Mums inheritance in Dads name

skyblues87

Currently trying to sort out the complete mess that is my parents finances and an interesting question has arisen. 

They are of a generation where the husband looked after everything on the financial side. Their main bank account was always his account, although this has in more recent years been converted to a joint account. For many years my Mum didn't even have a bank account, once she did it had very little activity or money in it until she reached the point where her state pension was going into it. 

I've recently discovered that my Mum inherited more from her parents, who died a few years back, than I had realised. Long story short she had about £40K come to her and had no clue what to do with it. So she did what she has always done and passed it to my father who stuck it in the building society in an ISA in his name. 

Sure you can see where this is heading. How does this work if and when my father needs a means test for care? My first thought was that the money in that account would be required to go towards his care however after a lot of googling I've found a guide from a council that says if an inheritance has been paid into a joint account, and you have the paper train to prove it, then it may be eligible to be disregarded in any assessment. Does anyone have any experience of this and could the same be argued to apply to an account solely in his name?

sammyjammy

Possibly but nobody can tell you for sure unless it happens.  On paper the fact that its in your fathers sole named account implies she gifted it to him.

Spendless

So the £40K still sits there? Whilst I don't know the answer to your question, they could either move it to an account opened up in your Mum's sole name (though presumably then in the event she needed care I'm guessing the entirety of it would go to her care) put it in a joint account  or spend it.

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Keep_pedalling

Is you father currently at risk of needing care? If not it is fairly simple in that he closes that account and the proceeds get put into your mother’s name. If he is then it’s a little more tricky but as long as you can show the source of the money and that it was misappropriated by your father there should be no problem.

Sorry if the use of misappropriate sounds harsh but I can think of no other term for it.

Do you have power of attorney for both of them?

skyblues87

Spendless said:

So the £40K still sits there? Whilst I don't know the answer to your question, they could either move it to an account opened up in your Mum's sole name (though presumably then in the event she needed care I'm guessing the entirety of it would go to her care) put it in a joint account  or spend it.

It does indeed still sit there. I've only just discovered the situation and didn't want to take it straight out and put it into my mums name in case that made things worse. 

Would be a struggle to spend it tbh. They barely leave the house these days and the house itself is immaculate so not like there's any need for a new kitchen or bathroom.

skyblues87

Keep_pedalling said:

Is you father currently at risk of needing care? If not it is fairly simple in that he closes that account and the proceeds get put into your mother’s name. If he is then it’s a little more tricky but as long as you can show the source of the money and that it was misappropriated by your father there should be no problem.

Sorry if the use of misappropriate sounds harsh but I can think of no other term for it.

Do you have power of attorney for both of them?

Sadly he is suffering with dementia. I actually found out about this when I activated the power of attorney, which I have for both of them, with his bank. Didn't realise it would mean his accounts showed up when I logged in to on line banking and there was a lot more there than I was expecting!

Misappropriate will do. In their minds it was never his money it just sat in an account in his name because he always dealt with that stuff which can't have been that uncommon back then. 

Mojisola

skyblues87 said:

In their minds it was never his money it just sat in an account in his name because he always dealt with that stuff which can't have been that uncommon back then. 

As there is a clear paper trail for the origin of the money, there shouldn't be any comeback in transferring it into her name (although if all the other money belonging to the household is now in joint names, wouldn't it be fairer to consider this the couple's money as well?)

skyblues87

Mojisola said:

skyblues87 said:

In their minds it was never his money it just sat in an account in his name because he always dealt with that stuff which can't have been that uncommon back then. 

As there is a clear paper trail for the origin of the money, there shouldn't be any comeback in transferring it into her name (although if all the other money belonging to the household is now in joint names, wouldn't it be fairer to consider this the couple's money as well?)

They've got a joint account which is their day to day account. My Dads work and state pensions go into that and ll the bills are paid for it. Essentially this is the account my Dad has had for decades that at some point many years ago got changed into joint names.

My Mum then has her own current account, which she says she opened when you had to have an account to have your pension paid into, although I'm not sure why that couldn't have gone in the joint account, assume it wasn't a joint account at that point. 

When my Mum inherited the money and asked my Dad to sort it out it ended up in an ISA account with a building society where his mortgage had been (that was paid off in the 90s) and a couple of bond / ISA accounts since which have long since been spent. 

I've also found a document from the solicitor from when my grandparents died detailing gifts that were being made from the will and there's no mention of gifting my Dad money so if they claim its a gift the question would be why is it not detailed in that document, the money I received is. 

Savvy_Sue

I think at one point there was strong encouragement to pay pensions and salaries into a sole account in the beneficiary's name, rather than into a joint account or - worse still - an account in the other partner's name. That may have been why mum opened her own account.

sheramber

skyblues87 said:

Mojisola said:

skyblues87 said:

In their minds it was never his money it just sat in an account in his name because he always dealt with that stuff which can't have been that uncommon back then. 

As there is a clear paper trail for the origin of the money, there shouldn't be any comeback in transferring it into her name (although if all the other money belonging to the household is now in joint names, wouldn't it be fairer to consider this the couple's money as well?)

They've got a joint account which is their day to day account. My Dads work and state pensions go into that and ll the bills are paid for it. Essentially this is the account my Dad has had for decades that at some point many years ago got changed into joint names.

My Mum then has her own current account, which she says she opened when you had to have an account to have your pension paid into, although I'm not sure why that couldn't have gone in the joint account, assume it wasn't a joint account at that point. 

When my Mum inherited the money and asked my Dad to sort it out it ended up in an ISA account with a building society where his mortgage had been (that was paid off in the 90s) and a couple of bond / ISA accounts since which have long since been spent. 

I've also found a document from the solicitor from when my grandparents died detailing gifts that were being made from the will and there's no mention of gifting my Dad money so if they claim its a gift the question would be why is it not detailed in that document, the money I received is. 

They would be meaning a gift from your mother to your father. not from the estate.

skyblues87

sheramber said:

They would be meaning a gift from your mother to your father. not from the estate.

Would the fact that all the money from the estate went to my Mum, and then there are various gift payments made which is detailed by the solicitor and then at the same time a payment goes to a newly opened ISA account in my Dads name which is not listed as one of the gifts count in our favour?