Readers’ forum: Were money transfers to children gifts or loans?

Unfortunately one of my high net worth clients has been diagnosed with a serious illness and his prospects of long-term survival do not look good.

We have been going through his financial affairs in order to have as clean as possible a situation for his wife and family should the worst happen.

One issue has come to light. He has three adult children and for each of them he has provided (to use a neutral term) substantial amounts of money (£100 000 plus in each case) to help them get on the housing ladder.

I asked him whether these were loans or gifts and he says that that these were all informal arrangements. As the children started to earn substantial income and/or made a profit on selling their houses they would probably have paid back some money to him but nothing was ever fixed.

The...