Advice needed regarding £250,000

Chrystal

Temporary protection
Bank or building society customers who come into a large sum of money are also given an extra degree of temporary protection.
"Depositors with temporary high balances will be covered up to £1 million for six months from the date on which the money is transferred into their account, or the date on which the depositor becomes entitled to the amount, whichever is later," the Bank of England said.
"This is to ensure that depositors are protected when they deposit funds over the limit as a result of specified events, including following a house sale or funds received from a ‘life event’ such as a divorce settlement or inheritance, for a period of time until they have had sufficient time to spread the risk between institutions to appropriately protect these funds."

ChesterDog

In an NS&I account there is no limit to the protection by timescale or amount.

It is not a bank as such, but an agency of the UK Treasury.

So that covers their Direct Saver, Income Bond, Premium Bonds and so on.

Edit: I think they don't allow balances of more than two million pounds though (for completeness).

xylophone

People have mentioned Financial Advisors, is there any way of knowing how independant/good they are?

http://societyoflaterlifeadvisers.co.uk/

may be worth a look.

AnotherJoe

Chrystal wrote: »

Temporary protection
Bank or building society customers who come into a large sum of money are also given an extra degree of temporary protection.
"Depositors with temporary high balances will be covered up to £1 million for six months from the date on which the money is transferred into their account, or the date on which the depositor becomes entitled to the amount, whichever is later," the Bank of England said.
"This is to ensure that depositors are protected when they deposit funds over the limit as a result of specified events, including following a house sale or funds received from a ‘life event’ such as a divorce settlement or inheritance, for a period of time until they have had sufficient time to spread the risk between institutions to appropriately protect these funds."

As said by Chesterdog, put it in an NS&I account (or indeed two, one for each of you). There is absolutely no timescale you have to "do something" with this money and you can do what you want with it when you want you most certainly do not need to rush into doing anything.

Then you can think about it. If you don't want to buy a bungalow, then you can just spend the money down.

It's very sad that this is stressing you out, there's no need for that at all, it should be a huge burden off you, you can get the help you want when you want and if a bungalow is affordable, one of those as well !

Chrystal

Thanks for all the advice everyone, it's much appreciated and I've taken on board everything that's been said.

Will let you know in due course how it all works out.