Inheritance

keanobakedbeano

My sister and I are about to inherit my Uncle's estate which includes 4 properties (in France, Holland and Malta) and assets contained in a Maltese trust. To avoid double tax on the proceeds from the property sales, we will receive the majority of the total sales directly. After tax we should each reveive around £1.25m. Would anyone know the best way to split this interms of % into a new house, vs into investments. My wife and I currenttly have a flat with 350k equity so would like to put a lot into a new home, but how much should be mortgaged if any? 

p00hsticks

Welcome to the forum, but with that sort of money involved, in your shoes I'd be paying for professional financial ladvice rather than asking  random strangers over the internet....

eskbanker

keanobakedbeano said:

After tax we should each reveive around £1.25m. Would anyone know the best way to split this interms of % into a new house, vs into investments. My wife and I currenttly have a flat with 350k equity so would like to put a lot into a new home, but how much should be mortgaged if any? 

As above, professional advice is likely to be beneficial, but its starting point would be to look at your financial circumstances in significantly more detail before making any recommendations, so you'd need to consider a wide range of factors including age, health, family, income, job security, pension provision, other assets, risk tolerance, etc, etc.

Albermarle

For any sensible comment you would need to supply a lot more info about yourselves ( as above )

Keep_pedalling

Where was your uncle resident?

LHW99

Assuming the executors will be dealing with any tax issues, so that you receive the inheritance as sterling, and no further tax due:

Put it directly into at least two easy access accounts (be aware some will have maximum deposit amounts). I believe up to 1m may all be covered for 12 months by the FSCS under their temporary high balance provision

https://www.fscs.org.uk/media/press/2020/aug/thb-coverage-extended/

Then as said above, work out details of you current financial / life position and what you would like it to become, and look for a local IFA (I = independent) (make sure of the I) to get suitable regulated advice.

Linton

keanobakedbeano said:

My sister and I are about to inherit my Uncle's estate which includes 4 properties (in France, Holland and Malta) and assets contained in a Maltese trust. To avoid double tax on the proceeds from the property sales, we will receive the majority of the total sales directly. After tax we should each reveive around £1.25m. Would anyone know the best way to split this interms of % into a new house, vs into investments. My wife and I currenttly have a flat with 350k equity so would like to put a lot into a new home, but how much should be mortgaged if any? 

No one, including an advisor, can come to any rational conclusion unless you know what you want the money for, how much, and when.

In particular how much do you want to spend on the new house?  Perhaps you are working and want to retire immediately.  How much income will you need?  Perhaps you want to make gifts to family? Any other major expenses? Perhaps there are expensive debts to pay off.  Perhaps....   Only you can decide this. There is no best answer. It could be whatever you want.

Only then can an advisor suggest how you manage your money to maximise the chances that you achieve what you want.

poseidon1

I concur with the strong suggestions that you need good professional advice, and potentially not just on how to deploy your windfall.

You may not be aware, but the UK has a very complex anti -avoidance  tax regime where benefits from offshore trusts are concerned.

On the assumption that the Maltease trust paid no Maltease income or capital gains tax during its exsistence, the exit of cash in favour of UK resident and domiciled beneficiaries could give rise to significant UK tax liabilities thereon. A typical UK IFA maybe wholly unaware of these issues.

MX5huggy

I normally think people are too wedded to the pay off the mortgage to be mortgage free ASAP at the expense of not investing enough in pensions. 

As others have said not enough information. But I think I would be planning to little or no mortgage because any money invested is not going to be tax wrapped and paying 40% tax on that income will mean the chances of earning more than the interest you would paying on any mortgage is minimal.