Moving Mum in with us

SevenOfNine

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I don't think the OP says how far away Mum lives at present, and that would also form part of my thinking. At 88, no-one is going to cope 'well' with losing their life partner, and Mum may be better left with her friends around her rather than 'moving her' - presumably with her agreement - away from friends and familiarity. big decisions like this should not be rushed!

TBH my thoughts as well. Mum has had a major bereavement & perhaps not quite the right time (yet) to make such a major decision. What does your brother think?

Have you thought about AgeUK, they do the Criminal Records Checks (called DBS now) & can recommend trusted cleaners, gardeners & maintenance people from the 'pool' on their books (even a toenail cutting person). Lunch clubs for company & a cooked meal along with a bit of social activity (bingo, raffles, quiz) with transport arranged via a local firm. Day trips here & there, they even have 'befrienders' for the lonely/less active elderly.

POA & a good set up of direct debits for her bills would help with her finances & perhaps invest in a good financial advisor as she's rather a lot of cash floating about.

Two of my friends sold the property of their surviving parent & used the cash to build self contained extensions onto their own home, loved one as close as possible but still with a good level of independence & privacy (same for the family), it dispensed with a fair chunk of their cash. Perhaps worth a thought if Mum/you are determined to take the 'moving in' route.

As YM99 says, a good STEP member solicitor can help with the tax planning, perhaps discuss 'gifting' options or even a Deed of Variation to legitimately redirect some of your Dad's legacy. They will give expert advice regarding the possibility of deprivation of assets implications/accusations should your mother ever need a care home/benefits etc

My condolences.

Keep_pedalling

I do not really think any tax planning is required, as based on the figures given by the OP the combined nil rate bands mean the estate is already below the threashold, even though some of his transferable nil rate has already been used up.

At this late stage in life, there is not a lot you can due to reduce IHT other than gifting and staying alive for 7 years, or my preferred option spend some of it on yourself.

A deed of variation is not much use, as it simply reduces the percentage of transferable nil rate band so is tax neutral unless applied to an inheritance from someone other than a spouse.

What definitely needs to be done is to get an accurate valuation on the house from a RICS survayer, as this will be needed by your mothers executors when the time comes. Also get LPAs in place if not already done.

Definitely contact Age UK, who as already mentioned can supply reliable people to come in to help with stuff like housework, cooking and gardening. You have to pay but she can easily afford it. I used them to get some help for my mother, and apart from the work they did it gave her a bit more human contact.

Keep_pedalling

Forget what I said above out tax and DoV, I had not figured in the low value of the house and high level of cash, so there is an IHT liability, which is made worse by her not inheriting the house outright.

A DoV might be appropriate here, but for the OP and his sibling to give up their inheitance from their father so that their mothers estate gets the full transferable nil rate band. That would only leave the estate £20k into IHT territory, which does not require much spending / gifting to get rid of.

Worth spending a little of the large pile of cash on some professional advise.

getmore4less

Any IHT liability will be minimal the house will be covered by the residential exemptions and £650k covered by the standard nil rate bands.

As long as she spends some it should be possible to get the liability to zero
worst case it stays neutral and she gifts any income leaving a liability under £10k.

If the OP has an expensive enough house the mother could buy part of that and utilise more of the residential nil rate band offload a chunk of cash to the OP and securing her new home.


It may be that combining assets they can get a more suitable place.

example.

sell the £175k house buy £350k of the OPs house leaving the mother with (£670+£375-£350) £495k cash total assets £845k

between £250k-£350k is covered by the RNRB over the next few years leaving £645 decreasing covered by the NRB+TNRB

The details of the trust may require some adjustment of the numbers but this should not be to difficult to get the IHT liability to zero and free up some of the cash pot(out of the IHT fence) at the same time.

KJBerry

Many thanks to all for their advice. You have given me a lot to think about. I will certainly need to consult a specialist solicitor.