Latest / Merryn Talks Money / Don't Leave Your Family a Nightmare When You Die

Transcript

Don't Leave Your Family a Nightmare When You Die · Merryn Talks Money

0:02
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
0:08
Speaker 2: Hello listeners, Now, before we get started with this week's
0:10
Speaker 2: Marin Talks Your Money Personal Finance episode, in ernest I
0:14
Speaker 2: want to address a correction we've issued for our last
0:17
Speaker 2: personal Finance episode in that we talked about VCTs. It
0:21
Speaker 2: was super interesting, strongly recommend you listen, but one of
0:25
Speaker 2: our brilliant listeners wrote in to point out that there
0:27
Speaker 2: was an inaccuracy in the original podcast. We've got into
0:30
Speaker 2: all sorts of things, we have an excitable conversation and
0:33
Speaker 2: along the way, our guest said that you can roll
0:36
Speaker 2: previous capital gains into a VCT. Now what team meant
0:40
Speaker 2: is that you can roll gains from one VCT into
0:44
Speaker 2: another VCT CGT free. What you cannot do is roll
0:50
Speaker 2: over capital gains on other assets that you have sold
0:53
Speaker 2: into a VCT, so two separate things. We've taken that
0:57
Speaker 2: inaccuracy out of the podcast, but in case you listened
1:00
Speaker 2: to it when you first came out and wanted to
1:02
Speaker 2: make sure that you are aware of that fix. And obviously,
1:05
Speaker 2: of course, if you are doing anything remotely complicated with
1:08
Speaker 2: your finances, do talk to when IFA first. Right onto
1:12
Speaker 2: this week's episode, Welcome to Meron Talks your Money, the
1:25
Speaker 2: personal finance edition of Merin Talks Money. In these bonus podcasts,
1:28
Speaker 2: we talk about the best strategies for making the most
1:31
Speaker 2: of your money. I'm merenzum Zutweb and this week we
1:34
Speaker 2: have invited an expert to help us with our topic
1:36
Speaker 2: of the week. Now it doesn't sound attractive, but trust me,
1:39
Speaker 2: it's very important. The topic is this how to prepare
1:43
Speaker 2: for death. With me, I have Matthew Hutton, author of
1:47
Speaker 2: Your Last Gift Getting Your Affairs in Order. Now, there's
1:50
Speaker 2: a website for this as well. I want you to
1:52
Speaker 2: go and look at www dot your Last giftbook. Dot
1:57
Speaker 2: Com goes with the book, updates the book along the
1:59
Speaker 2: way because, as you know, regulation, tax or etc. Always changing. Anyway,
2:04
Speaker 2: Matthew is here with me today. The book it aims
2:06
Speaker 2: to be concise, comprehensive. It's a pretty quick read. It's
2:09
Speaker 2: only one hundred and twenty pages, but it's full of
2:12
Speaker 2: really practical advice, easy to follow instructions on how to
2:15
Speaker 2: prepare yourself for pretty much the one certainty in life.
2:19
Speaker 2: So here we go. Welcome Matthew, Thank you for joining
2:22
Speaker 2: us today.
2:23
Speaker 3: Marin, thank you so much. It's really great to be
2:25
Speaker 3: with you.
2:26
Speaker 2: Oh you're nice.
2:27
Speaker 1: Now.
2:27
Speaker 2: The one thing I said at the beginning is this
2:29
Speaker 2: is the only real certainty in life. I mean, people
2:32
Speaker 2: say taxes are a certainty as well, but you know,
2:34
Speaker 2: it depends where you live. You could move to Dubai, right, so,
2:36
Speaker 2: but death itself is the only thing that is really certain.
2:40
Speaker 2: And I assume that you looked around you and so
2:43
Speaker 2: are an awful lot of people just not being ready
2:46
Speaker 2: in terms of we're going to talk mainly about the
2:48
Speaker 2: finance here, but there's all all sorts of ways you're
2:49
Speaker 2: not ready for death. But you must have looked around
2:52
Speaker 2: yourself and thought to yourself, no one is preparing themselves
2:54
Speaker 2: properly for this, and I can help. Is that how
2:57
Speaker 2: it came about?
2:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not so much no one, but far too
3:02
Speaker 3: many people. And it all really happened in about the
3:06
Speaker 3: autumn of twenty twenty. We had some friends to stay
3:09
Speaker 3: and among them were a couple of recent widows, and
3:13
Speaker 3: they had been to a certain extent left hand drive.
3:16
Speaker 3: One in particular because her husband died completely unexpectedly abroad
3:22
Speaker 3: without a will. He was a solicitor, and well, it
3:27
Speaker 3: took the best part of a year. She had no
3:30
Speaker 3: money herself. She had to borrowed from her daughters. And
3:33
Speaker 3: that's one of the points I make is that if
3:36
Speaker 3: you die unexpectedly, you need to ensure that your other half,
3:40
Speaker 3: whether you're married, in a civil partnership or not, does
3:43
Speaker 3: have enough to live on because it can take up
3:46
Speaker 3: to twelve months to get probates. So the main point
3:49
Speaker 3: is this, we plan for everything in life, but they
3:52
Speaker 3: that we're really stupid. The one thing we don't plan
3:55
Speaker 3: for is the one thing that's banned to happen one day.
3:57
Speaker 2: It's interesting, and there's two points to pick up about
4:00
Speaker 2: your poor widow friend, and the first is that, certainly
4:03
Speaker 2: to me, it sounds absolutely extraordinary that your husband could
4:06
Speaker 2: die and you not have immediate access to all your accounts.
4:10
Speaker 2: Because this is another podcast, by the way, but for me,
4:13
Speaker 2: you know, inside a marriage, all accounts are joint. You
4:16
Speaker 2: have joint savings account, you have joined current accounts. You
4:19
Speaker 2: have certainly have sight of, if not access to your
4:23
Speaker 2: spouse's accounts. So that stands out to me as strange
4:27
Speaker 2: for starters. But as I say, that might be another
4:29
Speaker 2: podcast will be well, a relationship one another day. The
4:32
Speaker 2: second thing that stands out is a solicitor who hadn't
4:35
Speaker 2: written a will.
4:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, funny enough, the author of one of the leading
4:39
Speaker 3: textbooks on wills. This was not hundreds of years ago ago,
4:45
Speaker 3: died and tested, so it's a well known fact. So
4:48
Speaker 3: it can happen.
4:50
Speaker 2: Okay, tell us Matthew, what happens if you die without
4:53
Speaker 2: a will? What does it mean to die and test
4:55
Speaker 2: it in England? So it's different in Scotland, I know,
4:57
Speaker 2: But let's talk about England. What actually have and where
5:00
Speaker 2: did your money go?
5:01
Speaker 3: In fact marriage, just to say it's not just England,
5:04
Speaker 3: it's England and Wales, and then there are different rules
5:08
Speaker 3: for Scotland and Northern Ireland. But before going on to
5:12
Speaker 3: the order in which people inherit, I should say that
5:16
Speaker 3: instead of executors who look after your affairs when you
5:20
Speaker 3: have a will, you have what's called administrators. And the
5:25
Speaker 3: order in which people can apply to the court to
5:27
Speaker 3: be administrators is the same order in which they inherit
5:32
Speaker 3: under the intestacy rules. Okay, So supposing you die without
5:36
Speaker 3: a will and you've got a surviving spies or civil partner,
5:40
Speaker 3: which incidentally doesn't include somebody who live with used to
5:44
Speaker 3: be called a common law husband or wife, but no children,
5:49
Speaker 3: then the surviving spies or civil partner takes everything. If,
5:54
Speaker 3: on the other hand, you also have children, then what
5:57
Speaker 3: the spires or civil partner gets is personal possessions, the
6:02
Speaker 3: statutory legacy of three hundred and twenty two thousand pounds
6:07
Speaker 3: and half of what's left that's called residue. The other
6:10
Speaker 3: half of residue goes to children once they're age eighteen,
6:15
Speaker 3: so you might get the very unfortunate circumstance not only
6:19
Speaker 3: of children having lots of money when they're not responsible
6:23
Speaker 3: enough to manage it, but also having to pay inheritance
6:27
Speaker 3: tax on the first death because of course, if they're
6:30
Speaker 3: under age eighteen, you can't vary a will as you
6:34
Speaker 3: can normally. If no surviving spousal silver partner but children,
6:39
Speaker 3: then children take the lot at age eighteen in equal shares.
