We're worried that our house can be sold to pay for health care.

74jax

Arrem wrote: »

We are married, both of us are fit and well but worry if we should be taking steps to secure our property for the benefit of our children after we die.

My mother had a stroke around 4 years ago and my dad is now suffering from ill health due to leukaemia. Both still live at home and own their homes outright. It is their desire to one day pass their home and savings onto myself and my brother.

Should the day come when they both need to go into care, their needs come before any kind of inheritance my brother and I get. I could not bare the thought of them in some care home funded by the government when they have assets that could make them more comfortable in a care home that they contribute too.

Yes it is true, they saved all their lives and the someone who didn't could get a care home free, yet my parents need to pay for it - just because they saved. However selling their home would go towards a fair superior care home facility than one which they didn't contribute too.

Neither my brother nor I see an inheritance as a 'given right'. I would rather my parents spent their money now on making their last years as comfortable, easy and pain free as they can.

Don't forget you can 'gift' certain amounts each year if you do want to give money to your children/grand children. But please don't feel guilt at having to give an inheritance.

angelil

Or, alternatively, you could put a living will in place so that you don't get to the stage where you need a care home anyway and your children still get their inheritance. Just saying

Arrem

We have received some very useful replies thank you, and rather disappointingly, some which are beginning to turn it into a soapbox for personal views and self gratification. Just in case its not absolutely clear - My Wife and I have always paid our dues willingly and on time, and we have no intention of avoiding our social responsibilities now or in the future.
Now, to get this back on topic once more,
It is not clear to me whether the "Family Protection Trust" question has been addressed and I would really appreciate some factual assistance in that.

margaretclare

elmer wrote: »

I am currently assisting a bereaved Mother who gave her house to her daughter. The daughter died a year ago and the mother will soon be homeless as her son in law is trying to sell her house.

The mother is 82 and moved into this house when she married. She was advised to give her daughter her house to avoid care home fees after her husband died 10 years ago.

Her daughter was 48 when she died.

She is very distressed and bitter about the whole thing

elmer

'She was advised' - well, that was very bad advice. There may be a case against whoever gave this advice, if he/she happened to be a professional e.g. a solicitor or financial advisor.

I assume the daughter died intestate and therefore her whole estate including the house went to her next-of-kin, her husband and not her mother?

This tragic case illustrates just how much of a minefield this whole thing is.

To the OP, bear in mind that it is only a minority of people who end their days needing full-time residential care which has to be paid for. If one of you continues to live at home the house cannot be touched. I don't know what the likelihood is of both of you needing full-time residential care at the same time - fairly low, I would have thought. The vast majority of people are able to continue living at home, even with paid help coming in. It is worth taking a good hard look at your home as you get older, even if it means spending money on e.g. a step-in shower rather than a bath, grab-rails, easy-care, those kind of things.

I'm afraid I know nothing about Family Protection Trusts.

GobbledyGook

You need to take good advise from people who actually know what is what rather than relying on your own interpretation of information online.

Also you need to think of every possible scenario. There's an old man who lives near us who is possibly about to lose his home. After his wife died he decided to put the house in his son's name. All well meaning, but the son and his wife have split up and the house is counted in the assets and may have to be sold as part of the divorce.

margaretclare

GobbledyGook wrote: »

You need to take good advise from people who actually know what is what rather than relying on your own interpretation of information online.

Also you need to think of every possible scenario. There's an old man who lives near us who is possibly about to lose his home. After his wife died he decided to put the house in his son's name. All well meaning, but the son and his wife have split up and the house is counted in the assets and may have to be sold as part of the divorce.

This is another example of what can happen and what a minefield it all is.

I was about to suggest to the OP 'googling' Family Protection Trusts, but I tried this and nothing came up.

Person_one

Arrem wrote: »

We have received some very useful replies thank you, and rather disappointingly, some which are beginning to turn it into a soapbox for personal views and self gratification. Just in case its not absolutely clear - My Wife and I have always paid our dues willingly and on time, and we have no intention of avoiding our social responsibilities now or in the future.
Now, to get this back on topic once more,
It is not clear to me whether the "Family Protection Trust" question has been addressed and I would really appreciate some factual assistance in that.

Hmm, that doesn't quite add up.

You don't want to avoid your responsibilities except this particular one?

It seems the topic is somebody who wants to get out of using a useless (at the point at which this becomes an issue) asset to pay for care at the end of their life.

Why shouldn't you pay?

GobbledyGook

The other thing to bear in mind is the impact it could have on your children should they ever be made redundant, for example, and be needing to claim something like housing benefit/LHA. "Owning" a house can impact on things like this, even if they can really access the capital/equity involved.

Seriously - don't rely on online information. For your children's sakes as much as your own you need to speak to an expert (and preferably not an expert who will want to sell you one of these trust things - an impartial one).

Mojisola

Taadaa wrote: »

Can I also point out that any assets given away in the past seven years immediately before the person(s) needing care are also taken as a part of the estate. This rule was brought in to prevent parents from giving their assets to other family members and by-passing the then new rules.

The seven year rule applies to inheritance tax, not deprivation of assets. There is no cut-off point for DOA if it can be shown that a transaction went through with the intention of gaining benefits.

Unless you can come up with a very good reason why you would hand your home over to someone else, you would probably be assessed as if you still owned it.

Also, as regards IHT, if you give your house away but continue to live in it without paying rent to the new owner you will be counted as having a beneficial interest in the asset.

Nicki

margaretclare wrote: »

This is another example of what can happen and what a minefield it all is.

I was about to suggest to the OP 'googling' Family Protection Trusts, but I tried this and nothing came up.

That's funny, because I also googled it and got lots of hits. Including a couple of threads specifically about them on this very forum, and a link to a BBC Panorama programme all setting out potential pitfalls such as discussed on this thread, and also a suggestion that they would deplete the value of the estate because not tax efficient and have management fees. But I have no first hand knowledge of these kinds of trusts, so OP needs to do their own research, but a search on google and MSE would be a reasonable start.