The term deprivation of capital is commonly used when discussing care fees and funding. It describes an act carried out by an individual to knowingly reduce their capital for financial benefit to avoid paying for care fees. It is also used in the benefit system when individuals reduce assets to claim benefits. When a local authority carries out a financial assessment they need to consider whether assets have been given away with the intention of avoiding charges for care. Sometimes actions are obvious and sometimes they are difficult to assess. Many complaints received by the Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman arise because it is thought a local authority has automatically considered a gift to be deprivation of capital. This can be a very difficult and emotive issue for families. With an increasing pressure on council budgets it is right for local authorities to ensure that deprivation of capital does not occur but they need to ensure they investigate correctly to reach the correct outcome. Councils must not simply assume that deprivation of capital has arisen. They should fully explore whether there are other valid reasons why an asset is no longer owned. The circumstances of the gift and the reasoning for it should be investigated with the individual requiring care and their family or representatives. The councils have to bear in mind that the decision of intentional deprivation required the service user to have had a "reasonable expectation" they may need to pay towards care and support at the time of deprivation. The timing of a gift is therefore really important. If a gift was made when an individual was well and had no indication they may need care in the future they should not be considered deprivation of capital. Gifting assets when you have been diagnosed with an illness is always a difficult area. There is an awareness of a condition but this may not always result in a care need in later life. If you are considering giving money away and you do have a health issue you should really take advice and make sure that it is done in the correct way with the right supporting paperwork, just in case it is called into question by a local authority. If you are considering giving assets to family members and are not sure which way to go then give us a call for a quick chat. We are on 01622 843729.

The Care Act 2014 sets out very clearly that a local authority has a during to meet an adult's care and support needs if they reach the established eligibility criteria. If you:- are ordinarily resident in the local authority area; have costs that do not exceed the care cap; have a financial assessment which shows you are below the financial limits set out; are asking the local authority to meet your needs; or lack capacity to arrange for your care This means that they should arrange the care that you need and in some circumstances fund the care required. Everyone is eligible to ask for the local authority to meet their needs but often, when it is discovered that you are self funding you are left to organise care yourself. This is due to change in October 2023. As we all know social services and local authorities are under increasing pressure with staff and budget management. This may be about to worsen as the Care Act is expected to increase the workload on social services by approximately 105,000 additional assessments. This is because self funders will be able to ask the local authority to organise their care in a care home. This will allow self funders to then take advantage of the local authority's agreed fee rates, which are usually much lower than self funding rates. The majority of homes charge a higher fee to self funding residents to help with the reduced costs they receive for local authority supported residents. It is common knowledge that the rate paid by local authorities is considered insufficient and unsustainable for care homes. Many of the homes we work with are worried about what the future holds and how the quality of care provided will be affected. This is going to be an important area to watch in the coming year to see how the local authority deals with the additional care assessments but also how many people are told about the option to receive lower care charges and the way this is received by the care homes. If you are worried about care advice please do not do this on your own. Talk to the Argo team as we can help you and take those worries away. Call us on 01622 843729 for more information.

If everything goes to plan, and lets face it, what is at the moment, the Government's care amendments will begin in October 2023. There have been no comments by the new government as to whether they still plan to go ahead with these but advisers will be paying close attention to what happens to the economy in the UK to see whether these significant funding changes do materialise! From October 2023 a new care cap of £86,000 on the amount any individual needs to spend on eligible personal care and support needs over their lifetime will come into force. You will need to make sure you are familiar with the "eligibility" criteria and watch the small print! Once the £86,000 has been reached the local authority will then become responsible for providing the funds to meet the care needs of the individual. We say watch the small print as it is not all care costs which count towards the cost of the care cap. The costs of the daily living in the home are not included. These add up to the most significant amount of an individual's weekly care needs as they include rent, food and utility bills (also known as hotel costs). It is only the nursing care element of fees which are included in the care cap. It is highly likely you will see a change in which care invoices are presented by care homes to ensure these are itemised to identify personal care costs and support costs from other costs. Of course, any additional, enhanced or extra costs will not be included ie newspapers, hairdressers, day trips. There will also be a change to the lower and upper limits at which social services become involved with care funding. The upper limit is currently £23,250 and will raise to £100,000 and the lower limit of £14,250 will increase to £20,000. Those with assets above £100,000 will be expected to fully fund their care. Once the figure of £100,000 is reached the local authority may provide assistance until the figure of £20,000 is reached. The amount of assistance provided by the local authority will depend upon the level of income an individual also receives. With changes due next year it is a good idea to review the position you are in now to ensure that you really know where you stand. This involves understanding how the care system works and what is taken into account with needs assessments, understanding how best to manage the family finances if care is involved and understanding when you need to approach social services for support. Argo are experts in care advice and support and we have over 20 years experience in assisting our clients and holding their hands through the minefield of care. If you are worried about what the future holds give us a call and take advantage of our free fifteen minute first aid call on 01622 843729.