6:44
Speaker 3: If any children have died, leaving effectively grandchildren, the grandchildren
6:48
Speaker 3: step into their shoes. If no children, then you go
6:52
Speaker 3: to the parents. If no parents, brothers and sisters and
6:55
Speaker 3: so on. And if no blood relative survive, then can
7:00
Speaker 3: Charles the third the crown gets it all.
7:05
Speaker 2: So, for example, you are married for the second time,
7:08
Speaker 2: and you have children from a first marriage and you
7:11
Speaker 2: haven't got a will. On your death, the bulk of
7:14
Speaker 2: your estate will end up going to the new wife,
7:16
Speaker 2: which could cause all kinds of upsets for your children.
7:20
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean when you say the bulk of the estate,
7:22
Speaker 3: it depends how rich you are, because half will go
7:26
Speaker 3: to your children. I mean, let's suppose your second wife
7:30
Speaker 3: or husband is well off in their own right. Okay,
7:34
Speaker 3: there is the SPI's exemption, but you might have wanted
7:37
Speaker 3: to leave everything to your children. So second marriage is
7:40
Speaker 3: because remember, marriage provokes a will. The divorce doesn't provoke
7:45
Speaker 3: a will in the same way, but marriage does, and
7:48
Speaker 3: so it's very very important and you can. Interestingly, my
7:52
Speaker 3: late father did this on his marriage in nineteen fifty two.
7:57
Speaker 3: You can make a will in contemplation of marriage as
8:00
Speaker 3: long as it's in constilation of marriage to a particular person,
8:05
Speaker 3: you know, not just because you're the marrying sort. You say,
8:07
Speaker 3: I'm going to marry. I'm going to marry Maisie, and
8:11
Speaker 3: before I do marry Maisie, I'm making a will and
8:15
Speaker 3: that is valid. But otherwise, if you don't do that
8:18
Speaker 3: when you when you get married, a will you've previously
8:21
Speaker 3: made gets automatically revoked.
8:24
Speaker 2: Okay, so when you're writing a will, and I think
8:26
Speaker 2: when people think about getting their unfairs in order for death,
8:28
Speaker 2: the first thing they think about is a will. So
8:30
Speaker 2: the key things when you're when you're writing a will
8:32
Speaker 2: is to think about how you want to provide for
8:34
Speaker 2: a remaining spouse or remaining children, etc. Is there anything
8:38
Speaker 2: else that you absolutely must make sure you think about
8:40
Speaker 2: it carefully before you write your will.
8:42
Speaker 3: You need to think about who those executors are. And
8:46
Speaker 3: you know, executors have extraordinary responsibility. And so I mean
8:53
Speaker 3: in my case or in my wife's. In my case,
8:56
Speaker 3: we've appointed each other as the executor, failing whom then
9:01
Speaker 3: are three children. So but it doesn't have to be family.
9:05
Speaker 3: I usually advise against appointing a solicitor, and with apologies
9:10
Speaker 3: to any bankers listening, absolutely don't point a bank. Appoint
9:16
Speaker 3: an individual ideally between your and your children's ages. Somebody
9:21
Speaker 3: who knows you, knows the children, somebody you trust. And
9:25
Speaker 3: I always say to people, because being an executor can
9:28
Speaker 3: be quite a onnerous business, leave them a legacy, leave
9:31
Speaker 3: them a thousand pounds, leave them five thousand pounds as
9:35
Speaker 3: a thank you, because they are the people who have
9:39
Speaker 3: to gather in the assets, pay off the liabilities, including
9:42
Speaker 3: to HMRC, and then distribute the proceeds and also exercise
9:48
Speaker 3: any discretions because your will may give discretions among certain
9:52
Speaker 3: relatives or charities and so on. So it's a big.
9:56
Speaker 2: Deal, yes, and it's hard work.
9:59
Speaker 3: And it's absolutely vital that before you make your will,
10:02
Speaker 3: you know you've chosen Tom and Alis to be your executives.
10:07
Speaker 3: You go to Tom and Alis probably together, and talk
10:11
Speaker 3: to them about it and talk to them about what
10:12
Speaker 3: it's involved in and they agree. Because you can renounce
10:17
Speaker 3: an appointment if somebody dies, but only if you haven't
10:22
Speaker 3: what's called intermeddled, and you can intermedal in an estate
10:27
Speaker 3: very easily. And once you've started acting as an executor,
10:31
Speaker 3: you've got to go on until the estate has been administered.
