Unmarried with children - no will

POPPYOSCAR

EachPenny wrote: »

Maybe you missed the point - you can't have no knowledge 'at all' about someone's financial affairs, but still have a joint account with them. Not possible.

I think you are being a bit pedantic here.

I agree with Security Guy.

You can have a joint account and yet not know the financial affairs of the person you have it with.

They could have assets in many other places.

Newly_retired

Very true.
I am very MSE and have lots of current accounts, regular savers etc and money moves frequently between them. Many of them are paperless.

DH, on the other hand, has one account and an ISA. I run the joint account into which we each pay a certain sum to cover regular outgoings.

After that, we each organise our own finances. He is a spender, I am a saver. Neither of us has much idea about the other's finances. We each have children from previous marriages and help them out from time to time, but that is private, though I do keep records. DH was executor of his mother's estate which I know almost nothing about, which is fine. I know the house has not been sold, and I know he spends money on repairs etc.
So we have every reason to know very little about each other's finances. He would probably not tell me if I were to ask. I know I would find it difficult to sort if he were to die first. Fortunately, I don't expect IHT to be an issue. But completing probate forms will not be easy.

Keep_pedalling

Newly_retired wrote: »

Very true.
I am very MSE and have lots of current accounts, regular savers etc and money moves frequently between them. Many of them are paperless.

DH, on the other hand, has one account and an ISA. I run the joint account into which we each pay a certain sum to cover regular outgoings.

After that, we each organise our own finances. He is a spender, I am a saver. Neither of us has much idea about the other's finances. We each have children from previous marriages and help them out from time to time, but that is private, though I do keep records. DH was executor of his mother's estate which I know almost nothing about, which is fine. I know the house has not been sold, and I know he spends money on repairs etc.
So we have every reason to know very little about each other's finances. He would probably not tell me if I were to ask. I know I would find it difficult to sort if he were to die first. Fortunately, I don't expect IHT to be an issue. But completing probate forms will not be easy.

In the past couple of years we have been simplifying things as much as possible. All bank accounts are joint, and we only have two. We both hold individual general investment accounts and ISAs, but they all sit within a wrapper under management of our IFA, so there is just one point of contact there. We keep a spreadsheet with all our gifting records for the past 7 years, and a copy of this sits with our IFA and another is sent to our solicitor to keep with the will.

Should either of us suddenly kick the bucket or become incapacitated, everything should be extremely simple for our executors / attorneys.

I do still have some cash in P2P which I have been running down, but a couple of bad debts sitting in there is preventing a complete closure of those.

That might seem a little extreme and not very MSE, but when you are past saving and on to draw down and IHT reduction, I prefer simplicity to chasing interest rates around.

securityguy

"In the past couple of years we have been simplifying things as much as possible"

Sure. But it's rather harder to do that in your forties or fifties.

Sea_Shell

Ours would be a pain in the **** if something were to happen to both of us, together. But we both know everything about each others finances (even though i'm the "Accounts Manager"), so that'd be OK.

zagfles

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

It may be OK between spouses but with the number of unmarried couples it can be a serious problem.

Well I'm glad you accept that now after calling it "complete nonsense" earlier in the thread

Yorkshireman99

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

In the past couple of years we have been simplifying things as much as possible. All bank accounts are joint, and we only have two. We both hold individual general investment accounts and ISAs, but they all sit within a wrapper under management of our IFA, so there is just one point of contact there. We keep a spreadsheet with all our gifting records for the past 7 years, and a copy of this sits with our IFA and another is sent to our solicitor to keep with the will.

Should either of us suddenly kick the bucket or become incapacitated, everything should be extremely simple for our executors / attorneys.

I do still have some cash in P2P which I have been running down, but a couple of bad debts sitting in there is preventing a complete closure of those.

That might seem a little extreme and not very MSE, but when you are past saving and on to draw down and IHT reduction, I prefer simplicity to chasing interest rates around.

Just common sense really. I don't have a wife or partner and two ancient cousins are my only relatives. However, I have arranged my finances with the full knowledge of my heirs who are also my executors. They also have LPOA's. This may be unusual but I doubt it is a unique situation. It is obviously in their interests to be fully informed and involved.