• Ensure that your estate is not bled away by nursing costs
• Pay for long-term nursing care in your own home
• Pay for the residential home of your choice, not the council's choice

Long Term Care policies are designed to pay for domestic and nursing home care when people are no longer capable of looking after themselves.

The cost of long term care can be very expensive and in cases such as dementia where 24 hour medical care is required, it can exceed £2000 a month. Typically these costs are meet by the immediate family or by selling off assets such as property and equities.

Long term care plans can take care of these expenses and come into action when certain activities cannot be taken by the individual without assistance. These can include:

• Ability to transfer from a bed to a chair or wheelchair
• Cleaning
• Continence
• Dressing
• Feeding
• Food Preparation
• Use of Toilet
• Washing and Bathing

There are two types of cover available.

Protection Based
These are regular premiums which pay out if care is needed, but do not have any value and do not pay out upon death.

Investment Based
These are linked to unit trusts and can be used to cover the period of care and pay out upon death. The value of the fund will depend on how the investments perform.