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Share your experiences of inheritance with Tower Street Finance - £200 voucher to be won

(139 Posts)
LucyBGransnet (GNHQ) Mon 15-Mar-21 09:30:19

This sponsored discussion is now closed. Thank you to everyone who posted below.

No one likes to think about what happens when a loved one passes away. Talking about inheritance - who is going to be left with what in a will or indeed who is going to be left out of a will – can make most people feel uncomfortable. But these are important conversations to have, because navigating your way through the legal process of an inheritance after a loved one has passed away can be stressful and confusing.

With this in mind, Tower Street Finance would like you to share your experiences with inheritance.

Here’s what Tower Street Finance has to say: “Tower Street Finance makes it easier and quicker for people to access their inheritance. Its award-winning Inheritance Advance product is for beneficiaries and the Inheritance Tax Loan, which is paid directly to HMRC to settle the IHT bill, is for executors. Both products offer: no credit checks, no charge over property, no personal liability, no monthly repayments and come with a fixed monthly interest rate.

The loan is repaid from the estate funds once probate has been granted and the estate is ready to distribute. There is a 2% origination fee (capped at £1,500), which can be added to the loan, and a fixed yearly interest rate of 19.6%. Interest roll-up is capped at 30 months.”

Have you spoken to your loved ones about what inheritance you plan to leave to them? If you haven’t, is there a particular reason why? Are you expecting to receive an inheritance? Do you know how long it takes to receive your inheritance? Do you know if you will be liable for an inheritance tax bill? What would you do if you are faced with an inheritance tax bill – this is 40% of the overall estate? Have you ever wanted to dispute who benefited from a will?

Whether it’s about the inheritance you’ve planned to leave loved ones or you’ve received an inheritance from a loved one, we want to hear all about your experiences with inheritance. All who post on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky GNer will win a £200 voucher for a store of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck!

GNHQ

Insight T&Cs apply

chris8888 Wed 18-Aug-21 08:07:09

I have not had or expect to receive any inheritance.
I have nothing to leave as house sold long ago due to divorce.
I have however pre paid for my funeral I would hate for my family to worry about the financial costs of that.
I have spoken to my children they know their is no inheritance.

greig23 Mon 16-Aug-21 11:08:21

Never inherited anything yet , probbaly due to in the near fture but hate talking about it aha

christinawadeley Mon 16-Aug-21 03:19:25

My mother sadly passed away earlier this year and left myself and other family members some money in her will. I was the executor of her will and although I thought I'd done everything right there were still bills that needed paying after I had followed through with the requests I used some of my inheritance to pay for these. In addition as I then had savings, I had to let the dwp know and it affected my benefit income. I found it really difficult as no one explains what you have to do when a loved one passes and at the time you are consumed by grief you have to sort everything out. It was a horrible experience for me

Dannydog1 Fri 02-Apr-21 19:57:54

My sister and I dealt with my mum’s estate which included a property and investments and didn’t find it too difficult to do. I have made my will.

Auntieflo Mon 29-Mar-21 12:20:01

Congratulations Jaxjacky. Enjoy a spend up .

muse Mon 29-Mar-21 10:11:06

AliceLGransnet

Thank you for everyone who took part. The winner of this prize draw is @Jaxjacky smile

Congratulations thanks Jax. Hope there's a good choice of companies you can choose from. smile

Marmight Mon 29-Mar-21 09:48:34

I’ve recently acted as Executor with my cousin for my late Aunt. Apart from using her next to useless solicitor, & the fact that she made over 30 separate bequests ?, the biggest pain was the ‘Tax Man’. The estate was finalised in January last year but even last week we received yet another demand from the totally inefficient Tax dept. Luckily I’ll never have to act as executor again having done it 3x for various relatives. My will is simple and I hope my own executors don’t have the problems I’ve had. And, yes, I have had the talk with my family. As I intend to go ‘skiing’ once allowed to travel again, there may not be too much left, apart from a modest property ?

AliceLGransnet (GNHQ) Mon 29-Mar-21 09:40:18

Thank you for everyone who took part. The winner of this prize draw is @Jaxjacky smile

Keffie12 Mon 29-Mar-21 00:42:04

Keffie12

All my affairs are in order. My adult children inherit. My eldest is the executor of the estate. There are 4 of them. They aren't particularly close. Two of the 4 live abroad.

My eldest is the serious sensible one so all will be sorted properly. I'm close to them all as was/is my late husband who passed 3 years ago. He is there step dad and the dad he didn't have to be to mine.

