Golden Times September 2016

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Friendship - by Julia Meanwell Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends. H Jackson brown Jnr. Good friends may help your life last longer according to an Australian study. Conducted by the Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University, the study followed nearly 1,500 older people for 10 years. It found that those who had a large network of friends outlived those with the fewest friends by 22%. The companionship provided by friends may ward off depression, boost selfesteem, and provide support. Interestingly they found that close relationships with children and relatives had almost no effect on longevity. The word ‘friend’ as defined in the dictionary is ‘a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, somebody who trusts and is fond of another, an ally or somebody who is not an enemy’. Unless you are reclusive you are likely to make many friends throughout your life but would you easily recognise a ‘frenemy’ that does more harm than good especially if you have been friends for countless years Do you find yourself involved in your friend’s constant dramas with them urging you to help them fix their problems a lot of the time? Toxic friendships are not good for our mental health and wellbeing; they can also be emotionally draining. How would you describe your friends? Are they supportive and caring; is it a good quality Local counsellor Julia Meanwell, has been in practice for over 20 years, she has a wealth of experience, empathy and understanding to offer clients. Julia began her counselling career as a relationship counsellor with Relate which incorporated working in television and radio. relationship with a balance of give and take? Can you trust and rely upon their support during times of trouble? Or, conversely, are they manipulative, unreliable and demanding? If it’s the latter and the relationship is unlikely to get better then ending the friendship is really the only option. Consider it an act of self-preservation by protecting yourself from the harmful impact of their negative behaviour. Maintaining and developing friendships takes quite a bit of effort but quality can be so much more valuable than quantity. Surround yourself with genuinely supportive friends that enhance your life and well-being and the long-term investment will pay dividends! If you would like to find out more about the counselling Julia offers then please take a look at her website juliameanwellcounselling.co.uk She can be contacted by email Julia.meanwell@gmail. com or give her a call on 07714 280083. HOME COMPUTER TUITION Lessons in your own home with a friendly local tutor Learn Email, Shopping, Skype & Photos Largest local tutor network in the UK! Free training booklets included! PCs, Macs, iPads & Android Call us today for a friendly chat: 03333 444019 www.we-are-digital.co.uk wearedigitaltraining @we_aredigital INCORPORATING MENNEER SHUTTLEWORTH Specialists in: Advising for later life• Wills and Probate Conveyancing • Family Law Civil Litigation • Dispute Resolution Rye : 01797 222955 Battle : 01424 772401 Bexhill : 01424 730630 Hastings : 01424 434192 Eastbourne : 01323 411020 www.heringtons.net 8 Find us online at www.goldentimes.co.uk
Concerned about your home being sold to fund your future care fees? The Issue You probably own your home as joint tenants if you are a couple and solely if you are single. For couples this means you own it wholly, jointly and severally. Ultimately therefore you do not own it 50:50 as you might have assumed. You actually own all of it together and when one partner dies the surviving partner owns it solely and absolutely. It is sole and absolute ownership that enables a whole property to be taken into consideration as an asset by the local authority and puts the property in danger of needing to be sold to fund care. The Reality Today The care Act 2014 introduced in April 2015 allows local authorities to assess your assets to determine if you need to pay for your own care under the new charges and assessment of resources regulations. Currently if you have assets above £23,250, you are on your own and require care, you will probably have to pay for it all - currently averaging around £1,000 per week. Savings, cash and income would be used first and then your property would need to be taken into consideration. You would be expected to pay for all of your care until such time as your assets were depleted to below the £23,250 threshold. You would then pay for a proportion of your care until your assets were below £14,250 - at which point all your future care would be paid for after any relevant income was taken into account. The Solution For couples, simply by changing the way you own your property well in advance of any care considerations i.e. from joint tenants to tenants in common and by setting up two property Trusts either immediately or within a properly structured Will at the same time in most cases, protect the integrity of your home should you ever require care in the future, so long as avoiding care fees was not a primary motivating reason behind the implementation of the strategy - i.e. you should be looking to protect your half of your property should your spouse remarry after your death, or you should be looking to ensure that your children would not lose 50% of their inheritance should they be made bankrupt or divorce or for example you should be looking to prevent a generational inheritance tax burden in the future. These are all sound reasons for implementing this strategy which in themselves are not deliberate deprivation of assets, but the implementation of which protects the integrity of the property. For sole owners the process is simply to set up a Trust now and convey your property into it which will produce the same result and again this must be well in advance of any care considerations and the motivation must not solely be for the purpose of preventing your home being used to fund your care. The Reasoning When you own your home as tenants in common you actually own half each. With our Post Death Property Protection Package when the first partner dies, they leave their half into their Trust. The surviving partner is the Trustee of that Trust and also the Primary Beneficiary which means that as they own half and are Trustee of the other half they have complete control over the property and what happens to it. The children and/or whoever else is also nominated as ultimate Trust Beneficiaries will have access to that half of the property when the surviving partner dies. The first half of the property then is 100% securely in Trust for the beneficiaries and will not be at risk. As a result of this simple strategy and because it is not possible to sell just the survivor’s half of the property, the integrity of the property is protected. While the ‘’market value” of half a property is negligible, The Care Act 2014 guidelines do allow for this half to have a charge placed on it under a deferred payment arrangement for care fees which is why this package includes a Lasting Power of Attorney grant for Property and Financial affairs which will enable a pre-appointed Attorney to act on behalf of the survivor should they be unable to themselves and negotiate with the Local Authority for the property to be rented out and a percentage of the income given to the Local Authority instead of a charge being placed. The second half of the property would then ultimately go into the Trust for access by the nominated beneficiaries when the surviving partner eventually dies. With our Whole of Life and Post Death Complete Property and Family Protection Package both halves of the property are conveyed into Trust IMMEDIATELY. This means the whole property is protected straight away and not just after the first party dies. The benefits of this package are that it then protects the property even if both parties go into care before the death of either. It also means that if the survivor goes into care the property does not have to be rented out but if it is, 100% of the income goes directly into the Trusts for the benefit of the survivor or any of the other Trust Beneficiaries and does not have to be given to the Local Authority. The most important benefit of this package though is the property can be sold at any time and the resulting proceeds be fully protected for the whole family within the Trusts and no negotiation with the Local Authority is required. Sole owners and couples who have immediately conveyed their properties into Trust well in advance of any care consideration and not solely for the purpose of preventing their home being used to fund their care (deliberate deprivation of assets) secures the integrity of the property (so long as entry into care is not within 6 months of setting up the strategy) as the property is not absolutely owned by an individual anymore and it is not legal to force a Trustee to do something that is not in the ultimate best interest of the Trust Beneficiaries. Call us now for a friendly chat about which package would be of best benefit to you and your family. CRANBROOK: 01580 388584 EASTBOURNE: 01323 301383 HASTINGS: 01424 316167 www.thywill.co.uk To advertise in <strong>Golden</strong> <strong>Times</strong> call Matt on 020 3137 2406 or email mattm@media-shed.co.uk 9
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