My parents died within a few months of each other, about four years ago. (Both were well into their eighties.) They were well off but my Dad had set up a very complicated set of investments for the purpose, in his words, of "keeping it away from Ed Balls" (who at the time was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Gordon Brown.)

Mum and Dad both left everything, apart from some small personal bequests, to a trust fund which my brother, nephew and nieces and I could all use to e.g. purchase a house, start a business etc. We (mainly my brother) started to consolidate Dad's various hard-to-get assets into the fund. For some reason, the cash from one of the liquidated investments could not be paid directly into the trust account but had to be paid into our personal accounts. HMRC took the opportunity to tax it at the emergency rate, almost 40 %. Dad must have been rotating.

We eventually received a rebate, after long correspondence with HMRC which was essentially a Father Ted act. ("That money was just resting in my account.")

Mum left two Japanese vases to the daughters of her cousin. They were hideous things. You needed sunglasses if you were in the same room. There is still a polite contest for second place for the inheritance.