10:35
Speaker 3: So very very important appointment of executives.
10:39
Speaker 2: Okay, now, so let's make it easy for our executives
10:44
Speaker 2: by getting our financial affairs in order before we get
10:48
Speaker 2: to that point. So this involved what making a proper
10:52
Speaker 2: list with proper contact numbers and account numbers for everything
10:56
Speaker 2: that you hold everywhere it involves list of your just less,
11:00
Speaker 2: it involves somehow a list of passwords somewhere in a
11:05
Speaker 2: secure How does this work? How do we do this?
11:08
Speaker 3: Well, it's what I say in the book, and it's
11:11
Speaker 3: what I describe as dying tidily, because you know, if
11:16
Speaker 3: somebody close to you dies that the devastation whatever the
11:19
Speaker 3: relationship is massive, and you're having to cope with grief
11:24
Speaker 3: and then all these unexpected practical things crop up and
11:29
Speaker 3: it's the last thing you want to have to do.
11:31
Speaker 3: So you want to make it easier for people. One
11:33
Speaker 3: of them is applying for the death certificate. There are
11:36
Speaker 3: documents you need, there's information you need to apply for that,
11:38
Speaker 3: so you set that out. You set out your funeral wishes,
11:43
Speaker 3: whether you want to be cremated or buried, whether you
11:45
Speaker 3: want a service, who do you want to take part,
11:48
Speaker 3: whether you want a party afterwards, all that sort of thing.
11:52
Speaker 3: I mean, you can't stop people coming to a funeral,
11:55
Speaker 3: but you can invite particular people or have particular people
11:59
Speaker 3: invite you to a funeral, and certainly lists of what
12:01
Speaker 3: you earn and you need to keep that up to
12:03
Speaker 3: date and contact numbers, all that sort of thing. As
12:09
Speaker 3: you say, very important.
12:11
Speaker 2: And probably list of pensions in that. You know, I
12:14
Speaker 2: look at even my own pension provision. Now, you know
12:16
Speaker 2: I haven't had that many jobs, but each one, sadly
12:20
Speaker 2: not my early ones. My pension provision is appalling. I've
12:22
Speaker 2: fall into that generational gap after after the end of
12:25
Speaker 2: defined benefits and before to enrollment. But we won't rull
12:28
Speaker 2: on that now. Even so, you know, there's a small
12:31
Speaker 2: pension here and there's there, and it's very varies. More so,
12:35
Speaker 2: you know, a list of those is super handy unless
12:38
Speaker 2: you've unless you've cleverly managed to amalgamate them along the way.
12:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's not a bad idea actually to put
12:43
Speaker 3: yourself you know, imagine actually you've died, you're sort of
12:47
Speaker 3: looking down from a.
12:47
Speaker 2: Bar, enjoying this podcast as much as I hope.
12:52
Speaker 3: But just put yourself in the minds of your executors
12:56
Speaker 3: and what they're going to have to do and and
13:00
Speaker 3: make it easy for them. And you're right, And that's
13:03
Speaker 3: really what the book is about. What the book is
13:05
Speaker 3: doing is pointing you to a series of lists and
13:12
Speaker 3: spreadsheet form which you can download and fill in, or
13:15
Speaker 3: you can get in hard copy and then keep updated
13:19
Speaker 3: and that really does the job of what you're pointing towards. Marrin.
13:23
Speaker 2: All right, so get on there and make lists. Now,
13:26
Speaker 2: what about things like cryptocurrencies? Right, I'm not clearly you're
13:30
Speaker 2: a bitcoin investor, Matthew. We'll have hordes of bitcoin theory,
13:35
Speaker 2: possibly a little trump coin, that kind of thing sitting
13:38
Speaker 2: in your accounts. Those passwords we need to pass on
13:41
Speaker 2: as well. We need to do that in an encryptied
13:43
Speaker 2: way somehow, don't we. You don't just want your bitcoin
13:46
Speaker 2: key sitting on your laptop for anyone to find.
13:49
Speaker 3: I have to confess I'm a complete sort of novice.
13:52
Speaker 3: I know absolutely nothing about cryptocurrency. But yes, you're right.
