Questions families often ask before they call.
The answers here are a starting point. If your family’s situation raises questions not covered below, the fastest way to sort through them is a ten-minute phone call.
Is the Plan regulated, and what protections apply?
Where the Plan sits in the UK regulatory landscape, and what that means for your family.
Is the Care and Home Inheritance Plan an FCA-regulated product?
No. The Plan is structured as a long lease, not a regulated financial product. This structure has been designed and legally reviewed so that it sits outside the FCA’s regulatory perimeter. Independent legal advice is a mandatory part of every Plan, and your solicitor protects your interests throughout.
The full regulatory position is set out on the regulatory status page.
If something goes wrong, is my family covered by the FSCS or FOS?
No. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) cover FCA-regulated products. The Plan is not an FCA-regulated product and therefore does not fall within their scope.
In place of those protections, the Plan requires that your family takes independent legal advice from a solicitor of your choosing. Your solicitor’s duty is to your family, not to My Lifetime Care. This is the substantive protection the Plan is built on, alongside the charity-ownership structure.
The lease provides a further protection: if My Lifetime Care fails to perform its obligations under the lease, the lease is cancelled and the homeowner has the property back free of the lease — though the care costs borrowed up to that point are still repayable.
Do you offer financial advice?
No. My Lifetime Care does not give regulated financial advice, financial planning advice, or tax advice. We describe the Plan and the situations it’s designed for. Families considering the Plan should take independent legal advice (mandatory) and may also wish to take regulated financial advice from an FCA-authorised adviser and tax advice from a qualified tax adviser.
How the Plan is built, in plain language.
The architecture: the lease, the company, the charity ownership, the legal advice.
Do I have to sell the family home to pay for care?
Not necessarily, and that is exactly the question the Plan was built to answer. The Plan offers a different route: a long lease is granted on the home to My Lifetime Care, which then funds the agreed care costs for life. The rental income and growth in the property’s value offset what the Plan has paid. The home is not sold; it remains with the family and passes to your beneficiaries at the end.
Who owns My Lifetime Care?
My Lifetime Care Ltd is wholly owned by My Respite Care, a UK registered charity (charity no. 1152941). The charity’s objects relate to the relief of need among older people. The governance structure is designed so that the charity’s purpose, and therefore the interests of the families the Plan serves, sit above commercial return.
Who acts as our solicitor?
Your family chooses your own solicitor. They act for your family, not for us. Our solicitor acts for My Lifetime Care. Neither solicitor acts for both sides. My Lifetime Care contributes to your independent solicitor’s reasonable fees so families are not penalised financially for taking the legal advice the Plan requires.
How is the Plan different from a typical sale-and-leaseback?
The homeowner who enters into a sale and leaseback arrangement has the right to buy the house back at the end of the lease period but not with the CHIP lease which is for 99 years. However the CHIP lease does offer the beneficiaries of the original purchaser the option to cancel the lease on payment of the loan that has been accrued against the security of the 99 year lease.
How the funding works.
What we pay, how it’s calculated, what happens if circumstances change.
What does the Plan cover?
The Plan covers the agreed monthly care costs of the family member for whom the Plan is set up. That can be care at home (paid carers, district nursing, respite cover) or residential and nursing care in a care home of your family’s choice. The figure is agreed before the Plan starts based on the care assessment.
The Plan also covers the acquisition costs — legal fees, stamp duty and administration — and the cost of any works needed to make the property safely lettable, which can be substantial. It also covers the interest owed on money paid out for these costs before rental income has had time to repay them.
What happens if my parent lives longer than expected?
The Plan is designed to fund care for as long as it’s needed. There is no time limit and no cap on length of care. This is one of the Plan’s structural differences from short-term borrowing or fixed-value arrangements such as equity release.
What if care needs change over time?
The monthly figure can be reviewed under terms set out in the Plan documentation. Reviews are evidenced by a fresh care assessment and reviewed by both solicitors. The Plan adapts as circumstances change.
What about inheritance tax?
The Plan’s tax position is a matter for your independent tax adviser, who can give your family advice specific to your circumstances. My Lifetime Care does not give tax advice. We can describe the Plan’s structure clearly to your tax adviser so they can advise on the tax position.
How the Plan runs day to day.
Living arrangements, the property, communication, reporting.
Does my parent have to move out of the home?
It depends on the care needed. If care is arranged at home, your parent continues to live in their own home for as long as that works for them. If residential or nursing care is needed, your parent moves to the care setting you choose, and the home is let to tenants; the rental income and property growth offset the care costs.
Who looks after the property during the Plan?
We do. My Lifetime Care manages the tenancy, maintenance and upkeep for the duration of the Plan, so the family isn’t responsible for an empty home or a landlord’s obligations during a difficult period. The property is kept let, maintained and insured.
How will we know what’s going on with the property?
Your family receives a written annual report covering tenancy status, maintenance carried out, and the running Plan position. You can request more detail at any time, and you can request a meeting at any time. Your solicitor can also request detail directly.
What happens at the end, and along the way.
Inheritance, early-termination options, and what control the family retains.
Who inherits the home at the end?
Your family. When the Plan ends, the home passes to the beneficiaries of your parent’s estate, preserved. The care costs paid out by My Lifetime Care are recouped from the lease arrangement over its lifetime, not from the equity of the home itself.
Can we change our minds once the Plan has started?
The full process, including any options to end or vary the arrangement, is set out in the Plan documentation and reviewed in detail by your independent solicitor before anything is signed. The short answer: there are defined routes for ending the Plan early, and your solicitor will walk you through them.
What happens if my parent recovers and no longer needs care?
The Plan funds care while care is needed. If your parent recovers and no longer needs paid care, the funding obligation pauses or steps down as appropriate. The lease itself continues; the property arrangement carries on. Your solicitor reviews these specifics before signing.
What if our circumstances change and we want to sell the home anyway?
The Plan documentation sets out defined routes for ending the Plan and selling the property if the family decides that’s the right course. Your solicitor reviews these routes before the Plan starts so your family has clarity on the options before any commitment is made.
If your question isn’t here, ten minutes on the phone usually covers it.
We answer questions for a living. No pressure, no pitch, no signing anything at the end of the call.
