Bank of MUM AND DAD

Want to give money to your adult children? Finance writer Katie Binns suggests steps you can take and explains how inheritance tax works

- Katie Binns

Being a parent doesn't end when your children leave home. Many of us help them out financially as they buy a house, get married and start families of their own. In fact, 36% of parents in the UK are currently helping their adult children with their finances, according to TSB research.

Almost a third say they will provide financial support for childcare over the next two years, and just under a fifth say they will cover bills and other household expenses. That works out to an average of £870 each. A few -4% - will even contribute to paying off debts.

'The big trend is parents feeling the responsibility to make a substantial contribution towards a house deposit. And sometimes you get parents wanting to do this to their own detriment they give away money that leaves them vulnerable,' says lan Millward, an independent financial adviser. 'But, like the advice that you get about life jackets on an aeroplane, you need to make yourself safe before you can look after someone else.

For those of us in the fortunate position of being able to help our children financially, it's not quite as simple as popping a wad of cash into their bank accounts.