13:55
Speaker 3: I mean cryptocurrency, I guess is at the extreme end,
14:00
Speaker 3: even the very basic end. With social media accounts and
14:04
Speaker 3: so on, passwords are absolutely crucial. You can set up
14:08
Speaker 3: a password manager which gives everybody access to what they
14:13
Speaker 3: will will need. But again, putting yourself in a position,
14:17
Speaker 3: you can imagine the situation there's crucial information that somebody's
14:22
Speaker 3: died you need to get held of, and you simply
14:25
Speaker 3: can't get access. One thing that you can do. In
14:29
Speaker 3: many cases, and increasingly, Facebook and other facilities offering this.
14:35
Speaker 3: You can appoint a legacy contact in relation to a
14:40
Speaker 3: particular particular account and it may be the same legacy
14:46
Speaker 3: contact for everything. But that's that's quite useful. But it's
14:49
Speaker 3: just thinking about what having to deal You know, increasingly
14:53
Speaker 3: we live in a in a sort of non physical age.
14:57
Speaker 3: What they will need to access those things.
15:00
Speaker 2: Quite a lot of platforms. Now, let you appoint legacy contacts, right,
15:04
Speaker 2: we will have a legal access to your things on
15:06
Speaker 2: your death. So it's worth worth getting in touch or
15:09
Speaker 2: looking into all of the accounts that you have on
15:12
Speaker 2: all sorts of platforms and seeing how you can do
15:14
Speaker 2: that give someone access so after you've died. This is important.
15:18
Speaker 2: This is close to my heart, by the way, because
15:19
Speaker 2: I've lost various amounts of crypto already and if I
15:24
Speaker 2: can't access them, pretty damn sure my heirs can't.
15:27
Speaker 3: Sounds like compression time.
15:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And now we've been talking, Matthew, as though
15:34
Speaker 2: everyone is perfectly capable of doing all this before they die,
15:38
Speaker 2: and as though everyone can go now and do these things,
15:42
Speaker 2: write these lists, you nominate people to receive their pensions, etc. Etc.
15:47
Speaker 2: But we know that increasingly people die in various states
15:50
Speaker 2: of mental incapacity, and that the roads of alzheimer and
15:53
Speaker 2: various sorts of dementia on the rise the very faster.
15:56
Speaker 2: We really should talk about LPAs, shouldn't we.
15:58
Speaker 3: So last ten pars returned. They used to be enduring
16:01
Speaker 3: powers of attorney. Now lasting powers of attorney come in
16:05
Speaker 3: two forms, health and welfare, property and financial affairs. There
16:09
Speaker 3: are two separate LPAs. To register them, you need to
16:13
Speaker 3: pay with the Office and the Public Guardian eighty two
16:16
Speaker 3: pounds for each. I you'll be glad to hear my
16:20
Speaker 3: wife have done this. Are appointing our children and or
16:25
Speaker 3: appointing the other plus our children. So you need to
16:28
Speaker 3: think about who you appoint to make.
16:31
Speaker 2: To trust them, haven't you. We've really got to trust
16:34
Speaker 2: this person and.
16:36
Speaker 3: The other thing we've done. I did go to my
16:38
Speaker 3: solicitors to do that. You don't have to. You can
16:42
Speaker 3: do it yourself online, you know. I mean I would
16:47
Speaker 3: say this, wouldn't I be a retired sinister. But I
16:50
Speaker 3: think both with wills, yes, there are will writers, but
16:53
Speaker 3: both with wills, particularly if they're doing a state planning
16:56
Speaker 3: inheritance tax mitigation on the side, then go to somebody
17:00
Speaker 3: who is well respected, knows what they're talking about. And similarly,
17:04
Speaker 3: i'd say that with LPAs as you say, absolutely trust
17:09
Speaker 3: it's good to appoint more than one person, or you
17:12
Speaker 3: could put point a feigning whom b if, for example,
17:16
Speaker 3: a has died or themselves is incapacitated. But you can
17:20
Speaker 3: appoint people to act what's called jointfully or severally, so
17:24
Speaker 3: they can act together or any one of them can
17:27
Speaker 3: act and hopefully they'll never be needed. You lock them
17:30
Speaker 3: in a draw and sort of die happily, so to speak.
