Ross Lacey (Image: Newspage)
A bereavement can leave families suddenly facing financial decisions at the very moment they are least prepared to handle them. Along with coping with loss, there may be an estate to manage, investments to comprehend, pensions to locate and possibly a considerable inheritance landing in a bank account.
However, Ross Lacey, director and Independent Financial Adviser at Essex-based Fairview Financial Management, said one of the most crucial pieces of guidance for grieving families might be surprisingly straightforward: you don’t necessarily need to act straight away. Having lost his mother when he was 18 and his father subsequently at the age of 60, Mr Lacey has endured bereavement himself and said it had shaped how he supported clients experiencing similar circumstances.
He said: “They feel this burden. If they’ve inherited money or they’re going through a divorce or they’ve come into money through sad circumstances, it’s like burning a hole in their pocket.
“They just want to do something with it and that’s dangerous because they can make a decision that’s going to be really bad in the future. Part of it is almost giving them breathing space to say, ‘you’re going to be okay. You’ve got time. Let’s just park it here for now. Don’t make any rash decisions’.”
Mr Lacey believes individuals may feel pressured to put an inheritance to work straight away, especially if the funds represent years of careful saving by a parent or other relative. However, allowing yourself time can enable the initial grieving period to pass before making choices that could have implications lasting decades.
It can be overwhelming (Image: Olga Yastremska via Getty Images)
For certain families, Mr Lacey said an adviser’s function was therefore less about instantly suggesting investments and more about helping sort through what has been left and creating space to breathe.
He said: “It’s quite common that the surviving spouse has no idea what the other one has got. They’ve got pensions here, investments there, bank accounts over there. We can almost act as that central point to help them understand what they’ve got, what needs doing and what doesn’t need doing straight away.”
Once someone is prepared to make longer-term choices, Mr Lacey believes the starting point should not simply be asking where to invest an inheritance. Rather, families should think about what they want the money to accomplish.
That might mean strengthening retirement provision, clearing debts, supporting children, establishing a financial cushion or enabling someone to enjoy experiences they had previously delayed. Mr Lacey’s own family background has made the final point especially significant to him.
His mother passed away at the age of 45, while his father died at 60 without ever enjoying the retirement he had spent so long looking forward to. Mr Lacey recalls listening to his parents talk about the things they would do “one day”, only for that day to never materialise.
He said: “I grew up listening to my mum and dad talk about, ‘one day we’re going to do this. One day we’re going to do that’ and neither of them got to do that stuff.
“Part of our job, if we can show people as soon as possible what’s available to them, is that they don’t need to delay this. They can start doing things sooner rather than later.”
Mr Lacey’s personal experience has also instilled in him the importance of getting family finances in order before a bereavement takes place. His parents had sought financial guidance and secured appropriate insurance prior to his mother’s illness.
He explained that this enabled her to stop working and allowed his father to step back from his job, permitting the family to focus on her wellbeing rather than fretting about money.
For families currently navigating a bereavement, however, his key message is not to allow grief to impose an artificial financial deadline. An inheritance may ultimately require significant decisions, but those decisions need not all be taken straight away.
Mr Lacey added: “You have got time.”
