Fee-only fiduciary Advisor and CIO of Ivory Hill, LLC. I help business owners and high-net-worth families navigate inheritance, business sales, and retirement plan design.
You just inherited a brokerage account from your parent. It sits at Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, or another firm. You have no idea what is in it, what to do with it, or whether you should keep it, move it, or sell everything immediately. This moment is critical. The decisions you
You know this conversation needs to happen. Your parents should have a will, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and a clear estate plan. You know that without these documents in place, your family could face months of legal complications, significant costs, and confusion about what your parents actually wanted. But
You are expecting to inherit money from your parents. You picture yourself getting $200,000, maybe $500,000. You have vague plans for what you will do with it: pay off your mortgage, invest it, maybe take a trip. Then your parent dies. You receive $35,000. And you are
You inherit $100,000 worth of your parent's stock. Your parent bought it 20 years ago for $12,000. You do not owe a penny in capital gains tax on that $88,000 gain. Not today. Not ever. Not unless you sell it for more than $100,000.
You just inherited a house. It was your parent's home, full of memories, and now it is yours. But you do not live there. You have a mortgage somewhere else. Or you live out of state. Or the house needs work. Or you simply do not want it.
The honest answer is that most people do not, and most people are right to make that decision deliberately rather than by default. Roughly 70% of heirs fire their parents' financial advisor within a year of inheriting, according to industry research from Cerulli Associates and multiple wirehouse internal studies.
If you inherited a Traditional IRA in 2026 from a parent or other non-spouse, you must empty the entire account by December 31 of the 10th calendar year following the original owner's death. If your parent had already started taking Required Minimum Distributions before they died, you
I have been overseeing finances for people in major life transitions for over a decade. I have seen inheritances handled well and inheritances handled terribly. Katie's story is one of the worst. Sadly, it is very common. Katie did not call me until months after the damage was
Inheritance
Don't spend a dollar of inherited money for 60 to 90 days. Seven steps before you touch it: death certificates, your own fiduciary team, sorting tax buckets, the inherited IRA 10-year clock, going invisible until you have a plan.