Care Advisors & Home Care Providers

Care decisions are never just about today. When someone’s health or independence is changing, proper care, funding, and an appropriate environment can transform the rest of their life.

Independent care advisors and home care providers are often the first to see what is really going on. Fern Wills & LPAs joins up your work with clear, practical Wills and Powers of Attorney, so your clients are better protected and you can do your job with fewer obstacles.

Clients get more choice, more income and more control. You get a reliable estate-planning contact who understands care, capacity and family dynamics.

Who this page is for

This page is written first and foremost for:

Independent care advisors and case managers
Home care providers supporting people in their own homes

Clients and families are very welcome to read it too. It explains how we can work alongside your care team to keep the legal paperwork in step with real life.

How we work with independent care advisors

Independent care advisors help families answer three big questions:

What care is actually needed now and in the near future?
Where should it happen – at home, in extra-care, residential or nursing care?
How will it be funded, including benefits and local-authority or NHS support?

You look beyond glossy brochures and ratings to what day-to-day life in a setting is really like. You help families see that the “nicest looking” option is not always the right one.

Fern Wills & LPAs complements that by:

Turning your recommendations and the client’s wishes into robust Property & Financial Affairs and Health & Welfare LPAs.
Making sure attorneys can actually pay for care, liaise with councils and NHS bodies, and respond quickly when circumstances change.
Updating Wills so they reflect the new reality – who is providing support, what promises have been made, and what needs to be protected.

Many families discover that once the correct allowances are claimed, the increased income pays for your advice, our work, and extra care, often leaving money over for the client.

For clients and families, this joined-up approach means clearer choices and fewer nasty surprises. For care advisors, it means your advice is more likely to be adequately implemented and withstand scrutiny later.

How we work with home care providers

Home care providers are often the “eyes and ears” of the whole system. Your team sees:

Subtle changes in memory, mobility, mood or safety
Unopened post and unpaid bills beginning to stack up
Families are doing their best, but are unsure where the legal line is

You can see when something needs to change, but you do not have the authority to move money, sign documents or make big decisions on the person’s behalf.

Fern Wills & LPAs supports you and your clients by:

Checking whether existing EPAs or LPAs are still valid and workable – and replacing them if not
Putting short-term General Powers of Attorney in place where capacity is intact but urgent authority is needed
Creating new LPAs so that families can lawfully support day-to-day finances, manage benefits and speak to banks, councils and care providers
Ensuring Wills are not left entirely out of date when care arrangements and family roles have changed

For clients and families, that means day-to-day care is backed up by proper legal authority, not informal workarounds. For home care teams, it reduces awkward conversations where you know what should happen, but the family “technically” cannot authorise it.

What your clients gain

Your clients and their families benefit from:

A clear plan that joins their care, money and legal documents
Extra income where allowances have been missed or under-claimed
Less risk of accusations about “misusing Mum’s money” because everything is on a legal footing
More choice about staying at home or moving, with proper support either way
Fewer delays and fewer last-minute crises

We always treat care fees and means-testing as part of the puzzle, not the only driver. The priority is safe, appropriate care; any financial side-benefits follow from that.

What you gain as a professional

Care advisors and home care providers tell us they value having:

A named estate-planning contact who understands the care landscape, not just the tax position
Clients who are better prepared and more realistic about costs and options
Clear boundaries – we do not interfere with clinical judgements or care plans
An easy place to send clients when you can see a legal problem, but it is outside your remit
Feedback (with consent) so you know whether key gaps – Wills, LPAs, short-term authority – have been filled

A stronger legal framework around your clients makes your own work easier, safer and more sustainable.

Cases

Each case is based on a real situation, with details changed for confidentiality.

Gained over £5,000 to help with care

We were asked to prepare LPAs for an 86-year-old widower. He was proud, reluctant to accept help, and worried about scams. Standing up and moving to the table required him to pull himself up on nearby furniture, which suggested a possible underlying care need.