You may have read our earlier article in which we spoke about quality street chocolates and discretionary trusts. We thought you might like a further insight into Kelly's head and how she explains life interest trusts to clients! A life interest trust is a totally different type of trust to a discretionary trust and it is used for different reasons. It is still very effective at protecting assets which are placed in it. Often a life interest trust will be used to ensure that someone can live in a house for their lifetime. Or it may be used to protect assets in a marriage if one partner dies young and the other may remarry. Kelly often talks about the survivor having a whirlwind romance with a Greek waiter/waitress (or any other nationality for that matter) and marrying in haste. A life interest trust can ensure that assets are protected for the children of the deceased and do not disappear to the Greek waiter/waitress. Many of our clients in their 90s find this potential scenario very amusing! A life interest trust has trustees, people you trust to look after assets. You really need two but no more than four. It has beneficiaries, those you wish to benefit from the assets, but usually there is just one rather than many. It also has assets. Again these could be lots of different things like your house, your bank accounts, your premium bonds, your car and your furniture. With a life interest trust the beneficiary does not have an automatic right to these assets but can have the interest, dividends or rental income which is generated by an asset or the beneficiary can enjoy living in a property or making use of a car or furniture. When clients ask for an explanation of a life interest trust Kelly talks about cows and milk! Let us know at the end what you think! When you think about all of the assets in a life interest trust you need to compare them to a cow. With careful management of the cow, the correct hay and water, the right protein and living conditions, the right love and attention the cow will become happy and content. When it is happy and content it will produce lots of milk. The milk is the product of the good care of the cow and equivalent to the dividends, interest and rent that is produced by the assets in a life interest trust. The beneficiary of the life interest trust can have all of the milk to do with what they want regardless of how much milk is produced. It is possible with some trusts that a beneficiary can have access to the assets within the trust but this is with special permissions given to the trustees. Kelly doesn't like to talk about this too much in relation to cows as she would not advocate chopping off a tail to make oxtail soup whilst the cow is still mooing around the field! You need to be careful with life interest trusts if your beneficiary receives state benefits or pays for care fees. The income that is generated from a life interest trust must be declared in a means tested benefit or care calculations so could undo the good that was intended by protecting the assets themselves. If you are thinking about creating a discretionary trust or would like to talk this through please contact Kelly at post@argolifeandlegacy.co.uk and take advantage of our free fifteen minute advice call.

