Financial transition point - where to get best, unbiased advice?

[Kazeragi]

DH and I have been fairly low/average financially for the best part of 20 years. 2 x public sector wages, some periods of debt/struggle, some periods of scraping through and feeling OK.
Now I feel we are at a transition point. I have had a small inheritance, nothing life changing, but for example could help support a DC to live away at uni- that would previously have been a massive reach. DH will retire soon and have a large lump sum, however this has to go a long long way..we have a big mortgage, 3 remaining parents, 2 DC still at home.
So we're very short term financially comfortable and while this is lovely I don't know how best to handle it.
No savings apart from small amounts for each DC.
Years of being frugal have left me very uncomfortable/unable to relax financially. Also we have no real experience of managing money other than the normal monthly ins and outs.
We need advice, but obviously I'd want this to be unbiased. We'd also be the position to pay for someone's time but i don't want to be ripped off.
Where is the best place to start?!

Find a fee only financial advisor. This is someone to whom you will pay an hourly rate. Try to find someone independent--not someone who works for a bank or other financial enterprise. What you are hoping for is someone who has no financial incentive to put you in certain financial products. Fee only advisors are more likely to offer unbiased advice.

My advice is to do the basics first.

• work out your current annual expenditure now and what you think it will be in retirement.
• work out your potential retirement annual income based on pensions and state pension.
• dependent on your mortgage interest rate, savings interest rate and when any fixed term is due to end work out the best way to reduce your mortgage. This calculator shows how much you can save on mortgage interest if you over pay https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-overpayment-calculator/
• make sure you have at least 6 months in savings in an emergency fund.
• look at whether ISAs are a good way of reducing income tax on savings interest.
• Do a state pension forecast and if appropriate top up any partial or missing years. https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension#:~:text=You%20can%20also%20check%20your,and%20send%20it%20by%20post
• research your work and private pensions so you understand what you will get and when. As you are public sector find out if you are impacted by McCloud and if so compare the options. Consider if making additional pension contributions is worth it.
• research what your DC are eligible to at uni and realistic costs.
• do not rely on any other inheritances when factoring in future income.

This gives you a good baseline before you approach a financial advisor.

Thank you these are so useful. I feel very under educated in this area, and even these "basics" are more than I have good working knowledge of. Really appreciate it!!

@Kazeragi think of it as building blocks and slowly build up your knowledge.

Totally agree with @Unexpectedconsequences , what an excellent post

Put money in ISAs as you then don’t pay tax on the interest, and you don’t need much in savings to reach the £1000 allowance. We also used Premium Bonds as winnings are tax free, while we thought further what to do.

Make sure you are financially secure, before you set your kids up. Student loans are fine, and you need to be secure yourselves.

Which has a good guide to what you need in retirement, and what retired people spend money on. Have a look at that so you know how much you will need once retired.
And work out if you can retire early, or reduce your working week by a couple or three days til state pension age.

Excellent advice already here. I would also add that it is really important to educate yourself financially so you understand both your own priorities and don’t blindly follow whatever an IFA tells you. We paid for a consultation but I found it a mix of selling what we could very easily do ourselves and trying to persuade us that we needed far more money to retire than we really do.
I would highly recommend watching the meaningful money videos and listening to his podcasts. They are a huge resource but explain everything in an easy to understand manner.

Thank you for this excellent advice.
I'm some way off retirement myself, and DH will probably pick up some PT work, so I know we need to look at tax implications of that for him.

We also need to identify somewhere to put his lump sum temporarily.

Being financially insecure was easier!