Learning that you’re the beneficiary of an inheritance can be an emotionally loaded time. Considering an inheritance typically follows the loss of someone significant, for most, this is a period imbued with sadness, stress, anxiety, and trepidation—often, all at once.
Having helped many testators, beneficiaries, and their families navigate matters of inheritance over the years, the gravity of these situations, and the emotions that come with them, is not lost on me.
In fact, it’s because of the high emotions of this time that having someone like me in your corner is so important. I can provide clear, rational financial advice that is unmarred by feelings running hot.
Because while completely valid, emotions can cloud or completely obstruct your view of the practical financial considerations that come with inheriting. That’s why, if there’s one thing I’d encourage beneficiaries to do, it’s to reframe how they’re thinking about the financial side of their inheritance. Not as a windfall to react to, but as a reset point—a time to pause, discover your new position, and following this, develop a financial plan from scratch.
I say ‘discover’ deliberately. There’s a surface-level assumption that an inheritance arrives in the form of cash, but the reality is that a pure cash inheritance is unusual. Sure, it might be cash, or it might be real estate, investments, personal assets—or a combination of all. And that’s still just the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps your inheritance involves an entity, such as a private company or a family trust, in which case you may not have actually inherited any assets in your own name. Or perhaps you’ve inherited a large share in the control of a company—which begs questions like: Who are the other key stakeholders involved? What assets are owned through the company? Are there properties that are being leased as a part of a business? The list goes on and on.
There are few instances where inheritances come pre-packaged and ready to serve, which is why we stress the importance of the discovery phase: dedicating, with the expertise and guidance of your financial advisor, a window of time to actually understand what it is that you’ve inherited. And beyond that, how these inherited assets “walk and talk”. The questions you’ll want answers to depend on the specifics of your unique situation. As a starting point, these are some of the questions you’ll want to clarify:
Armed with the clarity of knowing exactly what it is you’ve inherited, the next step is not to build on your financial plan. It’s to build your plan. Starting anew, from scratch.
There’s no sense in continuing forward with the strategies that served you prior to this wealth transfer, because they were designed for a fundamentally different reality than the one you’re living in now. An inheritance changes your financial position—and with it, your goals and your priorities; your risks and risk tolerance. It really does require you to hit that reset, sit down with your advisor, and design a plan from the ground up.
That new plan should be anchored in SMART objectives. They must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Without SMART objectives locked in, it’s easy to fall into vague ambitions that sound good but don’t provide clear direction. Take the common desire to “set the kids up.” What does that actually mean? For some, it’s paying for the best schooling possible. For others, it’s helping with a deposit on a first home. And for others still, it may be clearing HELP debt. Each has a different cost, timeframe, and trade-off. Clarity matters.
Just as important as defining your goals, is understanding how these goals impact one another. If you decide to pay down your children’s HELP debt, will you still be able to upgrade your home before retirement? If you commit funds to a house deposit for them, does that delay your own ability to retire comfortably? Just like trade-offs are an immovable part of life, they are part and parcel of financial management too.
The benefit of working with a comprehensive advisor is that we can stress-test the possible scenarios to determine the realistic impacts of a major financial decision—including how it will likely affect your other objectives. Using forward-looking modelling in this way gives you a logical viewpoint of how today’s decisions will impact your broader financial position, which is essential for long-term, sustainable wealth.
Of course, no plan is ever set in stone. Life moves, circumstances shift, and what felt like the right objective one year may not hold the same weight five years down the track. That’s why it’s important to revisit your plan regularly, at least annually, to check whether your goals still align with your reality and if not, adjust the dials as needed.
What often strikes me is how this process—receiving an inheritance, understanding what it truly means, and building a plan around it—sparks people to think more broadly about the future. Every beneficiary I’ve worked with comes away from this experience with a stronger drive to have their affairs in order and to prepare their own children. Having experienced firsthand just how complex and overwhelming this journey can be, they want the next generation to face it with greater clarity and far less difficulty.
Because inheritance, at its heart, is not only about assets. It’s about people, families, and futures. It’s about finding a way to carry forward the legacy of the past, while making decisions that feel steady and considered in the present. By treating inheritance as a reset; by pausing, discovering, and planning with intention, you give yourself the chance to move through this time with greater mental clarity and greater confidence in your decisions.
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Has this article sparked a question around your personal wealth circumstances? Don’t sit with it alone—reach out to Wealth Manager, Jes Wilkinson, for a confidential conversation.
Note: If you’re the person looking to leave an inheritance and want to set the next generation up for success, you might also find our previous article helpful: Wealth transfer: Setting the next generation up for success