Golden Charter Family Protection Trust

cuddles123

My Mum and several of her friends have chosen and prepaid their funeral through Golden Charter.

Now some of them are being approached about something called Family Protection Trust. This seems to be paying a 'bond' which protects against having to pay any future care home costs, and most importantly, losing their biggest asset, their home, to pay care home costs.

Now, on the basis that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, I'm suspiscious of this. One lady in particular has no family to advise her and had asked me.

They don't have a website, but use Estate Planning Consultants, who advise how much this will cost. This lady has been quoted £2,4645, which is too good to be true if it saves her potentially thousands in fees.

Just wondering if anyone has come across this, or something similar? Why is is not really popular and widely publicised if it's so good?
If everyone did this, surely care homes would go out of business?

Any advice appreciated please.

cuddles123

Since I posted I have spoken to one of the Estate Planning Consultants.

The way he explained it was that you are setting up a trust to protect your assets. The cost of setting up is £2645. This covers all legal fees and there will be no probate and therefore no probate fees (usually 3 - 5% of the value of the estate)

You then place your house and any cash in the trust so that it cannot be seized to pay any fees.
The money can be withdrawn and the trust dissolved at any time if you change your mind.

The reason this is more widely known and used, is that they don't want the government to change legislation to stop this from happening.
Apparently there are more than 10,000 people doing this, and although the LA has challenged, they have never won.
The exclusion to this is the six month rule. If you are currently being assessed for residential care by a social worker (or will be in the next six months) then setting up a trust can be seen as fee avoidance.

I would still like to know if there is another way of checking this out, and perhaps speak to anyone who has done this.
Any idea how I could get Martin involved in checking it out?

dzug1

The other thing being glossed over is how the trust is taxed (ie income tax, etc) and the annual running fees for it.

They are mentioned, but in no great detail

Biggles

So instead of being able to spend your worldly wealth on choosing a really nice, comfortable care home, it means that you will be reliant on the local authority's choice of home and standards, with the single compensating factor being that you get to leave your money to your family (should you have any)? No way!

Anyway, if your family have any decency, I'm sure they would prefer that you were happy in your declining years.

Plus, like the vast majority of people, you probably won't ever need care and both you and your family will then have been deprived of £2½k for absolutely nothing.

BTW, I've heard the phrase 'six month rule' before but I understood that there was no such thing; the LA can look back as far as they want. It would depend on whether there was a likelihood that the person may have had a future need for care at the time the avoiding action was taken.

Savvy_Sue

It would be interesting to see if AgeUK or Counsel and Care had anything to say on the subject of such schemes.

I've only read the OP's posts quickly, but can I just ask what happens on death to the house and any other assets you've put 'in trust'? Do massive fees get taken out at that point?

But I'm with Biggles - I'd rather pay for own care home than let someone else decide where I'm to live!

Also, such schemes usually suggest that nearly everyone ends up needing residential care. It's not the case: it's a small minority.

NotSoWise

I would suggest going to a solicitor specialising in wills. Both OH and myself have put our house into tennents in common and set up a Trust in the will which comes into operation when the first one of us dies.

The law may have changed now ( our will is still valid for what we want to do - we checked) but a solicitor's independent advice is better than a commercial company who may well disappear once they have milked the profits.

sjw100

This Golden Charter bond is not what many here have suggested.

Is it a funeral plan passed off as something more generic. If you read the small print you will see that it covers certain funeral costs, but not all of them. It doesn't guarantee to cover the funeral disbursement costs (cremation fee, doctor's fees, flowers, memorials, burial fees etc.). If you have been told that it will guarantee to cover funeral costs then you have been mis-advised, as the product does not.

Before buying you would do well to ask them how secure their trust fund is also. Perhaps a question like "if every customer cancelled their plan today coudl they give them all their money back".

Funeral Plans from Age UK, Dignity and the Co-op tend to be the most secure.

Biggles

Nobody here has even discussed the Golden Charter, or any other, funeral plan.

The discussion is about the 'Family Protection Trust'.

OnAndUp

cuddles123 wrote: »

My Mum and several of her friends have chosen and prepaid their funeral through Golden Charter.

Now some of them are being approached about something called Family Protection Trust.

The op did mention the Golden Charter funeral Plan in their original post - although they were enquiring about the family protection trust.

I agree with sjw100, I was also going to post about their Funeral plans being a bit of a "con", from my own recent experiences. I will have a look at the paperwork and do a new post to give you an example of the figures.

I feel that it's very important on a website like MSE, people see the harsh realities of these funeral plans, as people may otherwise have read this thread and thought that Golden Charter's funeral plans were good as no-one else had posted otherwise.

OnAndUp

As I mentioned above I have recently had dealings with Golden Charter after my Grandad passed away.

He purchased their Standard Plan for £1050 in 1999 which is now supposed to be worth £2700 if you took the plan out today. You really have to read the small print as things that you would expect to be covered for a funeral are not.

It makes me so mad :mad: he died obviously thinking that he had paid for everything, which would be the whole point of taking out one of these policies. We went with everything on the Standard Plan that he had chosen not changing anything. BUT there is still another £600+ to be paid.

It's SO wrong, that is broken down into:
£165 for the Church fees, heating & organist
£40 leaflets
£100 to put the notice in the 2 local papers where he lived
£250 to purchase a grave (you can't exactly have a funeral burial without one!)
£50 for conveyance of the body to the chapel of rest as he died on a Saturday i.e. out of "normal office hours" (this is the one that makes my blood boil the most!).

None of these things are extravagant or even in addition to what most people consider the norm for a funeral.

I'm quite good at understanding financial documents but even I would have been a bit fooled by the way they market it. There are graphs showing how the amount you pay will meet the shortfall for the cost of a funeral when you die.

There is a sheet with the glossy brochure -
10 Important Questions
Question 1. Does the Funeral Plan Guarantee that my family or estate will never be asked for another penny? YES - Once your plan is paid for, there will be nothing more to pay for the selected arrangements unless you change the plan details.

Obviously we never changed the plan details or any of the arrangements but "selected arrangements" is the clever misleading wording in that statement.

I would just like this to be a warning to everyone who buys one of these type of plans to make sure you know exactly what you are paying for and make sure you read the small print and if your not sure about anything ASK!

Errata

Onandup - as I posted on your other thread, the website gives details of what the £2700 will cover and seems to me quite clear and straightforward

• The funeral director's services
• Attending to all necessary funeral arrangements
• Advice on the Certification and Registration of Death, and related documentation
• A Simple Coffin, suitable for burial or cremation
• Local conveyance of the deceased from the place of death within mainland UK to a suitable resting place within 15 miles, during normal office hours
• The care of the deceased prior to burial or cremation
• The provision of a hearse to a local cemetery or crematorium
• Cremation or burial where locally available
• Fees payable to doctors and clergy
• Viewing and other services are available at additional cost