Are You Facing the Need for Care Now?
If you are contemplating placing a relative (or friend) in a care home, you are probably feeling emotionally drained right now. The process of finding a suitable care home and sorting out the legislation, not to mention helping your loved one come to terms with the significant changes to their lifestyle can be extremely hard. Add to this the emotive and often confusing financial situation and it is not surprising to learn that many people feel stressed and worried at a time like this.
My Mum/Dad needs to go into care now - what can we do?
If your parent´s capital and savings and or income push her outside the means test thresholds she will generally be responsible for the funding of their own care fees until such a time as their money falls below the appropriate threshold.
However, with careful planning it may be possible to structure their finances in such a way that their care fees can be paid indefinitely, without worry about the future or what might happen if the money runs out.
Most families wish to ensure that their relative can stay in the chosen care home for the rest of their lives as well as safeguarding as much of the existing capital as possible.
There are dedicated financial policies available designed to cover all or part of the cost of a persons care fees, and whilst they are not a universal panacea, they can in the right circumstances provide an ideal solution.
My Mum/Dad wants to stay in their own home; can we still take out a plan?
Yes you can, Immediate Care plans are just as practical for people choosing to stay in their own homes. The calculations will of course be slightly different, but the concepts and benefits are exactly the same.
Immediate Care Plans are also fully portable so should a person originally establish a plan to cover their care at home, and at some time in the future they moved into a care home the plan simply moves with them.
If we took out a care plan what would it cost?
The cost of an Immediate Care Plan is individual and tailored to the circumstances of the person needing care, the points taken into consideration are age, gender, medical condition and the amount of annual benefit needed. Care costs do vary throughout the country, and as everybody´s financial situation is different it is not possible to give a definite cost.
However, we have included a synopsis from a real case, the Carter family, and this gives an idea of the sorts of calculations involved. (See the Carter family case study).
How can we take out a plan?
It is not possible to purchase a plan directly, the providing companies require you to use the services of a FSA authorised and regulated adviser. We would recommend that you discuss the matter with a specially trained and qualified Independent Financial Adviser; one that satisfies your answers to all your questions, as this whole area can be a complex subject it is important to talk to an adviser you can trust.
The important part of any care fees planning exercise is to establish several key points, making sure that the actual plan (if appropriate); the monthly benefit level and the premium method match each individual circumstance.
It is for this reason that we will always offer you a personal face-to-face consultation, without cost or obligation on your part, to ensure that all our current and future recommendations are tailor made to your own specific requirements.
Important Note for Immediate Care Plans:
There are only a few companies that provide this type of plan and the only way to obtain accurate and confirmed premiums is to ask each company to undertake full medical underwriting. Whilst it is just about possible to obtain an indicative quote from one of the companies, it is not advisable and in our humble opinion it can represent a waste of time and resource, and lead to unrealistic expectations.
Experience has taught us that:
- The final (fully underwritten) premium invariably bears little or no relation to the "guessed" one, in essence it only represents the interpretation of a "computer programme".
- The indicative quotation can be misleading as it is only giving you a fraction of the overall picture.
- The indicative quotation is not based on confirmed medical information.
- It is much more beneficial for a whole family if you they can base all their calculations and decisions on real figures.
- Establishing full medical underwriting at the earliest opportunity gives families the best opportunity to plan effectively with reassurance and peace of mind.
Download our Guide to Care Fees Financial PLanning (Scotland) Brochure here (9Mbyte pdf file)