Advice has to focus more strongly on care as there is no definitive product solution to help clients who need long-term care, Kay Ingram has said.
The divisional director of care fees funding specialist LEBC Group, said with all the current attention on the incoming care cap, which will apply from April 2016, advisers will need to review their propositions.
Ms Ingram said: “Planning for care costs is a highly complex area that requires an understanding of care fees rules and benefits, investment markets and family dynamics.
“There is no single product solution and the advice has to be reviewed as care costs needs change.”
A cap on the cost of care was originally recommended by the Dilnot Commission in 2011, on the cost of long-term care for self-funders. The level at which the cap would kick in, set by the government in 2013 at £72,000, was far higher than what the commission originally recommended, at £35,000.
Adviser view
Janet Davies, co-founder of long-term care advisory network Symponia, said: “It is great that LEBC has prepared a working document for clients to use.
“Clients in care now and those looking to the future need to understand the changes, but the call to action must go deeper. The need for a paradigm shift lies with everyone: advisers, product providers, banks and the citizens themselves.”
