Harry and Beth are in their mid-seventies, they’ve been self-funded retirees for the last ten years. The couple have enjoyed trips and cruises to various parts of the world and have recently spent a few months driving around Australia. They have two children, Brian and Lizzie and four grandchildren. Brian is married to Helen, but Lizzie got divorced three years ago and is now a single Mum to two of the four grandkids.
Harry and Beth have been clients of Treysta since before their retirement and have been somewhat surprised by how well their money has lasted given all they’ve done. They sense that the big trips to Europe are now behind them and will likely keep their future holidays to Australia, with maybe a cruise or two thrown in.
During their drive around Australia Harry and Beth were discussing how nice it would be to help their children financially. Lizzie has struggled to re-establish herself financially post-divorce and their eldest granddaughter Gilly, Brian’s daughter, is about to start at an expensive private school. The couple decide to make an appointment to meet with their adviser as they have the following concerns and questions:
- We’d really like to help our children financially now as opposed to when we’re no longer around, but we’re worried about running out of money ourselves. Even though our big trips are behind us we may have to fund another 20 years and what if one or both of us require aged care?
- If we gift money to our daughter to help pay down her mortgage how can we make sure she doesn’t lose out to another bad relationship? She lost so much in her divorce and we don’t want that to happen again.
- One of our granddaughters has just started at a private school and Brian’s second will start in three years’ time, is there anything we can put together to help Brian with school fees?
Having met with their Treysta adviser, Harry and Beth now have:
- A clear understanding around affordability of gifting through;
- guidelines around how much they can gift without risking their own financial stability.
- options around future funding of aged care if it is needed.
- a sense of the trade-offs they might need to consider, cruises vs education funding for example.
- A strategy to protect any monies that they may consider gifting/loaning to their daughter.
- A framework to discuss what level of financial support they might provide to Brian for school fees over the course of their grandchildren’s schooling.
- Clarity around how the gifting would be fair for both their children.
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