Care Planning Services Explained

Whether you’ve just downloaded our Free Guide for information, or already spoken to us about your circumstances, we hope that our range of legal services will be of assistance to you, either now or in the future.

We often find that in dealing with a relative’s care funding issues, other family members will often start to think about how they will pay for their own care in the future.

We hope you find this useful in conjunction with our Free Guide.

Financial Planning for Care Service

Not everyone will qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, in fact the majority of people will probably not qualify – at least not immediately.

If you don’t qualify for funding, then depending on the value of your personal assets (including savings and your home), you may have to pay for the cost of your own care.

If you have less than £14,250 in capital, you will not have to pay for the cost of your care, as it will be funded in full by the Local Authority.

If your relative has between £14,250 and £23,250 in capital, they will have to contribute towards the cost of their care under the Tariff Rules (which currently means that they will contribute £1 per week to the cost of their care for every £250 in capital they have and part thereof, between £14,250 and £23,250).

If your relative has over £23,250 in capital, they do not have to complete any means-tested assessment for Social Services. In other words, they can declare that they are self-funding and they don’t have to disclose anything else about their financial circumstances – however, they will pay for the cost of their care in full until their capital falls below the threshold of £23,250.

If you do have to meet the costs of your care, then you can utilise your existing income, savings, deposits and investments.

However, there are also specialist insurance plans like Immediate Needs Annuities which, in return for a one-off lump sum payment, pay a guaranteed income for life. If income is paid direct to the care provider, it is tax-free.

Immediate Needs Annuities provide a guaranteed income designed to meet the costs of your care. Like all Annuities, you pay a one off lump sum to purchase the Annuity. The cost of the Annuity will depend on a various factors including:

• Your gender, age and health condition/medical history
• The amount of monthly income required to meet your care payments

You can also choose a number of options within your Annuity, for example, to protect your income from inflation or to protect part of the capital should you die in the first six months.

You may also want to consider an Equity Release option as a way to raise capital against the value of your home to pay for your care costs*.

Equity Release schemes allow you to unlock the equity value in your property which will be released to you on a tax-free basis. The amount you can release will depend on the value of your property, your age and health condition. Equity Release schemes allow you to retain ownership of your home whilst giving you the flexibility to move home or sell your home, with the advantage of not having to make any repayments.

Inheritance Tax is payable at the current rate of 40% on all assets above the current Inheritance Tax threshold of £325,000.

If your assets are above that threshold, there are ways in which you can mitigate your Inheritance Tax liability*.

Asset Protection Service

Having dealt with the care funding issues arising from your relative’s care requirements, it is important that you plan ahead for your own potential care requirements.

This could include planning now to pay for the costs of private care by taking advantage of our Financial Planning for Care Service*, but should also include measures to protect your own capital from the costs of your future care.

There are ways to legally dispose of capital without breaching Deprivation of Capital Rules – the most common of which is to place your assets into a Discretionary Trust.

As a firm of solicitors, we have the legal resources to set up a Trust for you or your relative, along with a Will.

Given our specialist expertise in the area of Care Funding, we can provide you and your relative with the right legal advice in terms of what type of Trust to set up, based on your individual circumstances. As solicitors we can also act as Professional Trustees within the Trust.

It’s often a good idea to use the same firm of solicitors for your Trust as your solicitors in relation to other matters, for example, when providing our other Care Funding Services, as we already have a detailed understanding of your particular circumstances.

What do our Care Planning Services cost?

We offer a free initial assessment of your requirements.

In terms of Farley Dwek Financial Planning * service, this will usually mean a free initial meeting at your home. At that meeting one of our Independent Financial Advisers (IFA’s) will talk to you in detail about your financial circumstances and potential future care funding requirements.

If they believe that they can provide you with advice and assistance to plan for your future care funding requirements, they will clearly outline the costs of their advisory service.

They will put you under no obligation to use their services and put you under no pressure to make any quick decisions. Our IFA’s are experts in the area of financial planning for care, so you can be sure that you will be receiving the best advice available.

In terms of our Asset Protection Service, again we will offer you a free initial assessment of your circumstances based on a simple Asset Questionnaire.

Based on your circumstances, we will then determine whether any of our services would be beneficial and explain fully what we recommend.

If you are happy to proceed based on our advice we will act for you on a transparent fixed fee basis.

Our Service

* We are a firm of solicitors and we do not employ Financial Advisers or provide financial advice. However, our sister company Farley Dwek Financial Planning* have Independent Financial Advisers in your area who have the specialist expertise to work with you to plan for your care funding requirements and help you with Inheritance Tax.

*Farley Dwek Financial Planning is a trading style of Cheetham Jackson Joint Ventures LLP, which is an Appointed Representative of Cheetham Jackson Ltd, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

If you would like us to make an introduction to one of our Independent Financial Adviser, please get in touch below.