Beneficiary of will lives overseas. Who pays exchange rate fees on money sent?

EzraHawkwind

I'm assuming that the transfer fee would come from the estate, but the beneficiary would pay the exchange rate fee and any bank fees their end, but just checking.

I am also a beneficiary, but in the UK.

Thank you.

SiliconChip

I was Executor for my mum's Will earlier this year, and one of the benficiaries (grandchild) lives overseas. What I did was transfer the whole sterling sum due to her to my WISE account (using Faster Payment so no charge for that) then WISE deducted their charge and converted the remainder into the foreign currency and did the transfer to the grandchild's overseas bank account. Using WISE you get close to the best exchange rate possible, the fee was £190 to send a payment of £53,000.

EzraHawkwind

Thank you very much for your response. Did the beneficiary pay the exchange rate fee?

msb1234

I transferred by brother in law’s inheritance from our joint account to his in Canada via Barclays. It was £12k and it cost less than £50, which came out of his £12k. 

CKhalvashi

msb1234 said:

I transferred by brother in law’s inheritance from our joint account to his in Canada via Barclays. It was £12k and it cost less than £50, which came out of his £12k. 

But it won't have been a les than £50 charge, the amount would be deducted further in a poor exchange rate that is not transparant at all.

As above, I'd use Wise as they are consistently cheapest for me in international transfers.

msb1234

CKhalvashi said:

msb1234 said:

I transferred by brother in law’s inheritance from our joint account to his in Canada via Barclays. It was £12k and it cost less than £50, which came out of his £12k. 

But it won't have been a les than £50 charge, the amount would be deducted further in a poor exchange rate that is not transparant at all.

As above, I'd use Wise as they are consistently cheapest for me in international transfers.

The actual amount he received equated to £12k less the transaction fee.

SiliconChip

msb1234 said:

CKhalvashi said:

msb1234 said:

I transferred by brother in law’s inheritance from our joint account to his in Canada via Barclays. It was £12k and it cost less than £50, which came out of his £12k. 

But it won't have been a les than £50 charge, the amount would be deducted further in a poor exchange rate that is not transparant at all.

As above, I'd use Wise as they are consistently cheapest for me in international transfers.

The actual amount he received equated to £12k less the transaction fee.

But that was £12K converted to CAD at the Barclays exchange rate, which would have been a lot poorer than the rate used by WISE.

SiliconChip

EzraHawkwind said:

Thank you very much for your response. Did the beneficiary pay the exchange rate fee?

You'll have to explain what you think you mean by "exchange rate fee" because my post explains exactly how the transfer worked. Alternatively you can look up for yourself what happens at https://wise.com/

msb1234

SiliconChip said:

msb1234 said:

CKhalvashi said:

msb1234 said:

I transferred by brother in law’s inheritance from our joint account to his in Canada via Barclays. It was £12k and it cost less than £50, which came out of his £12k. 

But it won't have been a les than £50 charge, the amount would be deducted further in a poor exchange rate that is not transparant at all.

As above, I'd use Wise as they are consistently cheapest for me in international transfers.

The actual amount he received equated to £12k less the transaction fee.

But that was £12K converted to CAD at the Barclays exchange rate, which would have been a lot poorer than the rate used by WISE.

Nope, my brother in law is an accountant in Canada. He checked very carefully the best was to transfer the money as he does this quite regularly. 

AnnieB2018

The beneficiary living abroad pays all costs associated with any ‘extras’ required to distribute funds to them. So if each beneficiary gets £10k and the estate pays £25 bank fee for each payment, then that’s exactly what the beneficiary living abroad gets - £10k.
It would be a good idea to discuss the most cost effective method of sending that money to them - Revolut, Wise, Post Office, cash, whatever other platform, probably not the high street bank which will take 2.5% exchange fee. Unless that is what the beneficiary requests or if that is the only option.

CKhalvashi

msb1234 said:

SiliconChip said:

msb1234 said:

CKhalvashi said:

msb1234 said:

I transferred by brother in law’s inheritance from our joint account to his in Canada via Barclays. It was £12k and it cost less than £50, which came out of his £12k. 

But it won't have been a les than £50 charge, the amount would be deducted further in a poor exchange rate that is not transparant at all.

As above, I'd use Wise as they are consistently cheapest for me in international transfers.

The actual amount he received equated to £12k less the transaction fee.

But that was £12K converted to CAD at the Barclays exchange rate, which would have been a lot poorer than the rate used by WISE.

Nope, my brother in law is an accountant in Canada. He checked very carefully the best was to transfer the money as he does this quite regularly. 

That's not beyond the realms of possibility, but I would deem it highly unlikely.

In any event, Wise offer a live check service against bank rates. Banks in general rarely come under 1% in terms of their margin, where Wise is very often under 0.5% in my experience when it comes to larger amounts.

To send £1000 to CAD now, I'd pay £4.49 (0.449%). The best bank on this list (Lloyds) would give $1488 instead of $1549.