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Golden Charter Family Protection Trust
Comments
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Hi Cuddles123
My mum took out a Family Protection Trust a couple of years ago. At the time I thought it sounded too good to be true but she insisted went ahead with it anyway.
So far so good, when my mum lived in her house she was classed as one of the trust beneficiaries and was exembt from Capital Gains tax. She is now in a nice care home which we picked, there was a bit of difficulty with funding but the Trust people just dealt with it, and there was no charge from them. To stay in the private home we picked, my mum just pays a top-up of about £150 (which comes from her pension) a week towards her care, and I contribute a further £35 pounds and the Council handles the rest.
I don’t expect to pay massive fees when my mum passes away, and I have been told that when she does that as most of her assets are protected in the Trust that it won’t have to go through probate at all and so will avoid those fees.
Oh and with the trust she took out there is no annual fee, don’t know if that applies to all trusts or just the one she took out, as I have heard from friends that not all family protection trusts are the same as the one she got.
Cheers
Wee Gem0 -
Thanks WeeGem
My father is in the process of looking at this trust - he has already bought the Funeral Plan and is now quite determined to buy the Family Protection Trust too - are there any questions that we need to ask when he inevitably gets the salesman back in the new year??
I know that he wants to tie up his loose ends, but I am very concerned that he is going to be talked into buying something he doesn't need....
But it does sound like your Mum is happy with her purchase?
AuntyH0 -
Today's episode of BBC 1 "Rip Off Britain" discussed Family Protection Trusts.
The "resident" solicitor said they should cost a few hundred to set up, not a few thousand.
He also warned about some of the pitfalls, the biggest being a challenge from the local authority.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018jc9d.0 -
[FONT="]AuntyH[/FONT]
[FONT="]My mum is perfectly happy with the Trust and it's done the job for her. Great value for money.
[/FONT]
[FONT="]When the salesman comes back to see your dad I would check out if there are any annual management charges? Will the Trust avoid Probate Costs? What are the other advantages of the Trust? My Mum was told that a Family Protection Trust is not just for avoiding care costs but has many other benefits.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Wee Gem[/FONT]0 -
John_Pierpoint wrote: »Today's episode of BBC 1 "Rip Off Britain" discussed Family Protection Trusts.
The "resident" solicitor said they should cost a few hundred to set up, not a few thousand.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018jc9d.
I have been quoted £2650 by a Building Society.
Any advice on where to go to pay "a few hundred"?
Thanks0 -
It depends on what you want and how you intend to "manage" the investments.
If the family are up to DIY then the actual document is likely to cost 300 - 1000 from a competent solicitor BUT you are on your own. No complicated fact find and validity of "advice".
Beware of the life of trust and the ability of the manager to milk them year after year for fees, not to mention the tax man extracting 50% income tax.
If the Trust is designed to benefit heirs for 4 generations, then there has to be a situation with no heirs under 18, to bring it to a premature end.0 -
Do consult the solicitor who has written your will, and look for Interest in possession trust.
I now have a quote for under £1000.0 -
There are 2 separate things being discussed here.
One is paying in advance for your funeral. The other is 'protecting your assets'.
Maybe it's the way my mind works, quirky, a bit pedantic perhaps, but I think this is rather an odd thing to want to do. Bit like living in a medieval castle which might be attacked at any time, or a Stone Age hill-fort.
What happens once you've 'protected your assets' if, for instance, you find you need to use those assets, but they're all tied up in a trust? Too many unanswered questions IMHO.[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Æ[/FONT]r ic wisdom funde, [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æ[/FONT]r wear[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]ð[/FONT] ic eald.
Before I found wisdom, I became old.0 -
Hi All
As an ex local authority social worker in Adult Social Care, I would like to respond to a couple of points made/questions asked: The person who said that the 6 month rule was a myth, in relation to looking into an elderly person's financies was in fact correct, as the length of time the local authority will look back into your affairs if you say you don't have any assets is 7 years! Also, as taking out a Trust (hopefully) ensures that you rely on the local authority to pay your care costs, doesn't mean to say that you have to make do with a LA run care home. As the person whose mother is currently in a care home and who took out a trust, if you choose a privately run home (and let's face it most people do these days as there are hardly any LA ones left open!) then you have to pay a top up fee directly to the home, which is the difference between what the LA say is the going rate and what the home choose to charge.
I do sympathise with the person who complained about his grandad's funeral costs he had to pay despite having had a Funeral Plan, however I must say that our experience was a little different. My father, who had a Golden Charter funeral plan, died on a weekend in hospital just before Christmas. However, the only balance left to pay which we were charged were for family flowers, which TBH I thought, fair enough, I wouldn't have expected my dad to pay for his own flowers and the organists fee, which I suppose is an optional extra. So overall it came to just over £100 which I thought wasn't bad. Admittedly, my father had previously purchased a burial plot though goodness knows how much he paid. We didn't pay to bury him but will have to pay for a headstone when the ground settles in about 6-12 months time. What really annoys me though is we will have to also pay about £300 to the cemetery to have the headstone placed.
The reason I was looking at the post is my mum (who also has a Golden Charter Funeral Plan) has this week been approached to buy a Family Protection Trust from Golden Charter. We have sent the salesman away and are thinking about it as I wanted to check it out first, though mum thinks Golden Charter are a good idea I might consider using Beneficent Law who are a not for profit company.
Sorry for rambling on but I thought it might be useful to share my relevant experiences.0 -
margaretclare wrote: »There are 2 separate things being discussed here.
One is paying in advance for your funeral. The other is 'protecting your assets'.
Maybe it's the way my mind works, quirky, a bit pedantic perhaps, but I think this is rather an odd thing to want to do. Bit like living in a medieval castle which might be attacked at any time, or a Stone Age hill-fort.
What happens once you've 'protected your assets' if, for instance, you find you need to use those assets, but they're all tied up in a trust? Too many unanswered questions IMHO.
You can set up a structure with your children or other people you trust and they have the option of lending you, what used to be your wealth or better your spouse's or a more distant relatives wealth. So you are managing to live in a hill fort rented or mortgaged.
The objective is to die penniless.
Alternatively you could do what my father did: borrow money from his mother to set up a business, so that when she died he could repay it to her estate. Pay 40% tax on it and then inherit the other 60% - that is the other side of the coin for families who don't talk about money or cannot trust each other.0
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