It was Forrest Gump who said "life is like a box of chocolates". He was not wrong as you never know what you gonna get! The same can be said about a discretionary trust. Discretionary trusts are technically very complicated but when you take all the tax gobbledegook and technical bits away they are really quite simple. However, they can be complicated to explain so Kelly looks to find ways of explaining things that people understand. Many have heard her talk about boxes of chocolates when she talks about trusts and many continue to remember her explanation for years to come. When anyone at Argo is asked to give an explanation of a discretionary trust they all say the same! When you think about a discretionary trust you must think of it like a box of chocolates. For the purposes of illustration Kelly gets her clients to think about a tin of quality street, the chocolates which families fight over at Christmas! You need to think about the chocolate tin as the secure, impenetrable container that cannot be broken into. The various chocolates inside the tin represent different assets, for example the purple one could represent a Lloyds Bank account, the orange cream could be Premium bonds, the milk chocolate block may be shares in BP, the strawberry delight a house. The chocolates represent the mix of assets you have in your estate. These assets are safely put into the tin and securely kept until the tin is ready to be opened. Until the tin is opened it is given to people you know and trust who will make sure that the contents are kept safely until the time is right. These individuals are called your trustees. Ideally there should be two of these. The family members who then fight over access to the quality street tin at Christmas are your beneficiaries. None of them have the right to say any of the sweets are theirs so they have to wait and see what the trustees do. Just like a beneficiary of a trust. No discretionary beneficiary has the right to the assets within the trust. It is up to the trustees to decide which beneficiaries receive assets, how much they have and when, but this is not without guidance. If you are anything like Kelly the quality street tin at Christmas has strict rules about when it can be opened and who can have what, otherwise there would be carnage! These rules can be written down in a rule book which is also known as a letter of wishes. This letter is the guidance to trustees as to when the trust can be opened, what can be removed, the circumstances of when things can be removed and the beneficiaries who should receive assets. It could be that a rule is set that a grandchild can have some money withdrawn to help with driving lessons when they are eighteen but that money is not to be released to purchase a sports car if they pass their test. It may be that money is leant to a child to help with a mortgage or funds are to be used for a disabled child whose benefits provide insufficient funds for holidays. The rule book can be as minimal or as detailed as it needs to be for the circumstances of your family. If a situation arises which is detailed in the letter of wishes the trustees can open the trust and make a distribution to a beneficiary or, in simple terms, can open the chocolate box and give a chocolate to a family member. Sometimes the trustees are told that they cannot give an asset away completely but they can give interest or dividends to a beneficiary. This is a lot like lifting the lid on the tin and allowing the family member to smell the chocolatey aroma before closing the lid again! A discretionary trust is a flexible thing that can be used to achieve many different outcomes. If you have a family member who receives benefits they can be used to protect the benefits whilst protecting their inheritance, they can be used to protect assets from the ravages of care charges, they can be used to protect a vulnerable beneficiary who is unable to manage money or is at risk of undue influence and scams. Yes, of course, there are rules and regulations that must be followed once a discretionary trust is created but these can be discussed at another time. What is important now is that you can go away and talk happily to your family about the discretionary trust you want to create during your lifetime or in your will without even mentioning the phrase. They may, just like some of our clients, think you may be are a little bit bonkers before they realise you are talking complete sense! If you feel you need a little more of Kelly's madness and fantastic explanations please give her a call on 01622 843729.

There is a technical definition of a trustee which talks about fiduciary duties and legal responsibilities but that does not mean much to most people, so what is a trustee in simple terms? A trustee is a personal who looks after money or property for the benefit of another. This arrangement is usually set up by a third party in a formal structure like a deed made during lifetime or in their will. The trustee becomes the legal owner of the asset ie the bank account, shareholding or property. The person they look after the asset for is called a beneficiary. It is the job of the trustee to make sure the assets is properly looked after until the beneficiary is old enough to receive it or enjoy the benefit of it. A person could make a trust and appoint trustees for a number of reasons ie to protect vulnerable family members, to save inheritance tax or to protect assets from care charges so the reason the trustee has been appointed could differ according to circumstances. A trustee of a trust set up for a disabled child will have very different responsibilities and decisions to make than a trustee of a trust set up to help with inheritance planning. The responsibility of being a trustee is not a small one. If you take on the role of trustee you will have legal responsibilities and duties which you must consider and follow. Some of these rules will be written in the trust and some will be contained in legislation. It is important to make sure you understand what you are being asked to do and confirm your responsibilities before you agree to be a trustee. Make sure you have seen a copy of the trust and you know what assets are held within the trust. Make sure you have seen any letters of instruction written by the person who has set up the trust and get to know the beneficiaries you may need to help in the future. Take some expert advice on what you will be expected to do - will the trust need to be registered with HMRC, will you have to prepare accounts and tax returns, how do you go about investing money? An investment of time in this advice will be invaluable for the future. Once you have the answers to all these questions and you have read the trust and understand what you need to do you can then decide whether you want the job! If you want or need some help in deciding whether you want to be a trustee for a friend or family member we are happy to talk it through. You can make use of our free 15 minutes review service by emailing post@argolifeandlegacy.co.uk to make an appointment if you want!

