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Carers Week, which runs from 8 to 14 June, is a UK-wide campaign designed to raise awareness of unpaid carers and highlight the challenges they face. It’s a timely reminder that supporting elderly relatives can be both emotionally rewarding and financially complex.
If you have elderly relatives who can no longer manage everyday life independently, you’ll likely want to be there for them – physically, emotionally, and financially.
Indeed, research by Aegon reveals that 55% of UK adults with living parents support or expect to support their parents financially in retirement. Moreover, if you’re in the “sandwich generation” (around age 40 to 60), you might be supporting several generations: ageing parents, children, and grandchildren.
It’s also important to recognise that it’s not just direct financial support that could affect your estate plans, but also providing unpaid care. For example, if you reduce your working hours or give up work completely to look after a loved one, this could make it harder for you to build and grow your wealth.
Without careful planning, this could jeopardise your plans for leaving a meaningful legacy to the next generation.
Keep reading to find out how you could strike the delicate balance between helping your family and keeping your estate plans on track.
Start a conversation about finances with your relative
You and your loved one might feel uncomfortable talking about money, but doing so openly and honestly could reduce the risk of misunderstandings and mismatched expectations.
Here are a few matters you might find it helpful to discuss with your family member:
- Their financial position, including monthly expenditure, income, savings, and debts
- Whether they have any insurance in place to help with costs
- How they feel about accepting money or care from you
- Their healthcare, housing, and lifestyle preferences.
Talking these things through could give you both a sense of control over your arrangement and avoid undue stress during the difficult times that may be ahead, for example, if their health declines.
Establish clear boundaries and limits on the level of support you can provide
Many people take on caring roles gradually with little planning. As such, it’s easy to let costs spiral as you take on more caring or financial responsibilities over time.
While it’s natural to want to do as much as possible to help your family, consistently putting their needs ahead of your own could harm your financial and emotional wellbeing. This may be especially true if you’re also supporting your children’s and grandchildren’s lives, for example, by funding their education.
That’s why it’s crucial to set clear boundaries early on. Explain how much time and money you can give, and help them explore alternative sources of support – such as other family members or professional carers – for any needs you can’t meet.
This might feel awkward, but setting clear limits ensures your arrangement is sustainable for as long as it’s necessary, which benefits everyone involved.
Consider setting up Lasting Powers of Attorney
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) allows your relative to appoint a person or people they trust to make decisions about their health and finances if they lose mental capacity to do so. The chosen people are known as “attorneys”.
There are two types of LPA:
- Property and financial affairs – This gives attorneys the legal right to make decisions about an individual’s money, property, and financial assets.
- Health and welfare – This gives attorneys the legal right to make decisions about an individual’s personal health, daily routine, and care.
Putting LPAs in place as early as possible prevents delays, legal complications, and costly court intervention down the line. It also ensures that your relative’s wealth can be used to support their care if this becomes necessary, easing the financial burden on you and other family members.
Find out if financial support is available
According to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) life expectancy calculator, a man who is 50 today can expect to live until 84 on average, while a 50-year-old woman has an average life expectancy of 87.
So, if you start supporting a relative from the age of 70, you could potentially need to maintain this for a decade or more.
As such, it’s crucial to identify all possible sources of financial help.
The government offers a range of benefits that your loved one may be eligible for, such as Attendance Allowance and Pension Credit. They may also be able to claim funding from relevant charities. If your relative is eligible for such help, it could add up to thousands of pounds each year.
Seek professional financial advice
If you want to protect your financial security and leave a meaningful legacy for your children and grandchildren, it’s important to include the cost of caring for your relatives in your financial plan.
Your Sovereign financial planner can help by:
- Calculating how much you can afford to give without compromising your estate planning goals
- Identifying the most tax-efficient ways to structure your financial support
- Using cashflow modelling to help you budget for your loved one’s long-term care costs
- Exploring the financial implications of giving up work or reducing your hours to care for your relative.
To find out more about how we can help you support your relatives and protect your legacy, please get in touch.
Email hello@sovereign-ifa.co.uk or call us on 01454 416653.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at retail clients only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
Please do not act based on anything you might read in this article. All contents are based on our understanding of HMRC legislation, which is subject to change.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate estate planning, cashflow planning, tax planning, or Lasting Powers of Attorney.
Approved by Best Practice IFA Group Ltd on 21/5/2026