need advice for son

hotkee

I have never listened to an independent financial advisor in my life and do not intend. Nor any of the bank advisors.

For everyone's information - I did not recommend a stocks and shares ISA - it was a retort to someone saying you cant have cash isa AND stocks & shares one at same time.

Anyway - I can bet you that the end solution is a mix of savings and bonds and you dont need a financial advisor to tell you that.

jem16

hotkee wrote: »

I have never listened to an independent financial advisor in my life and do not intend. Nor any of the bank advisors.

Just because you haven't/won't is not good enough reason to put the OP off doing so.

For everyone's information - I did not recommend a stocks and shares ISA

Yes you did in Post 2.

- it was a retort to someone saying you cant have cash isa AND stocks & shares one at same time.

That wasn't what was said at all.

What was said was thet neither a cash ISA nor a S&S ISA would be able to be used in a trust.

Anyway - I can bet you that the end solution is a mix of savings and bonds and you dont need a financial advisor to tell you that.

The OP needs professional help to make sure the right thing is done with her son's inheritance.

CLAPTON

the legally of things here is a little unclear...

you say the £4,000 becomes his when 18? ... is that stated in the ex's will....
if so it seems to me you have no realistic option but to save it in either a normal savings a/c or a one or two year fixed savings a/c (depends how long before he is 18)

what is the exact position about the pension money... is that available to him now or is in trust untill 18 or whatever.
again if it is his now or is his at 18 then realistically it has to be saved exactly as for the 4,000

he may well waste the money at 18 but if it's legally his you can only advise him.

dunstonh

I have never listened to an independent financial advisor in my life and do not intend. Nor any of the bank advisors.

Not a problem and it is your choice. However your "recommendation" if followed could be seen as fraud and it certainly wouldnt be acting in the best interests of the beneficiary.

For everyone's information - I did not recommend a stocks and shares ISA - it was a retort to someone saying you cant have cash isa AND stocks & shares one at same time.

Someone did not say that. The quote was "You cant use a cash iSA or a stocks and shares ISA." and that is totally correct given the circumstances posted by the OP. You jumped to an incorrect assumption.

Jake'sGran

shelly2jn wrote: »

I have never had any money, am never likely to have any money! I don't know much about isas or which bank would even be the best for him to go to for his initial bank account. Would we be better to go to an independant financial advisor or would this just cost him money? I want to make sure that this money works for him as it will set him up for a deposit for a house or his first car and insurance. HELP!!!!!

I'm sorry to hear about your husband but am curious about your situation. Did he not leave anything to you? You haven't said who will get the insurance money. It would be a good idea for the £4000 to be put in a bond or other savings to go towards a deposit for his own first house especially as, in future, people will be expected to have a good deposit. There will be no more 100% mortgages. Dunstonh knows what he is talking about and if you are not familiar with savings and investments you would do well to take notice of what he says. I have saved for my grandsons for their first cars and first year at university. The first one has just passed his test and now has his first car.
The other one can't wait but is much more of a saver. They both think that finance should be taught in school.

jamesd

hotkee, you missed the point about the son being 16 years old and the possibility of a trust until he is 18. Those who are under 18 are not permitted to have a S&S ISA and ISAs of either type can't be held in a trust either.

In the very short term cash is OK. Longer term it's likely to be wrong, particularly when now is a good time to be investing. Even if the choice is to be very cautious the NS&I index-linked certificates are likely to be a better choice than instant access or term deposit accounts. If they are acceptable in a trust, if one is involved - I haven't checked.

evenasus, those who bought a year ago would probably still be down, depending on what they bought. If they bought corporate and government bonds they would probably be up, not down. If they bought a month ago they would probably be 10-20% up by now, depending on what they bought. Prices remain low and it's still overall a good time to be buying many types of investment.

sabretoothtigger

Short term something boring like index linked bonds from nsi might be the easiest choice while leaving the future open to options

I think IFA can actually be cheaper then taking your own advice, they can refund the charges from the investments and then you pay them their fee.
Depends what you buy I guess but 45k sounds enough to make an ifa a no brainer, theres no rule you have to take his advice and the fee is inconsequential to that amount

dunstonh

Short term something boring like index linked bonds from nsi might be the easiest choice while leaving the future open to options

That is the sort of thing I would consider for short term. Can be held on behalf of someone else, tax free, secure for the short term and hedging nicely against the risk of inflation.

987654

Have you also checked with his pension provider if there is any monthly payment due whilst he is still in education (if he is)?

shelly2jn

Hi everyone, thank you all so much for taking the time to read and reply to my first post. Just to clarify the situation a little bit, my son's father and I never married, we split up when Adam was just a toddler. There was no will left (he was only 37 when he died) and as his closest relative, Adam gets everything.

The solicitor dealing with his estate made (as far as we know) little effort to find us (we're in the phone book) and we only found out that he had died a year and a half after the fact. When we did find out (through the CSA) the solicitor wrote to us to tell us that there was £4000 in cash to be held in trush for Adam until he is 18.

Who made that decision etc I don't know. We still have a lot of unanswered questions and I'm the verge of employing my own solicitor to look further into the matter. The solicitor also sent us a further letter last week to tell us that a cheque would be forwarded to Adam within the next 5 working days from the pension company. I'm guessing at the sums involved but if it's anything like my own pension that's roughly how much it could be. Of course it could be more or less, we won't know until we get it.

Any further advice is gratefully recieved.