Inheritance question

mountainofdebt

I always thought an individual could set up a power of attorney for their own affairs when they were fully aware of what they were doing so that it could be 'activiated' in the event that they became incapable of dealing with their affairs themselves.

If they hadn't set one up then the court of protection steps in.

I think the issue here is not that the children will split the inheritance, but that they will have access to the funds almost immediately.

Kavanne

Due to some !!!! up I got my inheritance at 14. This was obviously incorrect and due to terrible solicitors (luckily I was sensible) so be very careful with choosing solicitors.

shirlgirl2004

Thanks to those mentioning Power of Attorney. You are correct it does not apply, but my sister and I have interim Deputyship (essentially the same as POA) for our brother's personal and financial affairs. In the application to the Court of Protection we asked for the ability to set up trust funds as appropraite for his children but as we only have the interim order we don't know if this will be included in the full order. We were given the interim order as our brother has his own business and we needed to be able to sort things out. The interim order doesn't mention the trust fund issue at all. We don't know when the full order will be made but the interim order runs out in November.

patchwork_cat

Children under 18 can not inherit until they reach majority as they cannot sign for receipt. It will therefore go into trust for them until they are 18.

mogadon

This happened to a relative of mine, he was 15 when his parents died intestate. It was a large inheritance and though he is a sensible kid, no-one wanted him to receive it at 18, and the family tried to find a way to put it in trust until he was at least 21. There was no way round it though, so instead they tied as much of the actual cash as possible up in things like bonds, which wouldn't mature until he was 21. In theory he could have cashed things in, but in practice he wasn't daft, and could see how much he would lose by doing that. So he has left them all to mature. They also opened a pension for him and paid the max into that each year. So again, he got control, of that at 18, but can't acces the cash.