Journal
Lifetime gifts and the conversations families postpone
Helping with a deposit or equalising siblings can be generous and still create friction later if the numbers are unspoken.
Inheritance conversations stall for human reasons: nobody wants to sound greedy, and parents worry that talking about money will change the Sunday lunch table.
Start with what has already been given
A gift made three years ago still sits on the seven-year clock for inheritance tax. Families often forget to list it when they sketch a “fair” split of what remains.
Fair is not always equal
One child may already own a home; another may be renting with a partner. Equal cash gifts can feel uneven in lived experience. An advice conversation cannot settle family emotion, but it can put figures on the table so a solicitor drafts from shared facts.
Pensions are not the house
Pension death benefits often pass outside the will. Checking expression-of-wish forms belongs in the same meeting as the property discussion — otherwise the careful will and the forgotten nomination point in different directions.