An aged care financial adviser in Melbourne, and Australia-wide.
We work as an aged care financial adviser from Melbourne, with families right across Australia. This is one of the most expensive decisions a family ever makes, and one of the hardest to think straight about. Get it wrong and it costs for years. We go through the numbers and help with the family conversation, and we write all of it down in plain words.
Six decisions that decide the outcome.
Aged care comes with its own dictionary of acronyms and the rules move about. Almost all of the value sits in six decisions: how you pay for the room, how you're assessed, what happens to the house, what Centrelink does, how things are owned, and the conversation the family has to have.
We work through each one, write down the trade-offs, and leave the family something they can go back to in six months when nobody can remember what was decided. That record usually matters more than any single product choice. This work normally picks up where retirement planning leaves off, and it leans hard on the Centrelink work done a few years before.
Six decisions, one file.
None of these is a product being sold to you. Each one, made on purpose rather than by default, changes what care costs and what is left afterwards.
RAD vs DAP
Pay for the room as a big refundable lump sum, as a daily fee, or a bit of both. Which you choose changes your ongoing fees, your Age Pension, and what is left for the family.
The means test
What you pay depends on what you own and what you earn. Small changes in how things are held can move the fee a surprising amount.
The family home
Selling it, keeping it or renting it out changes both the care fees and the Age Pension. There are exemptions and deadlines, and they have to be used properly.
What Centrelink does
Moving into care almost always triggers a fresh Centrelink assessment. We handle the forms and the timing so nobody loses a payment by accident.
How things are owned
The rules on gifting money away, on how savings are assessed, and on what doesn't count all matter. Sorted out a few years ahead, it leaves far more options open.
The family conversation
Almost nobody makes this decision alone. Adult kids, powers of attorney and the will are all part of it. We write down what was decided, and why.
Lump sum or daily fee? Everything else follows.
You can pay for the room as a big refundable lump sum, as a daily fee, or split it between the two. Which suits you depends on how much cash you can get at, what you're doing with the house, how you're assessed, and what you want left over. None of those is set in stone.
We run the numbers on both extremes and something in the middle, so the choice is a decision rather than a reaction. We look at it again if things change in the first year. If there's a self-managed super fund involved, who runs it and what it pays out both need resetting at the same time — the financial planning page covers how all that joins up.
- The lump sum the home is asking
- The daily rate that applies
- The care fee you would pay
- Your Age Pension
- What happens to the house
- What you want to leave behind
Questions we get a lot.
It depends on the home and on how much care is needed. There is generally a payment for the room, a basic daily fee, a care fee based on what you own and earn, and sometimes extras. We work out your family's actual numbers rather than quoting an average that applies to nobody.
It depends on what else is owned, who else lives there, and how the bills get paid once Mum or Dad moves in. There is no one right answer. There is a right answer for your family, and it's much better written down before the move than argued about after.
No. Some of the most useful decisions get made in the first three to six months. Earlier is better, because a few things take time to set up — but it is very rarely too late to improve the position.
Both, where that's right. The advice belongs to the person going into care, with family in the room if that's what they want. Where there's a power of attorney, or a question about capacity, we handle it carefully and properly.
Keep reading
- Financial planning overviewThe main page — what a plan covers and how it's written.
- Centrelink optimisationThe Age Pension, how you are assessed, and how care affects it.
- Retirement planningThe drawdown plan that usually comes before care.
- Superannuation adviceHow the super balance helps pay for care.
- SMSF advice and lendingWhat happens to a self-managed fund when someone enters care.
Information on this page is general in nature. It does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation, or needs. Read the relevant Product Disclosure Statement and consider whether personal advice is appropriate before acting on any information here.
Sort it out before you have to.
The first conversation is free and you're not committing to anything. Bring whatever paperwork you've got — we'll work out what's missing.