Do you worry your parents aren’t coping at home anymore?
Maybe the social worker at hospital has just said your Mum or Dad can’t go home. They need aged care.
How will they afford it?
Will they be taken care of the way the deserve?
With the right financial advice about aged care, you can help your parents manage this often stressful and emotional transition. At Wybrow & Associates, we specialise in providing you and your loved ones with the best aged care financial advice for the Canberra region. Contact us to see how we can help you today.
We focus on four things
- minimising aged are fees
- maximising their income
- maximising their Centrelink benefits
- minimising tax.
We create certainty for your parents and your family because you know:
- the cost of care
- how to pay for it, and
- how to create the the right cash flow.
Which means you don’t have to worry. Instead, you can get back to being a family and focus on enjoying your parents’ in their special later years. As well as providing Canberra with insightful aged care financial advice, Wybrow & Associates specialise in advising clients on retirement planning, investments and superannuation – no matter what stage of life you’re in, we’re confident that we can lend you a helping hand.
How we help you
With over 27 years of experience in financial planning and specialist experience in aged care for Canberra and the ACT, we know how to deal with the intricacies and confusion surrounding this transition.
Understanding aged care fees
Aged care facilities usually have three basic fees:
- basic daily care fee
- daily fees based on your income and assets called a means tested fee (which is determined by a Centrelink assessment)
- a refundable accommodation deposit (RAD) of between $350,000 – $770,000 on average.
In addition, some facilities charge an Extra Service Fee, for extra items such as, linen tablecloths and wine with meals etc.
Negotiating this process can be quite stressful and involves a lot of moving parts. Therefore, if you don’t understand the implications of these decisions, it can affect your parents’ financial security and choice of aged care facility.
For instance, not all investments are equal under the Centrelink income and assets test assessment and this is how the means tested fees are calculated.
With the right financial advice about aged care, you can ensure you’re maximising your parents’ overall income, Centrelink benefits and their estate planning wishes.
Making decisions for your parents’ future
In the transition to aged care, there’s a lot to take care of.
Including how to:
- arrange an ACAT assessment
- find an aged care facility
- understanding costs
- pay an accommodation deposit, or choose a daily accommodation charge or even a bit of both
- deal with Centrelink
- complete Centrelink income and assets assessment paperwork
- decide to sell or keep the family home.
All of these decisions can impact their financial security, their sense of well being and the care they deserve.
Specialist advice
With all this in mind, we understand and provide financial advice about:
- the affect of your parents’ income and assets on their aged care costs
- managing upfront costs and accommodation deposits for a favourable income and asset test assessment with Centrelink
- how to hold onto or increase age pensions, health rebates and keep health care cards.
Which means your parents won’t get caught out with unexpected extra fees or lowered pension rates that may influence their cash flow in an unexpected or negative way.
Not only that, we can work with their solicitors and tax accountant where necessary. And as a result, we know various tax offsets to help your parents maximise their income through including low income tax benefits, seniors and net medical expense offsets.
Which means your parents are getting all the government services and rebates they’re entitled to.
Therefore maximising their income and saving them money.
Naturally, this means more financial security and peace of mind for your parents’ and family. Even more importantly, you can spend more time enjoying those special later years with your parents.
Call us today for a confidential, no-obligation consultation.
