New to this - splitting money?

[EssentiallyDecluttering]

My parents have been living independently in their mid 80s, but DF has sustained a spinal injury and it is probably 50/50 whether he will be able to return to the family home with my mum (it’s not wheelchair friendly and it would be very difficult to make it so, although we are looking into this, he may recover enough to hobble round the house). DB and I have LPA for both of them for finances and health. At the moment they have substantial savings and good pensions so for either visiting carers or residential care for DF they will be self-funding. All their income currently goes into one joint current account from which all their bills are paid. I’m not sure how their savings are held but suspect cash savings are joint, investments separate. Should we be looking at separating their money? They do both have capacity but DM is showing early cognitive decline and has severe anxiety and DF while mentally sharp can no longer write or use a keyboard so they have agreed the finance LPAs can be implemented now. Feeling a bit overwhelmed TBH, I’ve got a lot else going on in my life.

We split money for PILs so when fil went into care they only used up half the savings and mil could stay in home with her own assets.

If you don’t split money any calculations will be worked out as if each parent has any 50% of any joint assets.

If you don’t split money any calculations will be worked out as if each parent has any 50% of any joint assets.

Thanks, so if any of them are separate should we be looking at equalising them? Or would that be deprivation of assets is we move anything from Dad to Mum?

I know that doesn’t matter till their savings are used up.

One of the most important things is that they should be tenants in common for their house (not joint tenants) so that they can each leave their half of the house to who they choose and if one needs care and the other doesn't, the council can't touch the other one's half (even if they're dead).

Thank you, again though could that be viewed as deprivation of assets now one of them will almost certainly be needing care?

You need to make it clear who you're asking - is it me? If so, no, totally their choice whether to be joint tenants or tenants in common and not deprivation of assets. Because it's only the not-in-care person's half that's not available for care costs - that's the point. If the person who needs care put THEIR half of their assets in someone else's name or whatever, that's deprivation.

Sorry @Elsvieta , I thought that was clear as you were the only person to reply to my previous comment. Maybe we should look into that then. So that helps if the second one needs care.

The thing with switching from joint to tenants in common is they need to have capacity to agree to this, and also to change their wills so that their own half is left directly to their children rather than to the spouse. So don’t delay if you think your mum is declining and they do want to do this.

Thanks, I think we might be looking at selling the house soon anyway so I will add it to the list of things to discuss.