The five-step calm-down framework we walk every new client through — and why the first thing to do is, mostly, nothing.
An inheritance rarely arrives at a convenient moment. It comes wrapped in grief, paperwork, and a stack of well-meaning advice from people who mean well and don’t quite know your situation. The first thing we usually say at Securinvest is the thing most people don’t expect: slow down.
The first month — and why doing nothing is doing something
A lump sum changes the maths of your life. It doesn’t change the rest of you. Decisions you make in the first weeks — paying off the mortgage in one go, signing a contract on a property, lending to a sibling, switching your super — are decisions you’ll live with for years. Reversing them is slow, expensive, and sometimes not possible.
In our experience, the best inheritances are the ones that sit quietly in a high-interest account for two to three months while the rest of the estate is wound up, the tax position is clear, and you have time to remember what you actually want the money to do. Doing nothing for eight weeks is not laziness. It’s the cheapest, most reversible decision you can make.
Step 1–2: Park the money, then map the obligations
Park the cash somewhere safe and boring. A separate high-interest savings account at a major bank is fine. Two reasons: it earns something while you think, and it physically separates the money from your day-to-day spending so you don’t accidentally absorb it.
Then map the obligations. There are usually three layers: the estate’s — final tax return, super death benefit tax if the deceased had a non-tax-dependant beneficiary, any outstanding debts; the asset-level — capital gains cost base resets on inherited property and shares, ongoing rates / insurance on real estate, dividend reinvestment plans that need redirecting; and yours — does this nudge you into a higher marginal tax bracket this year, does it change your eligibility for any concessions, does it change how you should be contributing to super.
Step 3–4: Decide what stays (and what changes)
Now the real conversation. Not “what should I do with the money?” but “what does this let me do differently?” Some clients use an inheritance to retire 18 months earlier. Some use it to clear a mortgage and redirect what was the repayment into super. Some use it to help adult children into their first home in a way that doesn’t blow up their relationship. Some keep it almost entirely invested and treat the income as a quiet upgrade to lifestyle.
There’s no right answer in the abstract. There is usually a clear best answer once we sit down with your current cash flow, your existing assets, your timeline to retirement, and what you actually want the next decade to look like.
Step 5: Walk it forward with one person who has the whole picture
The biggest mistake we see is fragmenting the advice. The accountant tells you to put it in super. The mortgage broker tells you to clear the loan. The friend at the BBQ tells you to buy an investment property. Each of them is right within their own slice — and the combination is often worse than doing nothing.
A good adviser holds all the slices in one place. Tax, super, debt, insurance, the next five to ten years of your life. That’s the work. The framework is calm; the answer is yours.
Talk to us. If you’ve recently inherited — or are about to — book a free 20-minute conversation and we’ll walk you through the five steps for your situation. Book a Conversation.