Transfer of Equity?

margaretclare

meer53 wrote: »

Toddy Senior, you won't get much sympathy here for your plans.

If you want to give your son £50k, why not give him it now ?

What a good idea - why ever not?

The thing is, you see Mr Toddy Senior, those of us who've been around here for a while have heard it all before, repeatedly, ad infinitum. It's not new, as I wrote on page 1. If I can just spell it out, if you have an asset or assets which can be turned into cash, and if you require full-time residential care which must be paid for, you are expected to use up those assets to within a certain level. Your late MIL had no saleable assets so she got her care free, but nothing is really free - it had to be paid for by other tax-payers, and guess who those people are? The like of you and me.

Person_one

Toddy_Senior wrote: »

Having bought our house and paid off all our debts, why can't my wife and I pass on to our son a reasonable sum of money (£50,000, say)?

You can leave him £23,250, will that do?

Your taxes and NI are not a savings pot for your own use, you seem to have greatly misunderstand the whole system.

HPoirot

Of course you can pass on to your son Toddy Senior, just make sure you and your wife drop dead instead of needing care. Easier than putting the kettle on, surely?

margaretclare

It amazes me how many people we get coming here talking about 'going into a care home' as if it's a foregone conclusion. Yes, it happens to a minority of people. But not everybody, by any means.

DH and I are older than the OP. We have various health issues between us, but the main thing to be grateful for is that we retain all our 'marbles'. Although, so had the man we visited last Sunday in that nursing home near Virginia Water. I wouldn't mind at all going into somewhere like that, but even he is hoping to return home with a full care package. It was this one: http://www.carehome.co.uk/carehome.cfm/searchazref/20001060MERA

Person_one

margaretclare wrote: »

It amazes me how many people we get coming here talking about 'going into a care home' as if it's a foregone conclusion. Yes, it happens to a minority of people. But not everybody, by any means.

DH and I are older than the OP. We have various health issues between us, but the main thing to be grateful for is that we retain all our 'marbles'. Although, so had the man we visited last Sunday in that nursing home near Virginia Water. I wouldn't mind at all going into somewhere like that, but even he is hoping to return home with a full care package. It was this one: http://www.carehome.co.uk/carehome.cfm/searchazref/20001060MERA

Residential homes aren't the only care that needs to be paid for though, having carers visit the home, and having adaptations carried out is very expensive too.

margaretclare

Person_one wrote: »

Residential homes aren't the only care that needs to be paid for though, having carers visit the home, and having adaptations carried out is very expensive too.

Yes, he knows that. He just wants to be in his own familiar surroundings, even though the nursing home is, as I said, like a 5* hotel. There's no place like home! He'll be paying it from investments, as he's doing now. Or so he said, and we're not close enough to him to question. He's a very intelligent man and has happy memories of when he and DH were colleagues, way back.

Person_one

margaretclare wrote: »

Yes, he knows that. He just wants to be in his own familiar surroundings, even though the nursing home is, as I said, lik a 5* hotel. There's no place like home! He'll be paying it from investments, as he's doing now. Or so he said, and we're not close enough to him to question. He's a very intelligent man and has happy memories of when he and DH were colleagues, way back.

I was responding to your point that not everybody will need residential care.

margaretclare

Person_one wrote: »

I was responding to your point that not everybody will need residential care.

Sorry about that! I misunderstood. Yes, of course not everybody will need residential care. I am amazed that so many people seem to take it as a 'given' and that's why we get this type of question so often.

I think our friend George will be paying less when/if he manages to get home. I think it's costing him in excess of a grand a week where he is. But then, he's been very ill and has needed a long recuperation.

mountainofdebt

Toddy_Senior wrote: »

Hi,
Having recently retired, my wife and I need to think about how we can leave assets to our only son, in the event of having to go into a care home later in life.

I've heard about Transfer of Equity but am not sure if this would be of benefit. If we included our son as a one-third owner of our house via a transfer of equity and I then had to go into a care home, would (a) my wife be allowed to carry on living in our house and (b) would the greedy grasping government (of either political party!) be limited to taking a smaller share of the equity from our house, for care home fees.

I understand that care home fees will be capped at £75,000 per person but, as our home is worth only £150,000, what would this leave for our son? Would transfer of equity help us in this matter? Alternatively, any other ideas would be gratefully received....

I have to say that this type of thread really annoys me.

Why is the government grasping and why is there an automatic expectation that people should leave something to their offspring?

And for the record, if my mum needed nursing care and there was 'nothing' left for me to inherit so be it - I'd rather her needs were taken care of than making sure I inherited her house

itsanne

1 You're unlikely to need to go into a nursing home.

2 Why should the rest of us pay for your care so that your son can inherit if you do?

3 Read up on "Deprivation of Assets". The fact that you've posted on here means it would apply.