17:35
Speaker 3: But if they're needed, it's absolutely crucial because if you
17:38
Speaker 3: don't again, if you don't have them, you ask what happens, Well,
17:41
Speaker 3: then your affairs get put into the hands of what's
17:44
Speaker 3: called the quarter protection and that is an absolute nightmare,
17:47
Speaker 3: last forever and can cost a lot of money. So
17:51
Speaker 3: really important to think about it.
17:53
Speaker 2: Get that bit done. Yeah, absolutely, you just said that
17:56
Speaker 2: it's dying happily is a nice thing having done one's
18:00
Speaker 2: ADMIN or possibly not have to use one LPA etc.
18:03
Speaker 2: The other thing we talk about quite a lot on
18:05
Speaker 2: this podcast is how nice it would be to die
18:07
Speaker 2: broke and how there is this the tension when you
18:12
Speaker 2: are retired and when you are aging between worrying about
18:18
Speaker 2: not having enough money to make it to the end,
18:20
Speaker 2: say for nursing home fees, etc. Worrying about having some
18:24
Speaker 2: money left to leave to your children, and also feeling
18:28
Speaker 2: that you should live life to the full. And the
18:30
Speaker 2: calculation is a very difficult one, isn't it. How much
18:34
Speaker 2: money you really need to get to the end, how
18:37
Speaker 2: much money you should leave, etc. And I rather like
18:40
Speaker 2: the idea of dying broke, of somehow managing to live
18:44
Speaker 2: a retirement that's deeply fulfilling and spending on everything that
18:48
Speaker 2: you want getting to the end, maybe having having given
18:51
Speaker 2: some money to your children outside the seven year rule
18:54
Speaker 2: along the way for inheritance tax purposes, and you know,
18:57
Speaker 2: going to your deathbed with a tanner in your pocket.
19:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, it needn't be completely broke. You could die with
19:03
Speaker 3: half a million pounds, provided you're taking into account any
19:09
Speaker 3: chargeable gifts. You know, you refer to the seven year
19:12
Speaker 3: period before you die. So you've got the mil rate
19:14
Speaker 3: band of three hundred and twenty five thousand plus the
19:17
Speaker 3: resident residence NOLL rate band providing your share in the
19:21
Speaker 3: residence one hundred and seventy five thousand goes to a
19:24
Speaker 3: direct descendant. But I think you're absolutely right, and I
19:27
Speaker 3: make the point in the book, and I say to
19:29
Speaker 3: a lot of people to whom I'm talking that you
19:33
Speaker 3: mustn't give too much away too soon, because the last
19:37
Speaker 3: thing you want to have to do is to go
19:39
Speaker 3: with the begging birll to your children, to whom you've
19:42
Speaker 3: give them pots of money. And you know, we all
19:46
Speaker 3: know the play King Lear, Yes, and what happened there.
19:51
Speaker 3: So it's a fine calculation. And so if I come
19:56
Speaker 3: to you Maryland, say well, I'm age seventy one, and
19:59
Speaker 3: I think coming pretty good, Nick, But you know, who
20:02
Speaker 3: knows how much am I going to need? When am
20:04
Speaker 3: I going to die? You'll say, well, you know, I
20:07
Speaker 3: don't know. And so it's very important, I think, to
20:13
Speaker 3: err on the side of caution and possibly to think
20:18
Speaker 3: about and I'm not trying to swell Rachel Reaves coffers necessarily,
20:24
Speaker 3: but actually to think of inheritance tax as a necessary
20:28
Speaker 3: evil that if and yes, do what you can to mitigate.
20:32
Speaker 3: And I have to say, I'm a farmer as well,
20:35
Speaker 3: so of course I'm very interested in her proposals on
20:38
Speaker 3: agricultural and business property relief. But yes, do what you
20:42
Speaker 3: can sensibly for inheritance tax mitigation, but if ultimately it
20:47
Speaker 3: has to be paid, then so be it. It's much better.
20:51
Speaker 3: And let's come back to where we started. This isn't
20:55
Speaker 3: a conversation about death. It's actually a conversation about life.
20:59
Speaker 3: You talk to me about living life to the full,
21:01
Speaker 3: and this is part of it. And I think I
21:04
Speaker 3: think it's terribly important to you know, to remember that
21:07
Speaker 3: to make your plans and then to do you know,
21:11
Speaker 3: if you've quote retired, go on holiday, go to places
21:15
Speaker 3: you want to see, people that you want to see,
21:18
Speaker 3: read books that you want to read, go over walks
21:20
Speaker 3: you want to all that sort of thing very important.
