Savings advice for elderly parents following house sale

xylophone

They do not like internet banking and prefer to go into banks/building societies to speak to cashiers face to face when dealing with their money. 

In which case they would be limited to opening accounts with banks/building societies having branches at a convenient distance from their new home?

These providers might not necessarily offer the best rates.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-1583859/Best-savings-rates-General-savings-Internet-branch.html

Have your parents granted PoA in your favour?

Claudine.west

Have your parents granted PoA in your favour?

Thankfully we already have PoA in place.

CarolWHerts

We are currently looking at similar issues in respect of the proceeds from my parents' house, now they have moved to a care home. We have full PoA in place and are in the process of recording it with the various financial providers. My parents are not currently tax payers as their income is too low, but I need to keep an eye on this situation too. 
My initial plan is:
- enough cash in their Santander 123 account for a few month's fees (over £10k a month - eek!)
- maximum premium bond holdings for them both
- fill up a suitable cash ISA for each of them for this tax year, and reserve cash for the same again next year
- a couple of immediate care annuities to reduce the impact of the risk that they last longer than their money
- maybe look at other NS&I products for any remaining cash.
Our experience with recording the PoAs so we can take over the accounts has been mixed. Santander has been fantastic and has obviously invested in training and systems to address this. NS&I have been good so far, we think everything is in place, although we haven't tried doing anything major yet. Their pension company however has been awful - doesn’t seem to have a clue about PoAs (even though all I need to do is change their address) can't do anything online, even by email, and keeps changing its mind about what it needs. I'll certainly be looking for providers that can deal efficiently with accounts operating under PoA - any further suggestions welcome.

Albermarle

- fill up a suitable cash ISA for each of them for this tax year, and reserve cash for the same again next yea

If they are non taxpayers, it may not be necessary to bother with Cash ISA's, as they pay a lower rate of interest than equivalent non ISA savings accounts. Plus there are more restrictions on adding to them, transferring them etc.

They can each earn the following amount of interest each tax year without paying tax .

 £18,750 minus any taxable income they have. 

So for example if the only taxable income they have is a state pension of £10,000, they could earn up to £8,750 in interest each without paying tax.

roksat

Linton said:

They could consider simply putting it in NS&I accounts - perhaps the maximum for each in  Premium Bonds to give a monthly bit of excitement and say a Direct Saver for the rest.

OK it's not the best interest around but:
 -  it would appear they dont need a high interest rate
 - 100% guaranteed by the government for the full amount
 - all the money could be lodged permanently in the same place
 - no need for multiple accounts with multiple providers changing every few years
 - zero ongoing management
 - they will probably have heard of National Savings.

Good advice. My Mom doesn't know where ti put her money. It seems to be a good option, thanks.

Techy_girl

Shop around for Wealth management advisors on matters like this,  a forum isn't the place to ask as no-one has the full picture of their circumstances, plus receiving bad advice from a Wealth/financial advisor = compensation, can't say the same about a forum.

Albermarle

Techy_girl said:

Shop around for Wealth management advisors on matters like this,  a forum isn't the place to ask as no-one has the full picture of their circumstances, plus receiving bad advice from a Wealth/financial advisor = compensation, can't say the same about a forum.

Financial advisors are not normally interested in clients who are mainly focused on cash savings.