We have focused in previous articles on why wills are important, how they help you plan for the future, react to change and protect your family and friends. I have recorded reasons why you need to make a will but what actually happens when you want to make one? I can happily confirm that superstition does not come in to play. I have never seen someone make a will who is then struck by a bolt of lightening or is runover by a bus. I have however seen people skip out of our meeting feeling much lighter, as something that has worried them for a long time has been completed. When you are ready to make a will it is at a time that is right for you and hopefully not because there is an emergency. Irrespective of circumstance wills can be made over a period or time or very quickly, depending upon your needs. It is important to make sure you find the right adviser for you. There are many people out there who make wills. Not all will be for you. Some are solicitors, some are legal executives, some are will writers. Some are good, some are average and some are bad! Never feel embarrassed to interview who you want to work for you. When you look for an adviser you should consider are they qualified and regulated? do they have good experience in the advice you need? are they a member of Solicitors for the Elderly or the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners? are they someone you can talk to and build a relationship with? do they come out to see you at home? do they charge a fixed fee for the work they do rather than hourly rates? These pointers will help you find a lawyer who is good at their job, experienced and a good listener. There is still a misconception that clients should put their lawyers on a pedestal and not question their qualifications or the information they are given. This is simply not true. You are purchasing a service from your lawyer just as you do from your plumber, your garage when you take your car for a service or the opticians when you purchase glasses. You would not ask any of these companies to help you without doing your homework and the same should be the case with a lawyer. You would also not purchase any of these services without knowing how much they will cost first. You need to feel comfortable with the person who is giving you advice as there may be difficult or emotionally sensitive situations that need to be considered as part of making your will, so make sure your lawyer can give you a hug if you need one! You will be asked about your family circumstances, your assets and liabilities. You will be asked about medication and health issues, all of which are necessary to help make the best will for you. You will speak about taxes and care fees, conflict of interests and potential disputes, how to protect your family and assets. You will be asked about what you want to do and who you want to leave things to. The job of your lawyer is then to take what you want to do and put it in a legal frame work to make sure you estate is distributed how you wish. In the event your lawyer is worried about your ability to make a will they will investigate whether you understand what a will is, what assets you have and how you want to leave your estate within the legal tests that have been established. Making a will should not be something you worry or stress about. It should be as easy as a chat with a friend over coffee. If it is not like this then may be you have the wrong lawyer? If you want a chat with a friend over coffee to make your will and even have a lawyer arrive with a fresh cream cake then Argo is for you. Give us a call on 01622 843729 to book an appointment to make your will so you can begin skipping!

Right now, the most important thing for a trustee to do is make sure they have registered their trust with the Trust Registration Service before the deadline of 1 September 2022. If you are a trustee it is important that you ensure this takes place to avoid penalties and charges from HMRC as the responsibility for compliance has been placed on your shoulders! This is not a straightforward task and many professionals are struggling with this exercise so please do not feel deflated. Sometimes the system does not work, sometime it crashes half way through registration, sometimes it just simply wants to be difficult! Sometimes you simply don't know whether the trust you manage is one that should be registered. If your trust is one of the following you must register before 1 September 2022:- trusts that were in existence before 6 October 2020 and do not generate income trusts that were in existence before 6 October 2020 but have since been closed that did not generate income trusts which were created after 6 April 2021 if they become liable for income tax To make sure you are covered and take the right action it would be sensible to review any trusts of which you are a trustee and take some advice to make sure you do the right thing. There will be many old dormant trusts which have not done anything for many years. They may own a property which an elderly relative lives in, may have a parcel of land or some other asset that generates no income. These trust will probably have to be registered too. Trusts created by wills, after the will maker has died will more likely than not fall into the above categories. Trusts created during lifetimes will more likely that not fall into the above categories. Trusts contained in wills where the will maker is still alive do not need to be registered as they do not come into existence until the will maker has died. Not that it will make it any easier but here is the link to the government website relating to trusts https://www.gov.uk/topic/personal-tax/trusts. Please use this link to see if the trust you are involved with needs to be registered. You will need to gather information about the trustees, the person who established the trust, the beneficiaries and the assets within the trust. All of these details will need to be included with the Trust Registration Service. To start the process of registering here is the link to the government website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-a-trust-as-a-trustee. Alternatively, you may just wish to call us for help on 01622 843729. Our trust team would love to help get the weight of this compliance headache off your shoulders!

The hot meal provided Apetito will be closing its doors at the end of July 2022 leaving hundreds of vulnerable people in the County of Kent not knowing what to do next. We have been notified on behalf of a number of clients of the closure and have spoken to the Apetito team to find out what has happened. Aside from a company wide cyber attack in June the Kent branch of Apetito can no longer provide a service to its clients due to financial viability. The staff in the Kent branch have been totally stunned by this announcement and are saddened not only to be losing their jobs but to no longer be able to help their customers, some of whom they have worked with for many years. Alternative providers are being recommended by Apetito but there is a limited alternative hot meal service in the County with many replacements only providing microwavable or oven cook meals. This will not meed the needs of individuals who are unable to prepare a hot meal for themselves. Having a hot meal every day is vital for the ongoing health and wellbeing of elderly and vulnerable individuals. We have raised this matter with our local MPs. If you are experiencing difficulty please do not worry and not speak to anyone. You can call our team on 01622 843729 to discuss your situation and we will work to help find a solution together

