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If you are un-concerned that the costs of long term care are something that is likely never to harm you think again.

The Government’s CRAG (Charging for Residential Accommodation Guide), specifies the rules and regulations regarding how and when a person will be means tested to assess whether or not you are going to be expected to pay for all or some of your costs relating to your long term care costs.

In simplicity if you have more than £23,250 in cash assets then you will be means tested for assessment purposes. The details are quite specific in respect to what the CRAG rules deem to be your capital.

The following is an extract of from the Governments web site:

The Government’s CRAG

6.001 A resident’s resources are either capital or income. It may not always be obvious whether a payment should be treated as capital or income, but generally, a payment of capital is one which is:
a) not in respect of a specified period; and
b) not intended to form part of a series of payments.

The Government’s CRAG

6.002 Examples of capital are shown in the following list. The list is intended as a guide and is not exhaustive.
• Buildings
• Land
• National Savings Certificates and Ulster Savings Certificates
• Premium Bonds
• Stocks and shares
• Capital held by the Court of Protection or a Deputy appointed by that Court
• Any savings held in:
• Building society accounts – income which is paid into an account becomes capital once the period over which it is taken into account as income expires.
• Bank current accounts, deposit accounts or special investment accounts. This includes savings held in the National Savings Bank, Girobank and Trustee Savings Bank – income which is paid into an account becomes capital once the period over which it is taken into account as income expires.
• SAYE schemes
• Unit Trusts
• Co-operative share accounts
• Cash
• Trust funds (see Section 10)

Treatment of Investment Bonds

6.003 The treatment of investment bonds in the financial assessment for residential accommodation is complex because, in part, of the differing products that is on offer. For this reason councils should seek the advice of their legal departments when they arise. However it is possible to offer some general advice and councils are referred to the Social Security Commissioners decision R (IS) 7/98 which rules that an investment bond falls within the disregard by virtue of its intrinsic nature as a policy of life assurance. N.B. The AOR are largely based on Income Support Regulations.

6.004 Councils are advised that if an investment bond is written as one or more life insurance policies that contain cashing-in rights by way of options for total or partial surrender, then the value of those rights has to be disregarded as a capital asset in the financial assessment for residential accommodation (see paragraph 15, schedule 10 of the Income Support (General) Regulations 1987). In contrast, the surrender value of an investment bond without life assurance is taken into account.

You can read into this that Investment Bonds could be your new best friend, if the Government accept that by holding these you can protect your cash asset base rather than holding low interest cash assets.

For full details contact Frank on 01902 422333

FSC Investment Services Limited is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority

At FSC we have seen a number of situations where prospective clients have contacted us to help them ‘get out of trouble’. The trouble ranges from anything from a Will that has been written wrongly, to a full scale Tax Investigation being called by HMRC.

IN all cases the client is desperate to try and make amends for the situation and need professional help and representation to guide them on the most appropriate action to take to solve the situation.

There are many situations we can deal with internally but for the ones which require a more structured approach we have taken the unique step of directly employing the services of a Barrister who is eminently qualified to go head to head with the HMRC in the Courts to deliver a better outcome than the client could possibly hope to achieve under their own direction.

Alana Graham is a very experienced private client Barrister with over 18 years  experience of advising high net worth clients in regard to tax planning, wills and corporate law.

Under the public access scheme Alana is now able to work directly with members of the public under our instruction.

From her Chambers at Lincolns Inn in London and more recently she has set up her own chambers here in the midlands, we can commission Alana to meet our clients and council them on all their Taxation, Will and Corporate matters, she is pleased to meet with our clients to help them solve their situations within our Waterloo Road Offices.

For details of this new service call Frank on 01902 422333

FSC Investment Services Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority

Managing Director Frank Cochran providing top quality independent advice
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Ok his £1.2million salary is an enormous amount in anyone’s books but his type of role and the level of responsibility he carries would normally carry this type and level of remuneration. Where I believe he may have been a little naive is to expect the British public to look sympathetically at his plight, I don’t think he really had an option, he cannot deny that his bank and all the others have failed miserably to meet their target for lending to small businesses, their fear has compounded the likelihood of a double dip recession, the lack of sufficient cash in the market is strangling the economy.

