The Truth about Trusts that are sold to ‘Protect your home from Care Fees’

17 May The Truth about Trusts that are sold to ‘Protect your home from Care Fees’

I have recently been contacted by several of my clients who had received door drop leaflets inviting them to attend a free seminar on ‘Protecting your home from Care Home Fees’ – they were wanting to know if it was a scam.

They had gone along to hear what it was all about, only to find the price for the ‘package’ was a somewhat jaw-dropping £3,300 each, or £4,200 for a couple (+ vat)!  When they told me what they had been told, my heart sank and my blood began to boil!

The company running the seminars is basically marketing their product as a ‘sure fire way’ to avoid paying care fees in later life; enabling you to pass on your hard earned assets to your children rather than the Local Authority.

This is a very emotive subject – and something that is at the forefront of the minds of a great many of my own clients – those of a certain age, for whom the prospect of ending up in Care is a very real possibilty in the not-too-distant future.

The problem is, the very reason they would look to purchase a product such as this, is the very resaon it would be doomed to fail!  The reason being that; anything you do that is designed specifically to reduce the value of your estate for Local Authority means testing, will be deemed, quite legally, by the said Local Authority, to be a “deliberate deprivation of capital”, and as a result they will go ahead and seize the asset anyway…

There are products available – I use them myself, for my clients WHERE applicable, that can indeed achieve exactly this outcome, though they are sold to provide very different benefits, and are only suitable – and ethical – in certain circumstances.  Unfortunately the company promoting their products through these seminars are very much misleading their audience – which to my mind is at the very least a deriliction of their duty of care, if not verging on fraud!

If you would like to find out how you can legally, safely and ethically protect your assets from 3rd parties – and for substantially less than my clients were quoted at the seminar they attended – then please contact me at:  info@heir-tight-wills.co.uk  or call me on 0845 519 7585, and I will be happy to assess your specific requirements and advise on the best solutions for you

Rachael Rodgers
Will Writer & Estate Planner