Care Home fees

JBull · 23 April 2012 at 9:29PM

I'm looking at paying for care for my husband with dementia. Has anyone experience with Society for Later Life Advisors, Wealth Care Partnership or Immediate Care Plans?

ManchesterAE1 · 24 April 2012 at 1:04AM

Hi JBULL,

Sorry to hear of your situation. I can say that I do have experience in immediate care plans having looked at a few for friends. They have their tax advantages over traditional annuities in that the income can often be paid tax free to the care provider, and the annuity providers will often rate the policies based on the health of the life to be assured which represents an advantage over a traditional annuity in certain circumstances. Other alternatives would depend on your husband's sources of income, tax status , existing investments, etc and whether he would actually have to pay for the care fees under the government assessment. any adviser worth their salt will take CRAG guidelines into consideration (charging for residential accomodation guidelines) and to advise on immediate needs annuities, the adviser should hold an appropriate qualification as specified by the FSA.

The market for long term care annuities is now somewhat restricted with fewer than five openly available care fee annuity providers (last time I checked) not to say that they don't have their place

The suitability of such a product to your husband's own circumstances would depend on a whole host of factors. However, I would say that it would make sense to seek professional advice given the complexity of the planning often involved. Society for Later Life Advisors is a good place to start! as is unbiased dot co dot uk (sorry not yet able to post links) whereby you are able to browse advisors by the qualifications they hold.

The wealth care partnership I have never come accross before, however they aren't in my neck of the woods! I would always take a quick look on fsa dot gov dot uk to see if they hold the relevant permissions to advise.

There is nothing to stop you seeking advice from more than one source. Advisers will generally not charge for an initial consultation (however I would first check with them) and sometimes it can be worthwhile getting a few different solutions to the same problem.

Hope all goes well with the planning & best of luck for the future

A