A home is many people’s most valuable asset and after working hard to buy your home and pay off your mortgage, it is frustrating and heart breaking to see your home having to be sold to pay ever increasing care costs. Unfortunately, paying for residential care in a care home is expensive but many people have no choice in the matter. If you have income and assets, and particularly if you own a property, you will pay at least part and possibly full residential care home fees (known as self-funding).

Often we get asked if clients should transfer their property into the names of their children and simply give it away. There are many risks with this which could potentially end up in you losing your home to someone other than the person you gave it to e.g. because of bankruptcy, divorce, death etc.

Over recent years, there has been increasing interest in what is often known as ‘Family Asset Protection Trusts’. This type of trust is referred to by many different names such as a Family Trust, Living Trust, Asset Protection Trust, Family Protection Trust but all these different names refer to the same thing. There has been good and bad press surrounding trusts and there is no “one size fits all” answer as to whether a trust is right for you. In the right circumstances, a trust can be a way of making a gift whilst still enjoying the use of the property and protecting property or other assets to pass on to your loved ones in the right way and at the right time for them.