With his permission, we introduced him to an independent care advisor. After a free consultation, the advisor identified eligibility for an allowance of just over £5,600 per year. Over the following period, that income:

Paid the care advisor’s fee and ongoing monthly support
Covered Fern’s fees for LPAs, a new Will and a trust for his grandchildren
Still left him with thousands of pounds to spend at his discretion

Result: his day-to-day life and safety improved, his family gained clarity, and the additional income more than offset everyone’s fees.

Independent assessment and joined-up planning saved around £26,000

Mrs O’Neil struggled with forms and phone calls and relied heavily on her two daughters. They had heard that using her bank card without legal authority could be a criminal offence, and they were worried it was “too late” for an LPA because her memory was inconsistent.

Working with a care advisor, we:

Helped them apply for extra benefits to increase her income
Assessed that she still had sufficient understanding on a good day to grant a General Power of Attorney and then LPAs
Drafted a General Power of Attorney so the daughters could help immediately, while full LPAs went through registration

Without that planning, the likely outcome was a deputyship order with set-up fees and ongoing costs over many years. Instead, her increased income and backdated benefits more than covered the costs of advice and legal work, putting her roughly £26,000 better off over the first few years, with proper safeguards in place.

Result: the family moved from fear and informal “fudges” to a legal structure that protected everyone and left her financially better off.

“I just want to stay in my own home”

Mr Tucker, a widowed retired groundsman in his late seventies, lived in a council bungalow with a garden and an emergency alarm. He was sometimes forgetful and had painful arthritis. The council raised the idea of moving him into sheltered housing with more support, but he dearly wanted to stay where he was. His children also wanted him to remain in the village rather than move into town.

Working together, the care advisor and Fern Wills & LPAs:

Explained the family’s rights, options and allowances
Put a General Power of Attorney in place so the family could quickly help with bills and shopping
Created a Property & Financial Affairs LPA to simplify his bank accounts and support longer-term planning
Prepared a Health & Welfare LPA so the family could speak to the local authority on his behalf

This framework helped him stay safely in his bungalow for another year, while his daughter extended her own home to create a bedroom and en-suite for him. The final move into the family home worked for everyone – emotionally, practically and financially.

Result: he kept his garden and independence for longer, and when a move became right, it was on the family’s terms rather than forced by crisis.

Home care provider flagged an urgent need for legal authority

A home care provider was supporting a client whose daughter had been paying bills informally for years. When a large repair bill arrived, the bank refused to act on the daughter’s instructions without formal authority. The care provider spotted that the situation risked leaving the client without essential repairs and the daughter exposed.

They suggested speaking to Fern Wills & LPAs. We:

Confirmed that the client still had the capacity to appoint an attorney
Put in place a short-term General Power of Attorney so the urgent work could be paid for lawfully
Then prepared full LPAs so the daughter could manage ongoing finances and care decisions safely

Result: the immediate crisis was appropriately solved, the care package continued without disruption, and the family moved from “doing their best” informally to a clear legal footing.

Related resources

For families and professionals wanting to go deeper on the money side, see our articles on Attendance Allowance and on our Life & Legacy Logs, which help families organise information for attorneys and executors.

How to introduce a client

If you are an independent care advisor or home care provider and think a client would benefit from this kind of joined-up planning, you can:

Give them our details and suggest they make contact, or
With their consent, ask us to contact them to arrange a no-obligation call

Fern Wills & LPAs will:

Offer an initial conversation at no charge to understand their situation and suggest appropriate next steps
Keep you informed (with permission) so you know key legal gaps have been addressed
Respect your professional boundaries – you remain responsible for care advice and delivery; we handle the legal planning

Your clients remain your clients. Our role is to support the care you provide by ensuring the legal side is safe, practical, and aligned with what you are trying to achieve for them.

If you would like to explore working together, please feel free to get in touch. We can talk through how introductions would work in practice and, if helpful, arrange a short briefing or training session for your team.