Question on avoiding residential care costs

Madam_Jo_Jo

Hello

My dad has recently received an email from a company called Heritage Estate Planners. Apparently, they offer a report that claims to offer foolproof advice on protecting assets against local councils confiscating homes to pay for residential care. You can obtain this report by paying £56 (they offer a 90 day money back guarantee).

This is of course of great interest to my dad (and I) but having done some research, neither of us can find out any concrete information about the company.

Has anyone ever heard or dealt with them before? Does anyone really know the answer to avoiding residential care costs?

Any information would be greatly received.

Thank you

atush

First of all stop and think about it.

Who lives in this house? If anyone else is living there, the council can't force a sale. Second, the money is his (not yours). So maybe it is a good plan for some of that money to go to a care home, as if you dont have money to help pay, he'll end up in the cheapest and grottiest places (as that is what the council pays for)/

Thrid, if he needs care, he could live with you or another relative to care for him, and all the money from the sale of the home would go to you as it was not used for his care. Some of the money could be used legally to make your home suitable (incl a small extension) plus you could cvlaim a carer's allowance.

Fourth, if he has other assets and income, he could gift you assets each year or gift you from income. These smaller things would be less likely to fall afoul of the rules on Deprivation of Assets. Which is most likely what the booklet you pay for wont mention and is probably not worth the paper it is printed on.

Mojisola

They may not be related to the owners of Heritage Estate Planners but Heritage Estate Planning Ltd was started in 2006 and dissolved in 2008, another Heritage Estate Planning Ltd was started in 2011 and dissolved in 2013.

There doesn't seem to be an active company called Heritage Estate Planners registered with Companies House.

jamesd

Madam_Jo_Jo wrote: »

My dad has recently received an email from a company called Heritage Estate Planners.

That's enough to know what to do: avoid doing business with them. Never do business with finance-related firms that contact you first because they aren't looking out for your best interests.

Madam_Jo_Jo wrote: »

Apparently, they offer a report that claims to offer foolproof advice on protecting assets against local councils confiscating homes to pay for residential care. You can obtain this report by paying £56 (they offer a 90 day money back guarantee).

The guarantee is useless because you won't know whether the plan has succeeded or failed until long after that.

Madam_Jo_Jo wrote: »

Does anyone really know the answer to avoiding residential care costs?

Of course. I won't even charge you £56 for it:

"Don't own the money when it comes to time to pay for the care"

There are several ways to arrange that:

1. Give it away, without catches. Your dad can just give you money then it's yours, not his.
2. Use investment bonds. The money is technically owned by the trustees of the bond so it's not included in available assets.

Your dad could do something like giving you his home and paying you rent to continue to live there. The rent is necessary because otherwise it will be treated as a "gift with reservations" and wil count as his for inheritance tax and probably care means tests.

Your father should be aware that if you were to say get married, get hit by a bus your house, formerly his, would be inherited by your spouse who might want to sell the place, serving him with an eviction notice.

le_loup

Madam_Jo_Jo wrote: »

protecting assets against local councils confiscating homes to pay for residential care.

Interesting word. Used by the providers of the "fool proof" scheme, I trust and not you?

Mojisola

Madam_Jo_Jo wrote: »

Apparently, they offer a report that claims to offer foolproof advice on protecting assets against local councils confiscating homes to pay for residential care.

Councils do not confiscate anyone's home.

If you need residential care and have enough capital to pay for it, then you get a bill from the care home and it's down to you how you find the money to pay for it. If that involves selling a house you no longer live in, that's your decision.

If you need residential care and don't have enough money to pay for it, the council will fund your care.

It would be worth reading up on residential care funding (and remember that very few people end up in residential care) -
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/care-homes/paying-for-permanent-residential-care/
and https://www.ageuk.org.uk/home-and-care/care-homes/deprivation-of-assets-in-the-means-test-for-care-home-provision/

xylophone

Your dad could do something like giving you his home and paying you rent to continue to live there. The rent is necessary because otherwise it will be treated as a "gift with reservations"

The above would work in respect of IHT but not necessarily in avoiding care home fees.

If the Council suspected a ploy to avoid paying for care, a battle on "deprivation of assets" might ensue.

kidmugsy

Mojisola wrote: »

remember that very few people end up in residential care

Suppose I've reached 75. What are the odds of my ending up "in residential care"?

PasturesNew

You'd be surprised how much income can be generated if it comes to a time when a care home is needed.

House money, invested, or even plonked in a bank, will produce an income.
A house has maintenance issues - and regular (increasing) bills.
A house where somebody is unable to do anything themselves will require more maintenance etc as you have to over-engineer solutions so the person is super safe.
Paying for care in your own home is expensive and you don't get a lot. It's inflexible, limited and at the wrong times of day (e.g. they'll come to get you out of bed when you've already been awake 2 hours, or put you to bed at 8pm as nobody works after 9pm for safety reasons).
You will need extra services, such as a lifeline, that costs money.
Food and feeding will cost more as you have to pay more money for food to be delivered and won't be keeping the budget super low. e.g. to get fresh milk/bread into the house 3x a week you'll use Milk & More instead of popping into a supermarket.
Getting a haircut organised is more complex/costs more as you need maybe a taxi and a carer.

Then there's the whole issue of friends and socialisation - how is the person going to get out and about and meet people? They need to be collected, or you pay people to go round and chat to them.

What about Dr/hospital visits? More carers/taxis to organise.

So there they are, sitting all alone 95% of the time...... especially at night, alone, in the dark ...

And when a storm rages, or there's flooding, you worry.

Meanwhile, in a home, there are no maintenance costs, no bills for heating/electricity/phone/buildings insurance/council tax etc. No worries that strangers will be targetting them, knocking on the doors, phoning them up for their bank details.

Carers are on tap 24/7 if they fall, need to visit the Dr, need to go to the Hospital - all arranged.

They go to bed when they want, carers take them at the time they want to go to bed or get up. Hairdressers turn up and there's a little hairdressing room/sink.

They will have wall to wall warmth, food and friends. Good food, a variety of menus.... and lots of cake and tea.

Add up the costs of running a house, see how much income the house money gets from being invested, add up their pensions income and attendance allowance income ..... and you'll realise that the two figures often compare quite well - but, the main thing is, your parent is: warm, well fed, happy chatting to friends.

24/7 there is somebody for them to sit and stare out of a window with, the occasional event/entertainment put on and lots of lovely cake.

My parent even gets to meet Santa on Xmas Day and is given a gift - and a photo is taken.

Think of their quality of life, not the money.

Mojisola

kidmugsy wrote: »

Suppose I've reached 75. What are the odds of my ending up "in residential care"?

Don't know about you personally.

AgeUK say that only 16% of the over-85s live in care homes.

The average stay in a care home is 15 months.

https://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/Later_Life_UK_factsheet.pdf?dtrk=true

kidmugsy

16% is hardly "very few". Still, if you have to reach 85 first .....