inheritance nightmare?

akkida

Hi,

I have just been over to canada from the uk looking after my dying father, who died while I was there. We are now starting to settle the estate. he has left each of the siblings money and 3 of us are to split the house. one of my sisters and family want to buy the house off myself and brother. They are getting a mortgage to do this. Basically my questions are (and I am on incapacity benefit at the moment and am not used to large sums of money!)

What do I need to do? Within the next few months, large checks (in canadian currency) will be appearing at my doorstep. It should be eventually in the region of £80,000. Does anyone have any advice about:

- the best place to deposit the money and what this entails
-possible ways to invest it for myself and young daughter? (I don't want to blow it all at once)
-possibly buying a property, getting a mortgage etc (i don't work, but would be interested in starting maybe a home business)


I have never been rich enough to have a mortgage, buy a property and have no experience of investment savings etc.

Would also like to know where I stand tax wise. I have only ever had small part time jobs so tax related things have always been relatively simple.

any advice appreciated!!

B.E.N

Hi, I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

I can't advise on where to invest your money, hopefully one of the resident Financial Advisors can help you with that, but I can offer you one important piece of advise - don't just pay the cheque into a normal bank account. The bank will be at liberty to choose whatever exchange rate you like, and you can be guaranteed that this won't be in your favour. As this is a large sum of money, you would be wise to consult a specialist foreign currency conversion company.

This type of company advertise on websites and in publications aimed at soon-to-be expats (e.g. Brits moving into the Eurozone), and it would be worth contacting some of these companies to see whether you can get a better exchange rate than from your high street bank.

Good Luck