Intestate

[BobbyJ86]

Hello all my first post

my partner passed away last year intestate, we wasn’t married but had 4 children together, me and her dad have applied for a letter of administration through a solicitor as the children are next of kin but are minors you need 2 administrators, I can act on their behalf as I’m their legal guardian, she has an estate worth £320k which is a life insurance policy they have agreed to pay this out once we give them the letter of administration. we have opened a bank account and gave the life insurance company the details to pay this into but as the rules of intestacy the 4 kids will Inherit the lot. As it’s a lot of money what should we do with it? The solicitors doing my LOA can’t give me financial advice but I want the kids to get the most out of it, am I best keeping it all in 1 account or make a different account for each child? My oldest child is 12 so it’s still going to be 6 years until she inherits her quarter

thank you

[ostell]

With the interest rates being so abysmal at the moment I would suggest max out on premium bond for each kids. Odds of winning a prize are 35,000 to 1 at the moment but with a large contiguous block you should get a return every month. Even the £1M. And no tax

When better rates return you can move the money out of the bonds

[des8]

The money will have to be held in trust, and unfortunately Premium Bonds cannot be held by Trustees.

Get professional advice, as a trustee you have a number of responsibilities but also the need to strike a balance between safety and investment growth potential.

[ostell]

But they can be held by the children themselves?

[des8]

Premiun bonds can be held by children, but the person buying them must nominate a "responsible person" to look after the child’s Bonds until they turn 16.
Children cannot purchase Premium bonds themselves

Premium bonds cannot be held by a trust.
From NSI website " Premium Bonds were designed as a tax-free product and the maximum holding limit gives individuals the opportunity to have a potential tax-free return by way of the prize draw. The Premium Savings Bond Regulations do not allow for Premium Bonds to be invested in trust as the investment was created for individuals to invest in"

Legacies left to children must be held in a statutory trust.

[MIKE770]

How does it work?

Anyone can buy Premium Bonds for a child under 16. The child might already have some Premium Bonds, and that’s fine, they can hold up to £50,000 worth.

If you’re not the parent/guardian of the child, you’ll need to let them know before buying Premium Bonds as we’ll contact them directly for things like providing evidence of identity and address.

Before you apply for someone else’s child:

• please make sure the parent/guardian is happy to look after the investment for the child, and agrees to you giving us their details
• we will check the identity and address of everyone named on your application, and we may need to ask for documents to prove this
• please let the parent/guardian know that we might be in touch to ask for evidence of identity documents

Whether you’re a parent, grandparent or family friend, we’ve put together a handy guide on how to top up a child’s savings: