In the past, we have mentioned several companies who promise to protect inheritances from care home fees, but who in reality offer ineffective services.
At Steene Law, we continue to receive pleas from families who have been sold products by one particular company, the Universal Group, which promises to protect assets from care home fee requests.
Many have taken the company up on this offer only to find out that they still had to sell a home or asset they thought was safe.
The Universal Group has promised many people that their “Universal Asset Protection Trust” would assist in avoiding having to pay care fees.
In fact, the firm is clear in some of its marketing materials that this is the aim of its service. Unfortunately, we have come across evidence that suggests that local authorities are aware of this promise.
As you can see from this photograph of Universal Group’s marketing literature, the title of the DVD is “How to Avoid Care Fees”.
It would be very difficult to argue that anyone who has set up any sort of trust with Universal Group and then moved property into that trust did it for any other reason than to avoid paying care fees.
In light of this, we are urging everyone whose parents have made a Will to check whether they have been sold something from Universal Group or attended a seminar to avoid care fees.
Where it appears that they have used the services of Universal Group, or where they appear to have some assets held in trust or transferred into the name of a stranger, you must call us immediately so that we can help resolve the situation.
When it comes to avoiding care home fees, trusts rarely work and considering the use of words in this instance, we feel fairly certain that anyone who purchased a Universal Group Trust will find that the Local Authority applies the Care and Support Statutory Guidance that deals with deliberate deprivation of assets.
To avoid the cost and the heartache of being left in this situation call us today for a no-obligation consultation.
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