Whilst many people accumulate wealth slowly over the course of their lifetimes, there are events that can cause ‘sudden wealth’. Whether it is from the sale of a business, winning the lottery or receiving an inheritance, all of these can be life changing events. This article will focus on receiving an inheritance.

Inheriting money is usually associated with a highly emotional time due to the likelihood that you will be grieving the loss of a relative or friend. This can cause a high degree of stress and it is therefore important that any decisions are made when you feel that you are able to deal with them.

It may well be that you are also the estate executor which, in itself, is an arduous responsibility adding to the associated stress as you deal with the other beneficiaries and managing the estate.

Whilst an inheritance can arrive in many forms there will undoubtedly be different tax implications and it is a good idea to discuss this with your advisers at this time.
It will be important to understand what exactly you are going to inherit; is it cash or investments? If it is cash this is more simple from a planning perspective but if it is investments you will need to understand the tax implications and what happens in the event you were to sell these.

Will there be a large tax implication that must be factored into your decision making process?

Is the inheritance via a superannuation death benefit and, if so, what are the tax implications upon receipt?

When these issues have been dealt with you will be in a position to turn your mind to what you are going to do with the sudden wealth. It may be that this amount of money presents you with the chance to do the things you’ve always dreamed of such as taking the family overseas, helping your children enter the property market, giving to charity, paying off a debt or adding to your retirement assets so as to provide you with a more comfortable retirement.

You can see that there are many options to consider on what to do with the wealth and how you can manage it going forward. This is clearly a time when working with your trusted professional adviser can add a lot of value.

Your advisers can help you make the adjustment to becoming ‘suddenly wealthy’ in a manner where you have a high degree of confidence that the decisions you make on what to do with the money and how it is managed, both at the time of receipt and going forward, are in line with what is important to you.

To lean more about managing an inheritance upon receipt and into the future just contact the team at Eqeus today. Obviously, if you become suddenly wealthy through a lotto win or selling your business we can help then too.