Long Term Care Cost Mitigation

Would You Gamble All You Own At odds of 1 in 4? That is What your are doing by not protecting your partner from the impact of Care Costs

One in four of you reading this will need long term care at some point in your life! 500 people a day are diagnosed with dementia and this is just one cause for need long term care and care cost can be astronomical.

Many people in UK worry about the 40% of their assets the taxman will take from their estates when they die in the form of inheritance tax , but your local authority might take 100% of your assets above the value of £22,250 if you should need to go into long term care.

People in the UK end up going into long term care for many reasons this might be as a result of infirmity through old age or as a result of a serious accident, stroke or other major illness? 1 in 4 of us will require long term care at some point in our lives! For people over the age of 70 this rises to a figure of 1 in 3.

If you have assets including a home which are valued in excess of £13,500 then you are expected to pay for at least part of your own care costs. If you own more than £22,250 in assets including the value of your home you are expected to pay all of your own care costs. Could this effect you?

Under the Community Care Act 1990, the local council have the right, by law, to force the sale of your home to pay for these costs or to take a charge against your property to be repaid on the eventual sale of your home.

If this happened then it might mean that when you eventually die there could be very little left for your surviving family. Care home costs can be in excess of £800 per week. This will soon eat away at the capital you have spent a lifetime building up.

We doubt that many of you would take your  entire wealth, money and assets you have spent a lifetime building up and gamble it on a horse a 4-1, but at least when gambling on a horse you might win and have something to show for the risk.  By not taking measure to protect your assets from the impact of care costs their is no potential win, you just stand to loose everything! Thus leaving no money to pass on to children or loved ones.

How can you avoid this happening?

It is illegal to deliberately transfer your own property to relatives or trusts if your prime motive is to avoid paying long-term care costs. However, it is not illegal for you and your partner to each make a provision in your Wills that ensures upon the first of you dieing, the deceased half of the property is placed in trust for their children or other beneficiaries, instead of passing direct to the surviving partner.

The Protective Property Trust Will has been specially designed for this purpose. It keeps any designated property owned by the deceased away from the council's reach. At the same time allowing the surviving partner to continue benefiting from the assets, which may include the family home.

On the death of the remaining member of the couple the assets owned by the trust together with whatever is left of the assets of the second partner can be given to the surviving family.

For estate that have large cash sums or other assets in addition to your home we can use an assets protection trust to protect half of joint wealth from care cost assessment.

Don’t gamble with your family's entire financial future, care cost can have a devastating impact on families in the UK and large portions of the care cost bills could be avoided, if you start your planning early enough. Give us a call right now to arrange a free in home consultation anywhere in the UK, without any obligation,  you will be glad you did and so will you family

      UK Care Cost Mitigation and Protection