On these grounds alone he has to hold his hands up and admit failure, so no he shouldn’t be rewarded for failure, I think he would have been better coming out straight away and donating the bonus to a worthwhile charity, he would have gained much more credibility and he would not have triggered the backlash he now so richly deserves.

It is going to be interesting to see how many UK financial Advisers opt to either leave the industry or to adopt a restricted method of operating.  The FSC ethos is however never going to change; we believe that good quality fully independent financial advice will always be worth paying for.  If someone simply wants to buy a product in the hope that it solves all their financial problems then they are fooling themselves. The right advice doesn’t take long to obtain and is worth every penny it costs, the wrong advice can ruin any chances you may have had of a bright and successful financial future.

FSC have always encouraged potential clients to make use of our free initial consultation facility, this is an opportunity for someone who may be unsure if they actually need or warrant Independent Financial Advice to come along and discuss in privacy on a one to one basis their concerns and aspirations, by the end of the half hour the person is given the chance to reflect on the discussion and will be in a position to know if it is worth pursuing the process to a full fact find and financial report. If the answer is no, then it has cost them nothing, if it is proved the advice is necessary it will ultimately be very cost effective and relevant to the persons financial requirements.

The Retail Distribution Review (RDR) will come into force on January 1^st 2013. This is the biggest shake-up of how financial advice is obtained and paid for since the introduction of regulation in 1996. The position going forward is that in order to trade as an IFA advisers will need to have passed a series of very strict examinations to prove their competence to stay regulated and licensed, at the same time the structure for paying for the advice is also changing, gone will be the ability to pay for your products by commission, all payments will now be by way of fee, charged either on an hourly basis or as a percentage of the amount invested or a combination of both.

The reality is that a large number of the older and dare I say it more experienced IFA’s have taken exception to the requirement for the stricter examinations and some are not willing to completely overhaul the way they receive their income. As a consequence great numbers of these IFA’s are either selling their practices or they are simply retiring and leaving their businesses to the open market.

As a possible investor or as a client of an existing firm you need to be asking your adviser if a) they are currently qualified or are they well on their way to getting qualified to continue to trade, anyone who has not started the process already is not really that serious about staying in the industry, you also need to ask if they are in the process of or are they intending to sell their business, if you don’t get proof of the fact that they are going to be around in 12 months time, you may want to consider looking for an alternative adviser.

Over the last 30 years we have come to understand that no two investors are alike; each
individual has their own personal financial aims, priorities and concerns.

Working around each client’s individual financial objectives our independent experts
tailor bespoke investment portfolios and strategies that attain long-term fiscal objectives
but remain flexible enough to cope with short-term needs.

We have been entrusted and proudly serve more than 400 private investors and
corporate clients across the Black Country region. Our company is committed to
helping you achieve your dreams and aspirations for today – and the future.

Specialist services include;

• Integrated Financial Planning
• Personal Investment Consultancy
• Private Pension Schemes

We are truly passionate about business but treat our clients like family.

Contact FSC Investment Services today and give yourself one less thing to worry about

The answer to this may be to look at certain investments which can prosper in a volatile market. Canada Life and MetLife have all got very good investment bonds which do just that. They have Bonds or funds on the market which offer a guarantee of some or all of your original capital invested, they then allow your investment to be exposed to the equity markets in a similar way to a stock or share, but that’s where the similarity ends, if your stock or share loses value you can suffer capital loses, but in the bond this can be controlled by virtue of the level of guarantee you apply or the amount of growth lock-in that you have chosen.

Such is the interest in this that we are hosting a free to attend seminar on Tuesday December 13th at the Molineux from 6.00pm till 8:00pm where we will be showcasing some of these alternative ways of investing. We have secured three guest speakers from Canada Life, Met Life and Brewin Dolphin to explain some of the way to potentially invest safely in a volatile market. I will also be giving a general market overview and be on hand to answer any questions or queries. Prior to the seminar we are hosting a networking event from 5-6pm. Places will be limited so call now on 01902 422333 to reserve your place now.