Though I'm close to my youngsters because of the horrific divorce I went through from the biological one as the boys call him it caused some problems.

My 2 eldest boys used to be really close. My 2nd son has mental health issues which seriously impacted his relationship with his elder brother. They never have quite recovered from it though are civil when they see each other

I inherited a small amount from my late mom. Mom inherited alot of money in the 80s which she used to help me bring the children up.

My late husband wanted his share of his inheritance from his mom who is still alive to pass to me. I very much doubt that will happen because of certain family dynamics on that side. To be quite honest I couldn't hack the trouble that would come with it so don't want it anyway

Meant to add. I've a prepayment funeral in place as did my husband and insurance policies for the youngsters too

Keffie12 Mon 29-Mar-21 00:39:57

All my affairs are in order. My adult children inherit. My eldest is the executor of the estate. There are 4 of them. They aren't particularly close. Two of the 4 live abroad.

My eldest is the serious sensible one so all will be sorted properly. I'm close to them all as was/is my late husband who passed 3 years ago. He is there step dad and the dad he didn't have to be to mine.

Though I'm close to my youngsters because of the horrific divorce I went through from the biological one as the boys call him it caused some problems.

My 2 eldest boys used to be really close. My 2nd son has mental health issues which seriously impacted his relationship with his elder brother. They never have quite recovered from it though are civil when they see each other

I inherited a small amount from my late mom. Mom inherited alot of money in the 80s which she used to help me bring the children up.

My late husband wanted his share of his inheritance from his mom who is still alive to pass to me. I very much doubt that will happen because of certain family dynamics on that side. To be quite honest I couldn't hack the trouble that would come with it so don't want it anyway

nabob Sun 28-Mar-21 23:05:52

I will probably leave my money to RNLI . I realise I need to make a will. I hope to do it soon as Covid has made life short and unexpected.
NO I have never inherited anything.

Elizabeth1 Sun 28-Mar-21 16:06:51

My dh and I have made out poa equally to our two children who will sell our home and share the proceedings not that there will be much to share. We’ve both got wills nothing complicated there and we’ve both got life policies which will more than cover any expenses needed at short notice uncomplicated lives we lead. Hope our two children can ultimately agree on final arrangements. They know us so well and they are kind children. But who knows, it’ll be down to them.

Redhead56 Sun 28-Mar-21 13:38:40

We inherited money from DH parents we bought a small cottage in Wales with it. I inherited money from my mother I gave it to my DC. We inherited money from an aunt and uncle we gave some to our DC and invested the rest. We have Wills sorted out our DC do not like us talking about it. But they know about investments we have ISAs savings personal belongings etc.

amber22 Sun 28-Mar-21 13:28:15

my parents were divorced and my father remarried and had moved 200 miles away. We exchanged Christmas cards and small gifts, but otherwise little contact. I phoned him on his 90th birthday and his first response was 'Amber who?'. Meanwhile my sister had cut off all contact with both parents many years ago. So I was very surprised when he left us most of his capital, half to me and half to my sister.
I did persuade my mother to get a Power of Attorney, but in the end it wasn't used. She chose to leave nothing to my sister, and made this clear in her will. Unfortunately she later needed residential care due to dementia, this absorbed most of her capital and because she'd neglected vital roof repairs the house sold for half that achieved by similar local properties. If I'd known how bad the damp patch she'd mentioned was, I might have tried to insist she got it fixed.
It can be very difficult to persuade elderly people to do things they can't be bothered with.

Sparkling Sun 28-Mar-21 12:29:46

Never received any inheritance due to father remarrying and his wife getting everything after 6 years, never seen her since. As primary carers for husbands parents, when they died the sister whom they never saw got the house and everything, she was already wealthy, it was an old will but it would have cost too much to fight it. Luckily I never let it get me down, we were lucky in other ways.

cuppatea Sun 28-Mar-21 12:13:45

The only inheritance was from my mother. We all knew the contents of her will and I handled all the probate and finance - there wasn't enough to warrant any inheritance tax.

Minerva Sat 27-Mar-21 23:59:49

There are four of us and one brother was my mother’s executor as he was trained in the legal and financial tasks involved. It was quite straightforward for the rest of us though we wished we could have each chosen a keepsake from our old home. My brother instead called in a valuer and it was up to who could afford to, to buy what they wanted from Mother’s estate.
Her small bungalow sold quickly and the proceeds divided equally between the four of us. I had my quarter diverted to my children in its entirety as they were all struggling to buy their starter homes and that way it didn’t go into the pot when my ex and I separated shortly afterwards. Looking back it seems like a small sum but then it enabled two of them to raise a deposit on flats and the third to move from a tiny flat to a place with a little garden for the children. I have never regretted it.

