£4 million. Help please.

[BikerintheDales]

Lucky me! I'm due to inherite £3.8 million.
Do l first see.
A) A solicitor.
B) Bank manager.
C) Money advisor.

Or someone else all together?
I'm widowed and just became an OAP.
Kids grown up.. own houses.
Thankyou.

Really - I always thought they were reputable or do they trade on being TLQ’s bankers?

I may be wrong but I understood Lottery and Euromillions jackpot winners have their winnings paid into a Coutts account because they were a good private bank.

All three of the traditional High Street banks have 'Private' Banking arms. Coutts is part of NatWest. HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays also have their own private banking arrangements. I would suggest that if you are already banking with one of these, they would be a good place to ask for some initial help.

At under £4m and no doubt will be spending some of it, the top end of private banking will not be available to you. I know it sounds like a lot of money but Hoares for example now want well over £3m to even talk to you. Others require over £5m.

However, going back to my previous post, I would always start with a lawyer and an accountant (preferably STEP qualified) before investing as you need to consider your options for tax and inheritance before making (or delegating) those sort of decisions.

Meet all three and see where their advice overlaps. Then conduct your own research over at least a few months. I would diversify among commercial property, FTSE 100 and government bonds myself. Anything but cryptocurrency - no matter what anyone tells you! Take your time and most importantly, make sure you're making the decisions.

They're perfectly reputable but not particularly great, service-wise, and we weren't thrilled with their fund management. We've been much happier with Hoare and a small independent wealth management firm.

I’d be curious to know more about your experience, because I currently bank with Coutts. So far so good.

That said I am a slightly unusual client for them because I do not use their advisory service, so I have lower fees and I make my own investment decisions.