Receiving a gift of money after death

monty-doggy

Hello I’m not sure if this is in the right place but I’m hoping someone can advise. 

My grandfather in law died yesterday and he and his wife had a large sum of money stashed at home as well as savings and a normal bank account.
my grandmother in law doesn’t feel safe at home with the cash abs doesn’t need it and has asked if she can gift it to my 6 year old daughter.
Am I allowed to accept this? Will it raise questions if I suddenly open a bank account for her with a large amount of money? If questioned how do I explain it? I’m not well up on these things and don’t want my grandmother to be in any trouble for having cash savings. 

These savings are from a private pension and they don’t receive any benefits for clarity. 

Thank you. 

cymruchris

Are we talking hundreds? thousands? hundreds of thousands? If you can give a little context it might give an idea as to how easy it would be to open an account and deposit the money for your daughter  She has the right to give her money to whoever she wants of course - won't it be placed in something like a trust fund though until your daughter is 18?

monty-doggy

cymruchris said:

Are we talking hundreds? thousands? hundreds of thousands? If you can give a little context it might give an idea as to how easy it would be to open an account and deposit the money for your daughter  She has the right to give her money to whoever she wants of course - won't it be placed in something like a trust fund though until your daughter is 18?

Around £20k yes it will be in a proper account.

Sea_Shell

There are 2 parts to this I believe.     The ownership of the money and the gifting of the money.

Was this money jointly owned by both your GFIL and your GMIL, or if not (eg it had completely from his pensions or an account solely in his name) did he have a will or would intestacy apply?    Who is the executor or administrator?

If the money was jointly owned, or your GMIL is due to inherit it all anyway, then it sounds like it is hers to gift, if she chooses.

Once it's established that the money is hers, then of course she can choose to gift it, subject to the usual caveats surrounding IHT and deprivation of assets.

As for depositing the cash, it might be best to have her write a letter along with the cash, confirming the gift and that it was from savings and saved pension income.    Each bank will have their own procedures about accepting large cash deposits, so best check with them.

sassyblue

What other family is there? I’d be very wary about taking that money if there are other grandchildren because their parents are likely to kick off as they didn’t receive anything and they found out.  That’s an awful lot of money to give away within hours of her husband’s death you need to let things settle before properly accepting it. Plus, what other money does grandmother in law have access to, you can’t accept it if she doesn’t have much else, you just need to make sure it’s banked properly.

sheramber

She doesn't need to have it at home. get her to put in a bank account or buy premium bonds with it.
She may not need it now but can you guarantee she won't need it in the future. 
if there is a possibility of inheritance tax then there needs to be record kept in case she dies within 7 years of gifting it.

AskAsk

if the money belongs to the deceased, arguably it should be part of the estate for inheritance sharing.  if you put more than 10k of cash into a bank account, you will be asked where the funds come from and the bank may alert HMRC for money laundering or proceeds of crime.  the amount could be less than this for the bank to question the origin of the cash.

certainly putting this much cash into a child's account would raise enquiries.

wilfred30

It sounds a bit dodgy to me.  There's no reason why she couldn't put the money into her own account as she already has a savings account.

I agree that, if there are other family members, they may well take a dim view of the arrangement.

elsien

Given that he’s only just passed and she may well be in shock, I would suggest she takes some time to properly think about what she wants to do.
Does his will leave everything to her or are there any other beneficiaries? 
She can put the money into her bank for now then gift it later if she still wishes to do so. 

burlingtonfl6

AskAsk said:

if the money belongs to the deceased, arguably it should be part of the estate for inheritance sharing.  if you put more than 10k of cash into a bank account, you will be asked where the funds come from and the bank may alert HMRC for money laundering or proceeds of crime.  the amount could be less than this for the bank to question the origin of the cash.

certainly putting this much cash into a child's account would raise enquiries.

HSBC asked me to supply an invoice for a mountain bike I sold on ebay when I tried to put the cash in my account. It was just over a grand!

AskAsk

burlingtonfl6 said:

AskAsk said:

if the money belongs to the deceased, arguably it should be part of the estate for inheritance sharing.  if you put more than 10k of cash into a bank account, you will be asked where the funds come from and the bank may alert HMRC for money laundering or proceeds of crime.  the amount could be less than this for the bank to question the origin of the cash.

certainly putting this much cash into a child's account would raise enquiries.

HSBC asked me to supply an invoice for a mountain bike I sold on ebay when I tried to put the cash in my account. It was just over a grand!

i did say that the bank could ask about the source of the cash for amounts less than 10k.  it all depends on your activity history as unusual transactions will start off the automated fraud process and so if you have never put much cash into your account before then you may be asked as why the unusual activity, but if your account is normally credited with cash, then they won't ask as it is not flagged up on the system as unusual and that a manual check is needed.

10k is the amount that would definitely alert the system, irrespective of your activity history.  i often credit my bank with cash so it never gets flagged up.  the most i have put in is £3k in any one transaction and it was never queried.  my husband did try to credit his bank account with 7k once and they asked him where he got the money from, but when he explained where the money came from, they were fine.  that was HSBC.