We have seen a copy of the sales pitch from these so-called ‘Wealth Preservation’ companies:
“Over the past twenty years, we have held seminars throughout the country that have helped tens of thousands of people just like you to protect their families. We invite you to come along and find out what problems people commonly face and what options are available so that you and your family can avoid them. We have developed simple yet comprehensive solutions to both every day and complex problems. Presented in plain English, key topics are addressed in a clear and logical manner. Each seminar normally lasts around 2 hours with a comfort break halfway and is presented by a qualified (Non-practising) Solicitor with decades of experience in Estate Planning.This FREE seminar takes you step by step through the maze of traps and pitfalls that can catch out the unprepared. Universal specialises in Wealth Preservation and Asset Protection.
J and P
If you were told that putting your home in “trust” would avoid future care fees, you were not told the full story.
It’s likely that not only will you have lost any up-front fees you may have paid, but, should the person who owned the property need to go into care in the future, they will still be treated as owning the property, irrespective of what fancy words or legal jargon are used.
Local Authorities view any such “trust” as if it had been created to deliberately avoid paying for care by depriving themselves of their own assets. Transferring the title deeds to someone else or being told that than irrevocable trust fund has been created will side-step paying care fees is untrue!
If a trust has been set up in this way and you are being charged annual trustee fees, contact us as soon as possible. We will put a stop to this mis-selling of trusts, which is an abuse of elderly and vulnerable people.
There has to be a valid reason for giving away your home. It cannot be done on the basis of avoiding care/nursing home fees. If it is done for that reason then the local authority can treat it as deprivation of assets.
You need to know that every Local authority will ask the same three questions if they suspect there has been a deliberate deprivation
- Whether avoiding care fees was a significant motivation
- Whether at the time of the disposal (say the transfer of the title of your home into a “trust”) the person had a reasonable expectation of needing care
- Whether the person had a “reasonable expectation” of needing to contribute to the cost of care
In these circumstances, the Local Authority will conduct a Financial Assessment and if they find out that the transfer of the house arose as a result of attending such a seminar, or the aging family member created a trust set up by any of the above ‘wealth management’ companies, the person who gave away their property may still be liable to pay their care fees even though technically they no longer own their property,
What is our advice?
Had anyone called Steene Law Partnership we would have explained straight away that care fee planning will only be successful if the purpose of putting the assets into trust was not to prevent them being used to pay care home fees.
As this was the intention of all the Universal Wealth Preservation (and similar companies) we would have told you that this is not “care fee planning” and does NOT work.
Steene Law Partnership – what we can do
- If you have bought a trust there is a high likelihood that the Local Authority may allege there has been a deliberate deprivation to avoid paying care fees.
- If you have not faced this allegation yet, do not worry as we are used to defending such allegations, and in any event if your family member is in a care home and is really unwell they might be eligible for non-means tested Continuing Health Care.
- If a person has already transferred their property, having attended a seminar, we will see if it is possible to “unwind” the transaction.
- If the person who transferred their property has already gone into residential care and the Local Authority is making enquiries about the transfer of the home, or other assets such as cash, contact us as soon as possible so we can suggest how to deal with your situation.
- We can help you make an application to replace the directors of /Universal Asset Protection Ltd as trustees and help you put in place new wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA)
- We can check if Lasting Powers of Attorney have in fact been registered.
- Whilst speaking to one of our expert solicitors we would also check (at no charge) whether you or your family member is entitled to non-means tested Continuing Health Care.