What legal implications are there

ClanOrd

My mother was recently widowed and sold upher home to move into a smaller place. This has left her with a lump sum. She was "advised" by someone close to divide the money up and get her offspring to open ISA accounts in their own names and put the money into them. This way if she was to go into a care home in the future her money would be protected.  Is this legal to do, what implications are there, is there a better way to protect it ?
Any help would be appreciated 

FlorayG

Nope, that's Deprivation Of Assets. There are very, very few ways to 'get around' paying your care home costs and all of them will involve you being put by your local authority into the cheapest facility they can find because they are paying for it. Why on Earth would you want to 'protect' your money when you are already in need of a care home? Spend it on finding a nice one

comeandgo

The money would be found and anyway, what child would want their parents money knowing that parent could be placed in any care home that the council wants to place them rather than one they could have chosen. 

TheSpectator

As ridiculous 'ideas' go, this one is up there. Who gave such nonsensical advice?

FlorayG

When my father died my brother-in-law, possibly cognisant of a potential inheritance for my sister, offered to advise my mom on the best way to invest her money
Her response was "I'm 84. Why on Earth would I invest it? I'm going to spend it"


and she did, and had a great time  for ten years until she died

eskbanker

ClanOrd said:

Is this legal to do, what implications are there, is there a better way to protect it ?

FlorayG said:

Nope, that's Deprivation Of Assets.

Not sure which question you were answering with 'nope', but the answer to 'is it legal?' is 'yes', and 'is there a better way to protect it?' is more like 'not applicable', in the context of the deprivation of assets tests being likely to render the notion of protection invalid....

p00hsticks

ClanOrd said:

She was "advised" by someone close to divide the money up and get her offspring to open ISA accounts in their own names and put the money into them. This way if she was to go into a care home in the future her money would be protected.  Is this legal to do, what implications are there, is there a better way to protect it ?
Any help would be appreciated 

Hopefully she has not acted on this advice. 

She's perfectly free to give away what she wants, but as soon as she gives her offspring the cash it's no longer her money, it's legally theirs, so she has no protection at all. 

The offspring could put in ISAs or blow it all on a flash car and she'd have no say in it either way.
 
Worse than that, as she's done it specifically to avoid the costs of care, if she did need it the Local Authority would probably deem it a 'deprivation of assets' and assess her finances as if she still had the money, meaning it could leave her very hard up and / or with the most basic of care provisions provided. 

FlorayG

eskbanker said:

ClanOrd said:

Is this legal to do, what implications are there, is there a better way to protect it ?

FlorayG said:

Nope, that's Deprivation Of Assets.

Not sure which question you were answering with 'nope', but the answer to 'is it legal?' is 'yes', and 'is there a better way to protect it?' is more like 'not applicable', in the context of the deprivation of assets tests being likely to render the notion of protection invalid....

'nope' as in 'that's not going to work out the way they say it is'

Rusty190

FlorayG said:

Nope, that's Deprivation Of Assets. There are very, very few ways to 'get around' paying your care home costs and all of them will involve you being put by your local authority into the cheapest facility they can find because they are paying for it. Why on Earth would you want to 'protect' your money when you are already in need of a care home? Spend it on finding a nice one

And also, why would anyone think it's reasonable to expect someone else's kids to pay for their care so they can leave money to their own kids. 

Albermarle

Rusty190 said:

FlorayG said:

Nope, that's Deprivation Of Assets. There are very, very few ways to 'get around' paying your care home costs and all of them will involve you being put by your local authority into the cheapest facility they can find because they are paying for it. Why on Earth would you want to 'protect' your money when you are already in need of a care home? Spend it on finding a nice one

And also, why would anyone think it's reasonable to expect someone else's kids to pay for their care so they can leave money to their own kids. 

Probably most people do not ( or are unable to) follow the logic that far.
They just see the Council potentially taking their money, it probably never crosses their mind that other council taxpayers will in the end have to pay for them. 

eskbanker

Albermarle said:

Rusty190 said:

FlorayG said:

Nope, that's Deprivation Of Assets. There are very, very few ways to 'get around' paying your care home costs and all of them will involve you being put by your local authority into the cheapest facility they can find because they are paying for it. Why on Earth would you want to 'protect' your money when you are already in need of a care home? Spend it on finding a nice one

And also, why would anyone think it's reasonable to expect someone else's kids to pay for their care so they can leave money to their own kids. 

Probably most people do not ( or are unable to) follow the logic that far.
They just see the Council potentially taking their money, it probably never crosses their mind that other council taxpayers will in the end have to pay for them. 

And of course, that sort of phrasing is a complete misrepresentation, in that there's no such 'taking' at all, it's just that those with assets aren't able to claim care funding from the local authority!