Question re wills/inheritance

[Bella1905]

I am having my will drawn up and have to decide whether I would want my children to inherit at age 21, 23 or 25 if I were to pass away before then. Obviously each person is different and matures at a different age but what would others go for please? I don’t want them to have to wait unnecessarily but equally, I’d like them to be as financially mature as possible. Thanks

I think it depends on your children, rather than age. If unsure, I'd go for 25. They'll be more settled and mature, and hopefully have a direction in life by then.

My friend inherited at 18, waved it in everyone's faces, then blew the lot. I remember thinking she could buy a small house outright, renovate it & buy something better & never need a mortgage. My DB, at 50, would still blow it on holidays.

In the end, you can only give them the legacy & try to teach them about money now, and hope for the best!

Would it be held in a trust until they hit that age? Could you have trustees with instructions to manage each of their money in their best interests until they receive the remainder at 25 - so could release money for university/a rental deposit or driving lessons for example.

You can use a flexible trust so your chosen trustees can decide the age to inherit. You don’t know what they may be like at 18/ 21/ 25. Will they fall in with a bad crowd and have drug, alcohol, debt issues? Will they be married and divorce losing the inheritance? Will they be persuaded by others to spend frivolously? You can’t know. You can leave a letter of wishes to the trustees to say eg at age 25 if none of the above applies give them money for a house deposit or whatever.

I would say 25

I chose 25 but with a trust set up so my daughter can access money for university, house purchase or similar if she is minded to do those things before 25.

I based it on how mature I was at a similar age. I was sensible but clueless at 18, went slightly off the rails at 21, back on track by 25.

We did 25 with instructions that they could get living cost for education etc. TBH we’d have done 30 if we’d been given the option but the solicitor wasn’t keen.

If you set it at 25 but give the Trustees power to advance capital or income ahead of that date you cover all the bases.

My Mother put money in trust for her grandchildren. Not on death but while still living on the basis they'd get it absolutely at 25.

Both mine accessed it early for purpose of house purchase.

I would have said 18 for one child and 30 for the other 🙈😂

one is good with money and the other isn’t so much

you have to let go

so 21 to me would seem appropriate

I inherited money from my grandparent who had stipulated age 25. It felt like along time as I really could have done with the money earlier even though it wasn’t that much - 3K - but it helped with buying a computer and other things that were really useful. So I’d say 21.

If you set up a discretionary trust you can state that the money can only be loaned with a charge against a property.

25 but I wouldn't bother with a trust like this at all unless you are talking about a very large amount of money or the likelihood or early death is higher than usual.

When our children were very small we did 25 with trusts. You are advised to review wills every few years which we did. Once DC were 18 and we knew what they were like we removed all restrictions.