Life can get complicated quite quickly. My sister died, leaving two teenage children without a parent as their father left during her illness. Then my father died and my sister’s share of his will went into two different trusts for her children, with me as the trustee along with his family solicitor. My late sister had also left her share of the marital home to the children and I was appointed trustee of that also. When you sign paperwork to be a Trustee, you never really think of the full consequences, but I soon found out.
My nephew and niece struggled after their mum died – he with drug addiction and homelessness and she with teenage lack of self-confidence and purpose. I really didn’t want the day-to-day burden of managing their money, but I wanted them to get the maximum benefit from it and respect the wishes of my late father who had worked all his life to save this money.
Jane had been working with me and my husband for some years. I knew she would be able to give me a steer as to how to manage all this additional responsibility with the least amount of hassle. She suggested that we work closely with the solicitor to set up two different portfolios in each of the two trusts so that when they each reached age 25 they could have their share without affecting the other’s assets. She invested the assets so that the portfolio could grow and helped me communicate with the other trustee.
This solution took away a lot of stress for me, knowing that the money was safe, growing and there for the kids when they were ready and knowing that there was someone who understood it all.
Thankfully, my nephew is now getting himself together and my niece has graduated as a nurse. She is turning 25 this year and so we are now working on signing over my father’s legacy to her as seamlessly as possible, and for her sake I hope that she keeps invested with Headley. My late sister’s house is finally now being sold so that the kids can get their share of that too.
The end of my ‘business relationship’ is not quite as near as I had hoped but what started off as a very complicated set of concerns has been organised and that gives me confidence and above all I am comforted that my niece and nephew have been given financial freedom to build the life they want to live.
“This solution took away a lot of stress for me, knowing that the money was safe, growing and there for the kids when they were ready.”
