Man Spends Parents Retirement Fund On Lavish Lifestyle

Noel and Margaret Foreman thought their oldest son was helping them invest £120,000 for their retirement. But instead of using the money to help his parents, 52-year-old Neil spent all the money on cars, luxury holidays, golf lessons, fine wines and expensive meals. Neil felt that his siblings got more than he did as a child and this was his chance to live the life of luxury he always wanted. "We have always done the very best we could for each of our three children. It appears that Neil has formed the opinion that his brother and sister were treated differently in that they both had a private education. What he fails to appreciate is that at the time he was going to school I was a very junior police officer earning just £9.50 a week. Only when we went into business could we afford a better education for his younger brother and sister," said Mr Foreman.

Comments

pic of the son?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm nominating this guy for douchebag of the year. His pic should be posted everywhere.

Re: pic of the son?

[gstoddart]

His pic should be posted everywhere.

It is in The Fine Article ... go ahead. :-P

Cheers

Re: pic of the son?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who gives £120,000 to their kid so they can put it in a savings account for them. When they "went into business." When it is their retirement fund without which they are "struggling to pay" their heating bills.

How about this: Parents lend their son money, he squanders it, they play a victim to the media with the "retirement fund" business to get back at him. Which explains why he says it was a loan and reported them to the police for harassment.

Sure, the guy is still a douchebag. But it might run in the family.

Re: pic of the son?

[zippyspringboard]

Who gives £120,000 to their kid so they can put it in a savings account for them.

Just a guess, but perhaps someone trying to dodge taxes, or exploit some sort of loophole. The article claims that the son has some money in an offshore account and is refusing to give it back. From this I make the inference that the son knows how to handle, transfer and manage money in ways that the ordinary person isn't familiar with.

Re: pic of the son?

[natehoy]

The most likely explanation is that the parents simply transferred the money to Neil's account or a common account so he could make investment decisions without them having to approve every transaction. Once it's in a common account, he could then withdraw it and move it to an account under his exclusive control.

However, it is possible that this was also used to get around inheritance taxes, assuming US and British inheritance laws are somewhat similar.

Under US tax law, parents can give money or property to their children within specified annual limits. Those gifts are not subject to inheritance taxes, but there are strict limits on the value that may be transferred each year (you can't just gift a million-dollar house to your kids the day before you die). Once the parents die, the estate becomes subject to inheritance tax and on a large estate they can be pretty high. So a lot of parents who trust their kids will slowly shift some of their assets to their kids while they are alive. This is an important part of estate planning.

Obviously with a really large estate you can't transfer all of it, but the law is designed to allow average citizens to transfer most or all of their assets to their kids without the State taxing it.

I'm sure the Mothers Curse has been invoked:

[jd2112]

I hope when you have kids they are Just Like You...

not a man, adult baby

[Anonymous Coward]

a man does no such thing