How to Plan for Long-Term Care

You will have considered all of your finances carefully, taking advice along the way. You will have met an advisor to discuss your house purchase; you will have saved diligently into a pension to ensure a comfortable retirement; you will have taken advice on how to mitigate inheritance tax. But have you planned how you intend to fund your care need?

Do you know if you have enough funds to meet your care needs?  Typical care costs in the New Forest are between £50,000 – £70,000 p/a for residential care, a cost few families can easily afford.  However, there are a number of ways you can use your estate to generate this level of income.  Immediate Needs Annuities can provide a tax-free income to pay care home fees at typical rates of between 20% and 30%.  This means that £100,000 invested into an Immediate Needs Annuity could generate you £30,000 p/a tax-free income if you are going into residential care.

You may take the view that care costs are simply another form of tax and would like to discuss how best to protect what you have saved to make sure it is passed onto your family.  There are a number of ways this can be achieved with careful advice and preparation.  The state will insist that you pay for all of your own care if you have assets greater than £23,250. However, did you know that Investment Bonds do not count towards this total, providing they are the right type of Investment Bonds?  There is also the option to place assets such as your family home into trust to protect it for yourself and your children.

Call Heritage Will Writing and arrange an appointment with our long-term care specialist, Adam Johnson to discuss the options available to meet your care costs.