk to determine a balance of equity (risky, incl global trackers), and bonds (traditionally safer).

Full credit to OP to how politely and assertively she is handling the green eyes posters here!

If your uncle had money in isas then the isa account could stay open for 3 years after death.
The simplest thing would be to do that until you need the money.

https://www.gov.uk/individual-savings-accounts/if-you-die

I haven't read all the replies so sorry if it's already mentioned but if putting it into a pension remember there are limits on the amount you will get tax benefit on relating to your taxable pay in the year (and carry over of unused allowance)

Read the post. He lived well and died content

Unless all these people won the lottery and got rich, they probably worked hard and made prudent decisions.
Why didnt you?

Be very careful - financial advisers will be everywhere. Find your own - not the ones who contact you on spec. They are seeking an annual fee for investing it with you and are never a good use of your money.

This is ridiculous. The OP is looking for financial advice - can you contribute to that?

its sad that you've lost your uncle but how lovely of him to leave you such an incredible sum. I inherited 325 from my beloved grandad and got myself a financial advisor. We max the ISA every year (they transfer it for me) and the rest is invested across multiple things. I've put half of it in my husbands name so we can double up on the ISA's saving £40k per year instead of me just doing £20k. You'll pay a fee for the IFA but it's worth it for them to deal with it all especially as I don't understand investing very well despite working as a PA in the industry 🫠

That's a ridiculous comment, you know?

I'd be pretty bloody pissed off if whoever I decide to leave that amount of money to didn't find that exciting! If I knew it in advance I'd leave it to someone who would.

OP for that amount of money please don't take advice off a forum. You need an independent, paid for, financial advisor.