Please help re investing assets from probate

Tabby026 · 23 September 2015 at 10:22PM

Hi
My father passed away a couple of weeks ago. Everything has been left to my mother. His sole assets need to go to probate, as he had £125000 in a stocks and shares and also other cash ISAs, 17000 in bonds and 5000 in premium bonds.

My mum will get half of his work pension which only works out to £460 per month, so she was wondering if the capital from probate could go into an investment that would give her a monthly or annual income?

She also has £85,000 in various fixed rate cash ISAs, so was wondering if that could also be combined with the above assets to go towards a monthly or annual income for her?

Any advice would be gravely appreciated, as she doesn't know what to do for the best. Would it be worth her seeing a financial adviser? How much do they charge?

PeacefulWaters · 24 September 2015 at 3:01AM

An IFA (emphasis on the "I") would be where to turn.

Www.unbiased.co.uk would be where to find one. Don't see an adviser employed by a bank.

I'd expect charges to be £1,500 or less. These should be stated up front as part of an initial (free) consultation. I'd expect a couple of simple tax planning arrangements within the advice to more than recover this.

How old is Mum?

Tabby026 · 24 September 2015 at 6:06AM

She is 61, and does not receive an old age pension until 2019.

Al. · 24 September 2015 at 6:09AM

Tabby026 wrote: »

Hi
My father passed away a couple of weeks ago. Everything has been left to my mother. His sole assets need to go to probate, as he had £125000 in a stocks and shares and also other cash ISAs, 17000 in bonds and 5000 in premium bonds.

My mum will get half of his work pension which only works out to £460 per month, so she was wondering if the capital from probate could go into an investment that would give her a monthly or annual income?

She also has £85,000 in various fixed rate cash ISAs, so was wondering if that could also be combined with the above assets to go towards a monthly or annual income for her?

Any advice would be gravely appreciated, as she doesn't know what to do for the best. Would it be worth her seeing a financial adviser? How much do they charge?

Tabby,

Depending on your mum's age and condition, she could further filter out her request by sifting through advisers who specialise in later life planning. You should ask the adviser if he/she is suitably qualified for later life care. I'm not - these days, it's a speciality in its own right. Something like this might help (in itself, not a guarantee of better advice, I should point out as a caveat).

http://societyoflaterlifeadvisers.co.uk

In respect of the money which your mother now has available, you should expect the adviser to treat it differently than an adviser who might be advising a client in, for instance, their thirties. That might sound a lot like common sense, but sequential risk is now (imo) the investing enemy for your mum. Some advisers (and I stand by to be corrected by my peers) fail to take this into account.

Dealing with money is always a worry, I hope you get a sympathetic and considerate service at this especially difficult time.

Playing_with_Fire_2 · 24 September 2015 at 10:53AM

She will also need to think about whether she would prefer to have a guaranteed annuity payment, or invest in assets such as stocks and bonds which can also provide an income, but it would vary and she may need to sell some assets in poorly performing years.

A good IFA /later life adviser will help her with this. But it will be useful if she has an idea of what her preference is. Depending on her circumstances, there may be no right or wrong answer, just a personal preference.

Also remember that she can go to an IFA for advice but manage the money herself. She isn't obligated to invest through the same IFA.