What percentage of Britons do/don't inherit?

tea_lover

Bit OT but Briton is a standard phrase, am surprised people haven't heard it.

buglawton

No this is not a project, merely a bit of personal social research and something to discuss on MSE

The phrase "The percentage of adults receiving an inheritance valued at £1,000 or more in the two year period was 3.6% - or 1.6 million adults" in the PDF doc I linked to in opening post does not make that much sense to me.
Hence I wanted to find stats that include everyone, not just those that do inherit something.

Errata

Plenty of people inherit circa £1k and mum's best tea service. It won't be recorded anywhere.

buglawton

Just thought of another statistic - how many people inherit their parents debts?

silverwhistle

As far as I know you can't, although in certain circumstances you may feel it morally preferable to discharge some personal type debt.

It's an interesting question. Other related questions: how many "children" will only become property owners on the back of their parents property, where does that leave those without?

I know I'm in someone's will, but not being part of that upper middle class where inheriting the estate is important it's not something I've taken into account in my financial planning! In any case, if necessary, nursing home fees come first...

cat04

I'm an English female and inherited from my Nan last year as did my children (They got half what my brother and I got which was a 'decent' amount). I'm 99% sure I'll inherit from my Grandma and even if there's nothing specific in her will my dad will pass something to my brother and I as that's just the way he is. I'll also inherit from my parents unless either they 'squander' the lot over the next 20 years (which I would love them to do, they deserve to go out with a bang so to speak after all they've done to raise and support me), or they need to pay for care home fees if necessary (hoping this won't ever be a choice for us/them).

I know I'm extremely lucky and I don't ever see it as my 'right' to inherit anything from anyone, not even my parents. I'm also lucky that all members of my family who I have/could inherit from have a) been on the property ladder with mortgage paid off and b) were able to save and have made wise investments over the years.

I own (with mortgage) my own property so have that regardless of any property my parents may or may nor leave me. We're also hoping that when our children are old enough we can help get them on to the property ladder (if they need our help!) so won't have to wait until I pop off to own a home

Interesting topic.

[Deleted User]

To confuse things; I asked my grandma 7 years ago if I could have the 'ring-fenced' part of my inheritance in advance, to put towards a house deposit. I'm not sure if anyone has altered her will to reflect that I've used my set amount though.

Cheers Grandma!

getmore4less

buglawton wrote: »

Just thought of another statistic - how many people inherit their parents debts?

You don't inherit debt.
an insolvent estate is best left to the creditors to sort out.

don't look for stats look for data that you can use to work things out.