GrannyRose15 Sat 27-Mar-21 23:51:45

Hellsbelles

I was an only child and when the last parent passed I was the sole benefactor of the will. It was enough to buy a house outright but 8 years later it is still unspent because somehow it does not feel like it is mine.
I have made a will which will benefit my children.

It is your money and you have a right to spend it. Of course we all want to leave our children something but not at the expense of denying ourselves a comfortable life.

Go on! wink once lock down is over choose yourself a nice little place where you will really enjoy living. The children will still get the money once you are gone, secure in the knowledge that it made you happy first.

GrannyRose15 Sat 27-Mar-21 23:45:51

DH and I have had several very bad experiences of inheritance.
His dad left everything to his mum. She died 20 years later without doing any of the things you can do to mitigate inheritance tax so we were left with a big bill. What was unfortunate about that is that if his father had not died suddenly when only in his sixties he would have sorted everything out much better for us all.

My DF also died suddenly leaving a will that hadn't been changed for 20 years. Consequently it didn't take account of all relevant circumstances at the time of his death. It took years to sort out and then my DM died and we had to go through the whole rigmarole again. My sisters and I very nearly fell out over the whole affair.

We still haven't decided exactly how to divide our estate between our three children. Partly because their circumstances are so different from each other and partly because what we own is still in such a mess from when it was owned by previous generations.

But the very worst example of a bad will we have experience of was made by one of DH antecedents who left the bulk of his money in trust for his son's children. Said son was only allowed the interest. He died childless after living into his eighties. His family is still feeing the aftereffects of that one.

Hellsbelles Sat 27-Mar-21 20:59:07

I was an only child and when the last parent passed I was the sole benefactor of the will. It was enough to buy a house outright but 8 years later it is still unspent because somehow it does not feel like it is mine.
I have made a will which will benefit my children.

grannybuy Sat 27-Mar-21 19:42:47

I only inherited a small amount after my DM died. She had no property. DH died in December, but we had did have prepaid funerals and POAs in place. We didn't have mirror wills. DH had health problems which meant that if I predeceased him, he would need to go into a nursing home, and if he had inherited my half of our assets, this would also have gone towards his care. We had a trust set up so that on first death, the deceased's half of the house went to our adult children. I felt that it was acceptable for his care to be paid for with his assets, but not mine as well. Now, my daughters own half of my house, which means that if I need care, only my half can be used.

GranWy Sat 27-Mar-21 16:30:37

Yes I have been lucky enough to inherit from my parents which has helped with finance through life’s difficulties. My children will get anything left when I go but I like to give now too and see them enjoying little extras.

MaggsMcG Sat 27-Mar-21 16:29:00

My husband died 1st Feb. We both had Wills that left our half of the house in trust to the three daughters and six grandchildren. Wish we hadn't, its going to take 6-12 months to sort it. Luckily I have enough joint money to tide me over. We also had a POA going through at the time and they have refunded his part as it hadn't been registered yet. I had no idea all this legal stuff had to be done I thought the Will was enough. Each different financial company requests different documents and different proof of identity and its not always the ones with the highest amount of money that is the worst. Steep learning curve which I handed over to a Solicitor as soon as I knew I needed to contact Land Registry and all that complication too.

PattyFingers Sat 27-Mar-21 16:15:17

My grandparents told me what to expect when they died. I know what my fathers Will contains as we have discussed it and even have a copy of it but not my mothers. I and my husband have Wills and have no-one to leave it all to but have made our wishes clear in the Wills. It's not a topic that iis discussed enough.

ALANaV Sat 27-Mar-21 15:37:27

When my late father died, everything was sorted within 6 months as he had left a Will .....BUT when my brother died a couple of years ago, the Probate is STILL not finalised ...I had to pay a very high Inheritance Tax amount, which my Solicitor said in Autumn last year, was due a partial refund....I still have not received it. Sadly he made no Will so Probate has taken a very long time ....having to prove he had no children or a civil partner, selling stocks and shares, selling the house and its contents ......I have made a Will, have a paid up funeral policy, and appointed my Solicitor as PoA for health and financial decisions. I am just waiting for my doctor to let me have a DNAR notice on my medical records, which he seems reluctant to do. My Solicitor knows this also.