Do protective property trusts (PPT)work?

petemcdermott

My ageing in-laws have been approached by a firm offering a PPT to avoid their home being sold to fund care.

This sounds like a scam to me.

Does anyone have any knowledge of them?

Pete McD

yelf

as far as Im aware, if the house is owned as joint tenants then the local government cant force the sale while the spouse stays living there. So yes I wouldnt listen to them

margaretclare

You say they've been approached by a firm. Something like a cold call, was it? Just 'on spec', drumming up business, not knowing your in-laws' situation or feelings on the matter?

Are your ageing in-laws likely to need care, both of them at the same time? Remember it is only a minority of people who end their days in full-time residential care, and as yelf says, if one of the couple remains living at home then their house can't be touched.

Sounds as if this 'firm' is playing on the kind of urban myths, pub talk, that are fairly common at present, that we see illustrated on this site time and again, and using scare tactics. What would be the advantage to your in-laws - the said firm are not in it out of the goodness of their hearts, are they?

McKneff

I agree with all the others, they are out to make money,
tell them not to touch them with a barge pole.

dunstonh

Anything you do with the explicit reason to avoid long term care means test will actually be reversed. It is not avoidance. It is evasion. However, if there are other genuine reasons for doing something that is not included in the means test (like taking out an investment bond on your investments as its tax efficient and has lower charges, or a discretionary will trust for IHT purposes) then its perfectly fine.

Decent solicitors and financial advisers do not cold call. Most scams that exist out there come from cold calling. So, as a general rule, if you avoid cold calling, you will avoid the scams.

This sounds like a scam

dunstonh

That was strange.

Moments after I finished posting above, I got a phone call and it was a cold call from a will writers on my business line (which is also TPS) asking if we had done our Wills. There was that gap between me answering and them speaking which nearly always means call centre or machine call filtering (the type used in scams or mass calling).

It just reinforced what I said. Decent firms do not cold call.

LongTermLurker

dunstonh wrote: »

That was strange.

Moments after I finished posting above, I got a phone call and it was a cold call from a will writers on my business line (which is also TPS) asking if we had done our Wills.

Did you ask if they'd like financial advice?

It always makes me think how funny it would be to start reverse-selling to cold callers

petemcdermott

Thanks to all repliers (?)

You have confirmed my suspicions.

Regards

Pete

dunstonh

It always makes me think how funny it would be to start reverse-selling to cold callers

It does. Problem is that you dont often think of it at the time.

sloughflint

dunstonh wrote: »

(like taking out an investment bond on your investments as its tax efficient and has lower charges, or a discretionary will trust for IHT purposes)

.....This sounds like a scam

I'm surprised that someone can mention a DWT in a post yet give the impression of never having heard of a PPT.

petemcdermott wrote: »

Do protective property trusts (PPT)work?
Does anyone have any knowledge of them?

Pete McD

Yes, they do work and are quite common.
http://www.cunningtons.co.uk/trusts.shtml

Caution should be exercised however on who does the work.

dunstonh

I'm surprised that someone can mention a DWT in a post yet give the impression of never having heard of a PPT.

I dont know how you get that from one (cropped) sentence.

I have never known any solicitor go cold calling like that. The only types tend to be low skilled Will writers who charge a fortune to often do a low quality job. Also, they have jumped into PPT without knowing any facts. That is why I think it is a scam.

If you do something with the explicit documented reason of avoiding the means test, then it can be included in the means test.

Caution should be exercised however on who does the work.

Which is what the responses have been focusing on.