21:24
Speaker 2: Do you think that once you've made your will and
21:28
Speaker 2: you have all this settled, and you've accepted that you
21:31
Speaker 2: may or may not have to pay inherit in stakes
21:33
Speaker 2: major choices, should you tell your heirs how that's going
21:38
Speaker 2: to work. I mean, let's say you are quite rich.
21:41
Speaker 2: Let's assume that this is the case and you have
21:43
Speaker 2: three children, and on your death they may inherit a
21:46
Speaker 2: relatively large amount of money. Should you tell them that
21:51
Speaker 2: and let them know what you're doing so they are
21:53
Speaker 2: prepared already. And also if you're not going to leave
21:55
Speaker 2: them very much money. Should you also let them know
21:58
Speaker 2: so that people can live there lives around the expectation
22:01
Speaker 2: of either receiving or not receiving. I mean, I asked because,
22:04
Speaker 2: like you, I'm sure I've seen a lot of people
22:06
Speaker 2: who have organized their lives around an inheritance that maybe
22:11
Speaker 2: doesn't come, and also people who have not expected an
22:15
Speaker 2: inheritance and then found they've got one. Is is it
22:18
Speaker 2: better to have your airs live their life as though
22:22
Speaker 2: no inheritance exists, or better to have them live their
22:24
Speaker 2: lives in expectation. And as an aside to that, Because
22:27
Speaker 2: my questions are long and complicated, should you maybe skip
22:31
Speaker 2: your children and leave all your money to your grandchildren?
22:33
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, it all depends on circumstances or relationships.
22:37
Speaker 3: I know you're not meant to have any regrets in life,
22:40
Speaker 3: but one regret I can confess to was that, as
22:43
Speaker 3: a practicing solicitor, I never did a reading of the
22:46
Speaker 3: will you know dressed in a wing collar, see you
22:50
Speaker 3: at the dining room table, and nobody knows, and then
22:53
Speaker 3: you see the mix of all human emotions of sort
22:56
Speaker 3: of greed, delight, envy, and so on.
22:59
Speaker 2: I never did that only on Telly.
23:03
Speaker 3: Or in box. But I'm the view that on the
23:06
Speaker 3: whole you ought to tell people, possibly not so much
23:11
Speaker 3: how rich you are, unless you want to be absolutely upfront,
23:16
Speaker 3: but particularly and one issue I talk about in my
23:20
Speaker 3: book is achieving fairness between your children. And fairness doesn't
23:25
Speaker 3: necessarily mean equality, but I think it's a good idea
23:28
Speaker 3: that your children know what's in your will, and particularly
23:33
Speaker 3: if you have something like a farm or a business,
23:37
Speaker 3: and you don't necessarily divide it two ways, three ways,
23:40
Speaker 3: four ways, the children need to know that and to
23:45
Speaker 3: understand why. So that I think is important that the
23:50
Speaker 3: people who are going to benefit know what's in the will,
23:55
Speaker 3: and if you change it, then you tell them that.
24:00
Speaker 3: To going to grandchildren, again, it depends on its so
24:03
Speaker 3: called generation skipping. It makes sense from an inheritance tax
24:07
Speaker 3: point of view. Your children incidentally can always do that
24:10
Speaker 3: within two but it all depends. What you don't want
24:16
Speaker 3: is to enrich your grandchildren when your children are then
24:19
Speaker 3: going to be badly off. So yes, it's a good
24:23
Speaker 3: inheritance tax. We's as to whether you tell them how
24:28
Speaker 3: much you've got, again, it depends on the relationship with
24:30
Speaker 3: your children, I think, but not a bad idea.
24:33
Speaker 2: Not a bad idea. But as you said, this is
24:34
Speaker 2: all it all really depends, doesn't it. And of course
24:37
Speaker 2: there's that thing of telling people what they might inherit
24:39
Speaker 2: and then deciding that actually you're going to go on
24:41
Speaker 2: a year long cruise around the world and there have
24:43
Speaker 2: been nothing left at the end. These things can happen
24:45
Speaker 2: too well.
24:45
Speaker 3: Late my late mother, I have to say, he was
24:47
Speaker 3: quite fun. Will also get to mention or turn my book.
