Care Fees Annuity - Advisers Commission?

dunstonh

Maybe the lady is not an IFA but works for an IFA.  i.e. an assistant.   So, this person may be a contact point for the firm but not necessarily the adviser.  Something like this should not require looking up unless you are not qualified.

badmemory

I'm sorry but she is telling you rubbish.  I certainly didn't ask permission to spend almost £2k on hearing aids, her NHS ones were no longer good enough & also were making the backs of her ears very sore.  The question should really be, is this for her benefit & is the expenditure going to cause her financial problems.  Get that bath/shower & stop her risking injury clambering into a bath.  The OPG are only really interested if you commit fraud & only then whilst the person is still alive & it is very evident that you have no intention of commiting fraud.

In my view the POA is there so that the person giving that POA can be provided with things which will help them live the best life they can.  Will the IFA? say that if your mother goes in for a week's respite care that it has to be in a care home costing £400 a week rather than a much better one at £1k a week?  In actual fact it is not really any of the IFAs business what the money is spent on.  Only whether it is feasible to spend/withdraw it.

All the above is of course my opinion only.  But I will just say that my siblinig & I joked that buying those hearing aids were reducing each of our inheritance by £1k, not in front of mother of course, although by then I'm not sure she would have understood anyway.

badmemory

If you lived alone before you would have been (& would still be) getting 25% discount on your rates.  Are you now paying 100%.  I hope she is at least paying the additional %age.

in_my_wellies

Thank you for your support. I have council tax sorted and mums doctor alerted me to Carers Credit for NI which will add two or three years to my pension. 

I am investigating another IFA but the problem is that some of mums money is in a trust and they are somehow linked. The solicitor for the trust is so inefficient I would walk away if I could. That would be expensive but I am looking into it as I have fears about their ability to sort her estate out in a timely manor when the time comes. 

fred246

I think there are some trolls on here. Anyone who criticises or questions an IFA is a troll according to dunstonh.

in_my_wellies

I checked the register and the IFA is on there
I checked the solicitor and am horrified to find they were fined £2,500 professional misconduct and have left which explains a change in wording letter I was asked to sign in the summer. 

Going back the the original thread, my neighbour's MIL went into a home.  They paid just over £200,000 for an annuity. They reach break even point in January and she is still fighting fit. It was a gamble but the peace of mind they gained and her quality of life was more than worth it even if she had not lived as long. 

Malthusian

in_my_wellies said:

I agree the IFA does come across as super cautious. Unfortunately the long standing IFA died suddenly and this one is new (2  years), she often has to go back to the office to answer my questions.

Going to someone with more knowledge before answering your question is fine. Giving a stupid response and then going to check it is not. An IFA of zero years' experience or for that matter a paraplanner (an IFA's technically qualified assistant) should not be saying silly things like "you can't spend your POA donor's money on things that are in her interests unless you check with the Court of Protection first" or "you can't buy a walk-in bath because something something Inheritance Tax".

It sounds like your IFA is the kind of person who has a problem for every solution; who thinks their job is to find reasons you can't do something rather than look for how you can do it.

I am investigating another IFA but the problem is that some of mums money is in a trust and they are somehow linked.

The trustees can sack the IFA in exactly the same way that your mother can and appoint a new one.

Unless the IFA is a trustee, which hopefully they aren't.

garmeg

fred246 said:

I think there are some trolls on here. Anyone who criticises or questions an IFA is a troll according to dunstonh.

I am not sure why you are on this forum as you post nothing of value and are constantly sniping at others. You must be an absolute joy in real life.

Keep_pedalling

It sounds like your mother still has all her mental faculties in place, so she is at liberty to buy anything she wants. As her POA your have some restrictions on what you can spend on her behalf, but she has none.

She can also make gifts using her annual allowance and any excess income.