HMRC has revealed that it has seen an increase in the amount of tax paid on death in England and Wales for the period to April 2022. This is up £10million on the same period last year and brings Inheritance Tax receipts for the Chancellor to a whopping £0.5billion. This increase is due to higher volumes of wealth transfers which took place during the pandemic, an increase in asset values and the government's decision to keep the Inheritance Tax thresholds at current limits until 2025/2026 tax year. This continues a trend which has seen the receipts from Inheritance Tax double over the last ten years. When did you last sit down and work out how much your assets were worth. Take five minutes: total the value of your home, your savings, your investments, your National Savings premium bonds and all the other things you own. Do not include your income, life policies or your pension pots. What is the figure you come up with? If this total is more than £325,000 if you are single or more than £650,00 if you are married or in a civil partnership, then Inheritance Tax is something you need to be concerned about. If your assets exceed this amount then it is possible that your family, following your death, could be left to work out how to settle an Inheritance Tax bill at 40% of the value in excess of this £325,000 or £650,000. With the majority of the value being tied up in your home finding funds to pay a tax bill may cause an enormous amount of stress and worry for those you leave behind and could cause financial hardship. The solution to this problem is sensible advice. You need to talk through how inheritance tax planning can help to mitigate the potential tax liability you may have. It can help to structure your estate and your will to ensure you pay as little tax as possible and pass assets to your family in the most effective way. If you don't want to pay anymore than you have to to HMRC then take some time to thing about what you are worth, what you want and how you can get there, whilst taking some advice from an expert. The Argo team do this every day. We are here to help you and are even nice enough to give you some free time to discuss what you are worried about. Take advantage of our fifteen minute first aid call to find out how we can help you. Call us on 01622 843729 for more information.

As you will probably be aware the government has confirmed that all households falling within the council tax brackets between A to D will be eligible this summer for a rebate of £150 to help with increasing energy costs. Maidstone Borough Council has already paid £5.3million to 35,500 council tax payments as part of the government's rebate scheme, but have you had yours? If you settle your council tax by direct debit but have yet to receive your rebate you must visit your local Borough Council website and complete their application. For Maidstone residents this is https://maidstone.gov.uk/home/primary-services/council-tax/primary-areas/council-tax-rebate For those who don't pay by direct debit you should have received a letter during May with further details on how to complete the application form. You will not receive a telephone call or text from your local council in relation to this so do not fall fowl of any scammers who may be trying to obtain your bank details. If you are a higher council tax from E to H you may also be eligible for a discretionary payment if the council believes you are experiencing fuel poverty. Please keep an eye on your local Borough Council website to find out what they are offering in your area as it is likely they will all differ. If you need further assistance in claiming your rebate please give us a call on 01622 843729 and speak to one of our team who can help with claiming on your behalf.

Kelly is the founder of Argo Life & Legacy, a legacy for her grandmother. Argo exists to give a voice to those who struggle to be heard and to help those who need it. It is because of the difficulties Kelly experienced in caring for her grandmother that she decided support families with elderly or vulnerable relatives in planning for their future. Future planning is a family affair and involves all generations, regardless of circumstance. Over the last 20 years, Kelly has been supporting and holding the hands of her clients who wish to make a will. Whether they want to protect assets from future care charges, protect a disabled child or undertake planning to reduce inheritance tax charges Kelly works to take away their worries and prevent mistakes to stop things from going very wrong. She can even draft nice straightforward wills for those who want to keep it simple! Kelly makes sure that you have the time you need to make your decisions and explains things in a way that you will understand. We asked Kelly why she wants you to make a will and she replied "Over my career I have seen the fallout on a family because a parent died without making a will. Life can be thrown into chaos in a second and everything you thought would happen changes. Making a will gives your family certainty about their future and you peace of mind that you have done the right thing. A will makes life so much easier as it plans and protects for the future, after all none of us are getting any younger and none of us can predict the future, so who knows what might happen next" Many people use Kelly because clients say she is “caring and empathetic” and “not at all stuffy”. She has even been told that making a will with her is “as easy as buttering a piece of toast”! If you really wish to get this sorted please call Kelly to book your free telephone will check.