Parent with terminal illness, wondering whether to sell the family home before death

Keep_pedalling

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

This illustrates one of the weaknesses of LPOA's. The unscrupulous can gain an advantage with, in many cases, little chance of detection. It also shows that the woding of wills needs to allow for such events. Giving a percentage of the whole estate is worth considering.

I think the real problem in this case is a really poor will. People have this thing about retaining houses in the family, but don't give a thought about the consequences of care costs. Our wills don't leave any specific property to anyone. The attorney can get put in a position where they gain dramatically simply by doing the right thing for the donor.

Alternatively if the attorney could lose out by doing this they have an incentive to act in their best interests against the interest of the donor.

Yorkshireman99

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

I think the real problem in this case is a really poor will. People have this thing about retaining houses in the family, but don't give a thought about the consequences of care costs. Our wills don't leave any specific property to anyone. The attorney can get put in a position where they gain dramatically simply by doing the right thing for the donor.

Alternatively if the attorney could lose out by doing this they have an incentive to act in their best interests against the interest of the donor.

Correct! This obsession people have of keeping a "family" home may be relevant if there is a large stately home but when it is a more modest dwelling it seldom makes sense but bereaved people often make irrational decisions as do testators!

sololite

Thanks for all your advice people. We are proceeding with trying to sell the property.