17/09/2026
A great example of why Aged Care and Centrelink advice is such a specialised field.
We recently provided advice to a family around aged care where the mother had a significantly shortened life expectancy . It was also clear the father would shortly need to enter full time care. As part of our advice we suggested the family talk to their Lawyer about severing the Joint Tenancy on the home to allow the Mother to pass her share to her Children rather than the Husband. This would have assisted in greatly reducing the Husband's aged care fees and ensuring he kept his Pension after an entry to care.
A couple of days later I received the following email from the client, my response is below.
> Hi Simon,
> Mum and dad entered are as of today. Due to mum and dad’s deteriorating health dads lawyer has suggested that they transfer the house under Torrens title to me and then I pay the costs of the aged care until their passing.
> Could you please inform of the impacts of this on the aged care funding. If you are aware of the tax implications that will help as well.
> Hi John. Put simply, gifting you the home now would be a disaster.
Secondly, assuming you do this before Mum becomes a permanent resident, she will enter
as a full fee paying resident paying a DAP of $51,800pa instead of a DAC of $26,300pa.
If you were to transfer the house to yourself now (and I assume keep it), you will need to pay aged care costs of around $210,000pa for the 2 of them and around $120kpa for Dad once Mum is gone.
< BAD idea!
