My (M26) mother passed away one month ago, from complications resulting from her long term drug abuse. She was homeless when she died and I hadn't seen her in ten years. Her death was sudden and unexpected, and it has been a very hard few weeks.
I have taken responsibility for all of her funeral and estate arrangements, and have paid 100% of the costs so far (£1,500 and climbing). I am currently going through the long process of contacting banks and using what documents I have if hers to try and value her estate. She has died without a will and I am her next of kin in UK law.
My mother was not a very nice person, and coerced my elderly grandmother to give her savings and incur a considerable amount of debt over the years. I don't know the exact figure but expect it is around £20,000. Most of this has now been paid off, but there is also an unpaid lockup and a mobile phone contract, both of which are in my grandmother's name, and therefore she remains liable for these.
To put the financial cost of heroin into perspective, in 2005 my mother won a successful negligence lawsuit against the National Health Service for a medical misdiagnosis, in the region of half a million pounds. Since then my mother spent / lost all of this. Every account I've so far found appears to have been emptied out, but it will take time to complete a full search formally with the banks. Currently I'm just going by scraps of documents found in my mother's things.
Fellow redditors might then appreciate my shock when I had a call from one bank yesterday, saying she held an active private pension plan, invested in stocks, that named me as the sole beneficiary if she died before her 50th birthday (she was 49). The sum is £27,072.55. That's about the UK average salary to put it into context. I was stunned, and had to ask the bank guy to repeat the figure three times. It's also entirely tax free, and now checks have been completed the funds will be in my account in two weeks.
It is possible there is more money found elsewhere. She had two workplace pensions that I have yet to make checks on; other than that I'm not hopeful there will be much else.
I called my grandmother and have told her I want to use at least some of the money to clear her remaining debts. I don't want to think about exact figures until 1) I've completed the rest of the estate valuation and 2) see in detail what my grandmother's remaining debts are. I would aim to keep around £20,000. So, what to do with it.
Some quickfire info about me;
I'm 26, male, live in the UK. Single. I work a professional, secure public sector job with a salary of £31,000. I have a fantastic workplace pension which I pay the full contribution into. I also have a private pension-style fund called a LISA. I own a two bedroom flat, with a mortgage of about £130,000. I previously sublet my spare room for £7,200 a year on a tax free scheme, but have lived on my own for a year. I have £33,500 in savings in a stock trading account, currently 80% in cash after liquidating in June due to Covid. I owe my father £26,500 on a personal loan for helping me buy my flat five years ago. This is due in three years at 0% interest. My total equity is about £70,000 including debts and savings. I am enrolled on a night school university course as part of a career change ambition. I am currently paying my tuition out of my salary. I have 18 months to complete my diploma. I will then do a further 12 months to convert to a degree, which is more expensive and will cost £9,000. I can either take a student loan for this or pay from savings.
What should I do?
Submitted September 23, 2020 at 08:00PM by FirstRankFire https://ift.tt/3cnrZVe
