EST059 Avoid an inheritance headache (655 words)

This article follows the journey of a grieving daughter who recently lost her mother, and now has the task of sorting out her mother’s estate along with how to best utilise her substantial inheritance.

It was the overwhelming silence that hit Judy, the first time she visited her family home after her mother’s passing, and with that thought, the slow, deepening realisation that she was going to have to cope with a lot more than the heart-breaking grief.

As she sat alone, surrounded by the possessions her mother had accumulated during her long, happy life, Judy felt completely lost as to how she was going to deal with packing up her mother’s house, much less sorting through the other assets.

Judy of course, is not alone. More than $120 billion in assets were inherited by family members during 2018 and the Productivity Commission believes this number is set to double to $224 billion by the year 2050.