Have you received an inheritance when your Parents/Grandparents passed away?

Papa was a Rolling Stone.

Sort of.

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Nothing from my parents. I’d have to go into their life story as to why …but I did get left £500 from an Uncle many years back.

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A few grand from an aunt, I don’t know what happened to my father’s money, he remarried and she passed it on …

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Mum used to give us money over the years (which apparently Dad wasn’t too happy about), so we were able to enjoy it and spend as we liked. By the time mum passed away, (dad having gone some years earlier) there wasn’t that much left in her accounts, so we only got a few thousand each (split between the four of us). All homes had been sold so she was in a council flat at the end (sheltered housing), and her car had been written off in the accident she had the week before.

There may not have been a fortune in her estate, but she lived very comfortably, enjoyed her holidays (we went on a fair few cheapish cruises), and bought good food.

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For the up-coming generation, the Gen Z, they are about to be on the receiving end of the Great Wealth Transfer - coming from the estates of the baby-boomer generation. This is estimated to be $65 trillion of movement in the US and £5,5 trillion in the UK.
Unfortunately it will be concentrated on the lucky few and can’t be called wealth redistribution. And for most in this forum it will not benefit us.

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Hmmm … there must be millions of boomers with property worth hundreds of thousands divided by 2.4 equals enough to keep the future property market active.

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It’s a long story, but in short, yes. Very much so. I have never really recovered from it all.

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Let’s just say there was no sadness in me when my father died.
The opposite really. I felt relieved that we never had to interact again and I was able to get on with my life.

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It seems likely that it will be some inheriting the value of a little London house that is currently worth £2-3m, some sharing with a couple of siblings the value of a home counties house worth £1m, and lots inheriting pretty much nothing. Or some mix a bit like that.
So property market remains inflated, as you point out, and remains inaccessible for most.

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@Bretrick My father was dead as I passed my 5th birthday, so I was then raised by my paternal grandparents because mother was war damaged. Grandfather died before I became engaged but, in his will, he left me a most welcome £1k for a house deposit. I put that to very good use and from other sources of income I had an excellent 25% deposit for my 1st house mortgage. I’ve never looked back in a financial sense ever since.
One superb move later and that 1st house sold for an unbelievable sum and thus enabled me to buy a huge double fronted Victorian villa of 3 floors + a semi basement in need of renovation. It was SO large I gave my Nan💞 an apartment of her own within the property to enjoy her last years secure and protected from external influences.
Could I have done all of the above without My Grandad’s legacy? I very much doubt it and for his kindness I remain eternally grateful. Did his actions rub off on me? Yes, it did and now all of my children have a house of their own or rather live in a house owned by my family’s property trust with only a small rent to cover maintenance & insurance. I have 2 married Grandchildren and they too enjoy a secure house for a very small rent; also as other marry they too will be given a low-rent property.

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Mum passed away last october,
I didnt think she even had a will…

My parents never had much, not even their own house
So i was surprised when i received a cheque through the post ,
Quite a fair amount , and there are 5 other siblings !

Unless i was the only one that received it, as i was the youngest and favourite
I will never know !!

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Psalm* 145:4 . "One generation commends your works, to another.
They tell of your mighty acts.
Let each generation, tell its children,of your mighty acts.
Let them proclaim your power.
Care Homes. Extortionately Changed all that.
Which is why. I wont be found in one.

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It was relatively easy for our generation to get a foot on the property ladder. Nowadays, for many young people, unless they can get their hands on parents money in advance of them dying off, shared ownership can be the only way forward.

Now many in shared ownership feel trapped, ripped of!

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If anyone remembers, my flat in London was shared ownership. We were staggered when an outside company brought the ever decreasing lease to our attention, making us think about it and then find the funds for an extension. (Many ex neighbours still haven’t done theirs, and they are heading towards the current lease being at just 70 years). We were often reminded by the housing association we were liable for 5% of planned works. Our yearly accounts would invariably show a deficit in the budget so we would have to cough up. No argument, it was taken in a lump sum. If work was carried out in an adjacent block we were all liable for the costs. (So this all went on the yearly accounts). And any work was usually over the top in costs.

I lived there for 25.5 years. It was good in the beginning, the novelty of a brand new home, but there were so many restrictions. We weren’t allowed our own satellite dish but had to pay a ‘line rental’ cost to a communal one. I was glad to sell it and move away.

My Uncle Leslie he died in January and my Aunty Betty had died many years ago and suffered ill health sadly.
No children as they could not have any.
…They moved to Australia in the 50’s on the £10 ticket offered at the time and settled happily mostly.
So now there are 3 of us to share his estate. My sibling is dealing with the communications to Aussie and it is held up now because of difficulty in tracing the 3rd person in the Will…A cousin of Uncles whom he had not had contact with previously for around 6/7 years.
We were told she came from Herne Bay but then out of the blue came a fact that she lived in Camden and she was a named a Miss.
… I searched within the Camden Council BMD site and found someone had died with the same name. On filling in the form to receive a death certificate I had to pick a death date which of course I had no idea…I got accepted ok to receive this cert. and emailed the office explaining that I had to guess a death date…Its on its way to me here in France now so this could be the one and then we can move forward for Probate…

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Sometimes these ‘out of the blue’ inheritances can happen. Many years ago my mother got a letter from a Canadian lawyer about a long, lost cousin. This cousin had moved to Canada in the 50’s, pretty much stopped all contact with his family and it seems lived a fairly solitary life - no family of his own. And he did not have a will when he died. So his estate (not much) was divided equally between his living cousins. The lawyers just had to find them. All 7 of them - spread across Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. I think my mother got a few thousand pounds but after a long delay.

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Yes well I was very young when they left for Aussie land and there was also reasons my Sis and I did not spend any time with Uncle Leslie and Aunty Betty…she was my late Mothers only sibling and Aunty Betty was left just about nil when there Mother and Father had passed away…So she got it just about all. Hardware Store in West Wickham called at the time Shirley Hardware Stores and a Property in New Haven they had retired to… also to be near his good sailing mucker…Mostly my family are very disjointed…You don’t choose them and I would not for sure.

Plus, of course, back in the 50’s and 60’s it was not quite a simple to keep connected. Or, rather, more easy to completely drop connections. In addition this was an era of many moving out to places like Canada and Australia - not exactly down the road. I’m quite certain that I’ve second cousins all over the world that I’ve no knowledge of.

Does male pattern baldness count?

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Since getting into Husbands Ancestry which I will call mine as well…
We have hundreds in New Zealand…Coromandel the Gold Rush Town as it was back in the 19th Century Husbands 3rd Gt Grandfather was William W. and He married Marie Anne Aumonier …French… and then one of his sons Frederick born 1824 went to Coromandel in the mid 1800’s .Purely a move for the gold prospecting…He made a fortune and settled there for his lifetime…He put so much back into the community that they honoured him with a house a statue and a avenue named after him…Keltic Fair in his vast garden every year with the taking going to Charity aimed at the Old and less Fortunates in the area.
Firlawn House with one of the first Churches right next to his house.
When I have tried talk to relatives about these Ancestors, the only real response is…When you find the gold I will be interested… :woman_shrugging:


The Fair is still held to this day but it has been re located to a nearby school I understand…They had been restoring Firlawn House as well quite recently as it did get into a lot of disrepair since Frederick W had passed away…