24:50
Speaker 3: When she went on expensive holidays. She always used to
24:53
Speaker 3: describe it as good inheritance tax planning, very good, quite right.
24:57
Speaker 2: I hope my mother's not listening. I've got you can
25:00
Speaker 2: I ask your question. That's outside the scope of this book,
25:04
Speaker 2: but you seem like the kind of person who would
25:06
Speaker 2: have a sensible answer to it. What's your view on
25:07
Speaker 2: the assisted dying bill? I mean, obviously, if you if
25:11
Speaker 2: let's say that you had written a will leaving lots
25:13
Speaker 2: and lots of money to your children, they were quite
25:15
Speaker 2: excited about it, and then your dementia became rather advanced
25:19
Speaker 2: and assistant dying was possible. I mean, there is so
25:21
Speaker 2: much danger in there.
25:24
Speaker 3: I'm against it. I mean, my view I think comes
25:27
Speaker 3: out of my faith position. Even if you're not a
25:30
Speaker 3: person of faith and you have a faith which informs
25:34
Speaker 3: your view on this. There are so many difficulties. I mean,
25:39
Speaker 3: there were letters and the Times today about now they've
25:42
Speaker 3: moved away, haven't they? From a current High Court judge
25:46
Speaker 3: to a panel of people which might involve care professionals.
25:51
Speaker 3: Know how they chosen, what's the basis on which they're
25:54
Speaker 3: going to make the decision? How long will they take
25:57
Speaker 3: to make the decision? As we all know the most
25:59
Speaker 3: awful way to die and two friends might have done
26:02
Speaker 3: recently Metaeer that the two conditions are expected to die
26:07
Speaker 3: within six months and able to administer the lethal injection yourself. Well,
26:13
Speaker 3: of course if you've got MND you can't. So I'm
26:19
Speaker 3: against it, but I accept that it's a sensitive issue
26:22
Speaker 3: and people will have their own views. Personally, I hope
26:26
Speaker 3: that it will be withdrawn, but we'll have to see.
26:29
Speaker 2: I suppose one could always put a clause in one's
26:31
Speaker 2: will saying that if one's death had come about as
26:33
Speaker 2: a result of the assisted Dying bill, all your money
26:35
Speaker 2: went to a donkey charity that would protect you from your.
26:40
Speaker 3: In case. Yeah, I mean that that's of course, one
26:43
Speaker 3: concern is that your health is getting worse and there
26:48
Speaker 3: are children who are seeing all their inheritance going care
26:51
Speaker 3: home fees.
26:52
Speaker 2: Well that's that's not the johnniest note to end on,
26:56
Speaker 2: but we do have to end. Is there anything that
26:58
Speaker 2: we've missed that is vital?
27:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, one thing we haven't talked about, which again, whether
27:04
Speaker 3: you're a person of faith or not, it's keeping short
27:08
Speaker 3: accounts on relationships and forgiveness. So asking forgiveness, giving forgiveness.
27:16
Speaker 3: So relationships whether with close people close to you or not.
27:21
Speaker 3: I think it's very important to deal with that as
27:24
Speaker 3: a priority.
27:25
Speaker 2: So making sure that you leave not just finished financial business,
27:29
Speaker 2: but finished relationship business as well.
27:32
Speaker 3: Correct.
27:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, Matthew, thank you very very much for joining us today.
27:37
Speaker 3: Well it's been a delight and great fun too, so
27:40
Speaker 3: thank you so much for them well pleasure.
27:47
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to this week's Marin Talk to
27:49
Speaker 2: Your Money. If you like I show, rate, review, and.
27:52
Speaker 1: Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
27:54
Speaker 2: Also, be sure to follow me and John.
27:55
Speaker 1: On ex or Twitter at marinas w and John Underscore Stepic.
28:00
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Summersadi and Moses and them
28:03
Speaker 1: questions and.
28:03
Speaker 2: Comments on this show and all our shows are always welcome.
28:06
Speaker 1: Our show email is Merinmoney at Bloomberg dot net. And
28:11
Speaker 1: don't forget that if you want to go to the website,
28:14
Speaker 1: you can go to www dot your Last gift Book
28:18
Speaker 1: dot com and find about how you two can die
28:21
Speaker 1: admin efficiently