Hi, I (45/M) lost my mom and both my grandparents (her parents) in the last 5 months. While very tragic, none of it was sudden or unexpected. GPs were 96, mom had had a stroke several years ago and was declining. I'm in therapy, and doing as well as could be expected I imagine. My wife (43/F) has been a rock, and we are doing well.

Onto the other part- I'm in line to inherit somewhere between $300-350k from my grandparents' estate. The total depends on items they owned that are going to be auctioned (art, antique furniture, etc). From there, I don't really know what to do with it. I own a home with around $285k left on the mortgage (2.625%), a vehicle with ~$13k left on the loan (2.25%), and a solar installation loan ~$18k (1.2%). Have ~120k in the stock market, $10k emergency fund in savings, ~$8k in checking. Combined income of $130k/yr in LCOL state, we are doing fine. No kids, no CC debt, max out the 401k already w/ no employer match. We already have three cars for the two of us, one of which is new and the other ones are fine, no need to buy a new car, no big purchases we've been holding off on or anything.

My question is, am I in need of a financial advisor? Should I have one already? I know the loan rates are low, but I'm tempted to pay off the vehicle and solar install just to have less debt on the books, especially the way the market has been going the last year or so. There's some home repairs/upgrades we would like to make, probably around ~$40k (which means closer to $55-60 probably when all is said and done).

I guess I will find out shortly when probate comes through, but will the executor or whomever just FedEx me a big check for $300K? Do they do a wire transfer? Seems wild to me to just waltz into a bank branch and fill out a deposit slip with a bunch of zeros.

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ChazinPA t1_iyf6bqf wrote on November 30, 2022 at 10:57 PM

I'm sorry for your losses. That's a very tough few months.

2 calls I would recommend, a tax attorney and an investment advisor.

Good luck.

time_wasting_student t1_iyf6dew wrote on November 30, 2022 at 10:57 PM

No offense, but even with the windfall you don't have enough money to need a financial advisor. Don't waste your time or money.

Everything you need to know is in the sidebar of this subreddit, especially the section about windfalls.

cvonessn t1_iyfdo36 wrote on November 30, 2022 at 11:52 PM

Get out of debt....all debt, pay off everything.

It may not make 100% sense financially but psychologically it is a huge game changer.

Levertki1 t1_iyfb5qz wrote on November 30, 2022 at 11:33 PM

I would payoff everything it it were me or you came to me (fa/cpa). Inheriting money doesn’t incur taxes but if any of the inheritance was ira money, you may want to stretch it out rather than take it out all at once. Good luck.

[deleted] t1_iyf4tcd wrote on November 30, 2022 at 10:46 PM

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irie56 t1_iyf8r3t wrote on November 30, 2022 at 11:15 PM

Ask for referrals from friends, family, business owners. But like the other comment a tax attorney and financial advisor will help.

MikeWPhilly t1_iyfb5ob wrote on November 30, 2022 at 11:33 PM

You can get a financial advisor but frankly unless it’s a networked connection for the amount of money it’s not worth it. You won’t be able to trust they are decent. If it were me you have two options:

Buy an investment property. Could be lucrative cash flow for you and you won’t lose the down payment.
invest in an index. Yes this year sucked, especially in S&P. but realistically if you put it in an index and come back in 15 years. you aren’t going to be unhappy with the returns. And considering your age still plenty of time to run it up.

I can’t picture for the life of me why you would pay off the debt. Especially since you aren’t struggling to pay the bills.