to wonder how much inheritance

[hubgryhorse]

You need before you can safely assume you’ll still get a chunk despite potential care home fees? I read all the time on here that you shouldn’t rely on it etc etc and nasty comments are made about how you must be hoping your relatives dies 🤔

I always thought most people had an idea of what they may expect later on, whilst knowing there’s no guarantee for all sorts of reasons!

But with estates of 500k, 1mil, 2mil surely you can expect that not to be totally used on care homes?!

I think it's best to plan your future based on no inheritance and then if you get one, it's a bonus and just helps to make life more comfortable. After all, even if it doesn't go on care home fees, they could suddenly decide to leave it all to the donkey sanctuary or cats home and leave you nothing.

YABU I’m afraid. It’s not a crime to wonder about inheritance but I am personally prepared to use my parents money and assets plus some of my own if necessary to ensure they get the best care if and when they need it. With their input of course! But with people living longer it is inevitable they will need care in later years perhaps for a long time.

We did the same for my grandma and I’m so glad we did because all of her children fell out in a huge way and it would have been 10x worse if there was actual money to fall out over.

Yet silly posters think it can all be made better by throwing their life savings at it. It's a form of denial. 'buying the best' means staff are still paid minimum wage. And what does 'the best' really look like if you have dementia?

The council run homes, where staff have better working conditions, are often happier places overall

Someone asked what happens when the money runs out. In my relative's case, absolutely no change. Stayed in the same place, which was really well run, just the costs were then covered by the council instead.

Thank you for posting some actual data.

People on Mumsnet do tend to talk as though care home fees are practically guaranteed. Very definitely not the case.

There are very few council run homes. Where I live the council buys places in the cheapest care homes where you wouldn’t put a dog if you had any choice. I cried after I saw one of my local council’s favourites. And the bar for tax funded residential care is way beyond the point whereby it’s actually needed. The care home I chose for my parents was on a different planet.

We’ve put money by specifically for the purpose. If it’s not needed for our care the kids get it. None of our kids need the money - two will spend it constructively, one will hoard it and one will squander it.

Nobody’s saying they are guaranteed but 15% of 85 year olds is not insignificant. It obviously depends on family circumstances and I don’t know yours but if one of your family develops dementia and there is not family members that can take over what will become round the clock care then likelihood is, a significant amount of money will be paid to either a care home or repeated visiting carers.

And no one is sayig they are guaranteed not to go into a care home. But not every old person gets to 85 and even if they do, the chance of them ending up in a care home is onnly 15%?

I just think it's important to be mindful of the actual data as so many people on this site rush to assume the worst case scenario is the most likely outcome.

My parents live in a country where carehome fees are 85% of their pension so no need use assets. While hopefully parents use their money while they can, I'd imagine I'd get 1/3 of their house.

You’re right of course, not everyone will make it to 85, my mum didn’t make it to 80 yet died in a care home earlier this year.

Surely the point of the thread is that circumstances may arise where care is needed and that it costs a bomb so might significantly impact on that persons wealth in their latter years.

Once someone is down to £23k, savings or house, the government /council take over the bulk of the care costs.

My grand parents had high 6 figures in the bank and by the time they died my mum and her brother got approx 80k each.

My grandad had dementia and my Nan ended up so infirm she also had to go into a care home, to find one that would take both (they'd been married for 60 years so we wouldn't split them up), cost £1000 a week (this was in the early 2000s). So you can see that after a few years the money, and proceeds from the house sale would quickly get eaten up.

A friend recently told me that her mother's money used to be on the hundreds of thousands and now after a few years in a acare home there's nothing left and the council are coming for her flat. No inheritance left over.

Another colleague has been working to pay his mother's top up fees so not only is there no inheritance but she is a dependent costing him £££

My mum also didn't make it to 80 unfortunately, but didn't go into a care home.

It's not the point of the thread if you read the OP again, though it has become the focus of the thread. That's why I appreciated @EggInANest posting date on the actual risk of people losing their inheritance to care home fees.

Not an insignificant risk, but you would be in an unlucky minority.

They made it all sound so easy.......sigh

My aunt has just moved into assisted living. It's £60,000 a year. With bills but no food or anything.

Not sure, but it only benefits the wealthy, anyway.

For someone who owns an 'average' house of ~£285k value and little/no other assets the cap would leave ~£200k which would easily get swallowed up in several years of non-medical care fees in a home, so nothing left.

If you're a wealthy Tory in the southeast with £1m house, etc., it's a lot more likely the cap will mean there's a nice lump left for your family to inherit more tax free money.

They're after the money of 'the middle' again. The poorer end have nothing anyway so the cap is irrelevant there and they don't want to take from the top end as that would be themselves.

Hardly surprising the Tories like the cap they've invented.

For me the cap shouldn't be a fixed number. It should be a percentage of asset value.

I taught two children of care home owners at a very expensive private school with fees of 40,000 per year per child...

Children were dropped off by a driver in a too of the range rolls Royce each morning. Parents continually on luxury holidays - both accountants. Ghastly, indulged children.

I was delighted when their business failed just so they couldn't continue to rip people off vulnerable people and their families - because, from the other side I could see their spending and what was going on and I really didn't like what was going on.

This was before COVID and the energy crisis in what I'd call 'better days' when they milked the system and visited elderly people in their homes to make 'assessments' for their needs - otherwise known as sussing out the joint for how much £ they could extract

It's not all care home owners, but some are awful

In answer to the initial OP, nothing can be assumed.

Both PIL have dementia, MIL cannot remember anything and FIL has lost rational thought entirely.

The care home fees are about £150k per year for the two of them. Their estate would have been about £1 million due to high house prices when it was sold. I very much doubt there will be anything left.

The care home is lovely and we could put them there without guilt (they lived with us for a few months and MIL was very resistant). However MIL is very miserable as she is coherent and aware that she is trapped. She will be 90 next year, and her mother lived to nearly 100.

They were always frugal and FIL would be heartbroken about how much money is being spent, he always wanted to pass something on to his sons. However the money that he saved is making the difference between the lovely care home and some of the really grotty ones that we saw.