Alzheimers - split joint account or not ?

CarpeDiem

My parents have always had a joint bank account. My mum has Alzheimer's. My dad hasn't as yet changed anything at the bank - his work pension is quite good - should he advise the bank and change the accounts to separate accounts ?? What are the pro's and con's of separating the monies ? My dad and I both have POA for my mum's finances. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

flea72

Keep the joint account. Means both parents have acces to all money, should one die. If your dad dies first, your mum (you with poa) would still be able to access the account. If using seperate accounts, you would need to apply for access, which can take time, leaving you/your mum without access to any money in the meantime

Savvy_Sue

Pro splitting: if mum needs any care, it's only 'her' money which is taken into account for working out what she'd have to pay, I believe. Deprivation of assets may be an issue, but if it is easy to show that Dad supplies more money into the a/c than Mum does, shouldn't be too bad?

Pro splitting: do the bank know Mum doesn't have capacity any more (assuming she doesn't, at any time)? If they find out, I believe they can freeze the account to protect her interests. You're in a better position than many as you have PofA for Mum already, but it could still get messy.

And the big question, do you also have PofA for your Dad's finances? Please get that in place as soon as you can if you don't: you never know what's around the corner.

teddysmum

I would advise splitting.


If residential care is needed and the person needing care is self funding, the other person could lose out.


For simplicity, assume that the help threshold is £25000.


Now if there was originally £60000 in a joint account, one may assume that each person has £30000, so when the person paying has spent £5000,they will be down to £25000 and so will begin to have help with fees.


This is not the case. With £5000 gone each person is deemed to still have half of £55000, ie £27500, so no help will be given until the total in the account is just £50000.

ciderboy2009

My Father is in the late stages of Alzheimers.

My Mother left the main joint account for day to day expenses (around £5k in there at any time).

The rest of the money was divided into individual ISA's & savings accounts.

She uses the money in my Father's accounts whenever she needs to buy anything specifically for him (ie: she bought a wheelchair adapted vehicle on eBay when he became unable to walk so we can still take him out regularly).

When she gets re-assessed each year for care costs etc they only look at his accounts plus 50% of the joint account.

As mentioned above - if you haven't done so already then please sort out poa for your Dad as well as your Mum.