Case study:
Financing care

Our clients

Eric and Alma had been married for over 65 years and since the end of World War II they had rarely spent a night apart. Sadly, Eric’s deteriorating health meant that a move into a care home seemed an inevitable end to their life together.

Alma and the family wanted him to stay at home, but knew that this wouldn’t be an easy decision, as Eric needed specialist personal care and Alma was unable to provide this. As a potential solution, the family considered having a live-in-carer and they both arranged a meeting with us at The Good Care Group. Following our assessment we knew we could deliver a home care package to meet their needs.

Expert advice from symponia

To help them explore the best way to fund the care they then talked through the option of equity release with their local Symponia member, who suggested that the whole family became involved in the discussions.

Exploring an immediate care plan

To help the family gain additional peace of mind, the adviser suggested that they explore the possibility of an Immediate Care Plan. They calculated the income, and compared that to the expenses, which had to take account not only of the household costs (which largely remained unaltered) but the care costs of £950 each week.

This bespoke calculation left a deficit of just under £22,800 per annum this was submitted to the underwriters for consideration. After assessing Eric’s health and mortality the cost of the Immediate Care Plan with a built-in automatic 5% annual escalation was £92,000.

Eric & Alma used equity release to buy the immediate care plan. As their property was valued at over £500,000 the release of equity was just under 18.5% of the total value. The family also consulted with a solicitor with expertise in equity release who ensured that they understood all the implications of the transaction.