Transfer house and savings to son

Newly_retired

probate is not difficult.

LPA. - she may well be compos mentis but may in time be physically unable to do whatever financial transactions she needs to do. She can instruct her attorney to do whatever she needs.

Later on, she may need her attorney to advocate for her eg if doctors propose a course of action she does not want.

Cubicsrube

It is kind of her to want to spare her son administrative hassle, but probate is actually the relatively straightforward part - filing a full IHT return is the more complex task and from what you say, that can't be avoided in this case. Actually, gifting her main asset and then continuing to live there arguably makes the IHT filing more complex as it's considered a gift with reservation of benefit, which triggers its own forms to fill in.

Mrs_Z

Having been through this with a friend who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and lost their live 12 months after - I'd say

The priority is to have LPAs sorted.

Then simplify finances; ie. streamline to one current account with regular bills paid by direct debit. Then move any premium bonds to a saving account/s and check what the probate requirement limit is for each bank.

Just because someone has less than a year to live doesn't mean that they don't live beyond that, or that they do not need care or nursing home care. It much depends on their circumstances. If the person becomes bedbound and double incontinent or requires a hospital bed, there might well be a point when care at home becomes very difficult to provide.

Your relative should make a will, but by the looks of it, the property would pass on to her son anyway if he is the only child and she a widow. No point gifting the house to him in advance, there is no gain. She would be better spending the conveyancing money to getting a will done instead.

mta999

thanks for all the replies will pass them on

bobster2

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82056281#Comment_82056281

People have explained a range of other downsides.

Survival estimates are often a median - she may live considerably longer than 12 months and need care.

LPA can useful if she's physically incapacitated.

Getting probate is very simple for simple estates - so doing this for "admin" reasons just does not make sense.

Keep_pedalling

What is the value of the house and her marital status? not being nosey, just trying to establish if an IHT return will be required or not.

mta999

House is 350k-ish plus savings 150k-ish. She is a widow so 2x500k iht allowance available

Savings to go into joint account with son so available if necessary but son gets it immediately on her death

House to be transferred to son 'once the end is nigh'

Keep_pedalling

I still think transferring the house is a pretty pointless exercise, especially if they are paying a solicitor to do it. In this case filling in the probate form is less work than transferring the house it should take someone who has a good knowledge of the deceased finances no more than an hour to complete the application form.

if the son has no plan to move into the house it is even more pointless, as that involves two transfers rather than one.

mta999

Yes people have been very kind and explained a lot of downside most of which do not apply

CGT would only apply if there was any gain in the short period we are talking about

Deprivation of assets as always only applies if you apply for means tested benefits

LPA will not be of any use as she has still got all her facilities and what will happen is that when the time comes she will go to hospital and die.

Probate may well be easy to apply for but if you don't have to apply for it then that is one less thing to do

She is not giving her money away but putting it in a joint account with her son so it will still be available if needed

poseidon1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057266#Comment_82057266

Also worth noting probate fee shortly due to rise from £300 to £526, so for this very straightforward circumstance there may well be a fiscal benefit in transferring house and cash into joint ownership (joint tenancy for house).

Joint tenancy for the house should be a straightforward TR1 land registry transfer although there will be costs for ID1 verification.