Last Updated on 14th August 2025
Later life care is a crucial factor in your retirement planning, whether you’d like to guarantee first-class support for your relatives or ensure your retirement needs will be taken care of.
In many cases, care costs can be overlooked, with potentially grave consequences. Ideally, you’ll never need to use your contingency funds or consider liquidating assets to pay for care. With the average cost of residential care in the UK reaching over £5,000 per month and costing more than £80,000 a year for private nursing facilities, it’s a significant consideration.
Those costs may look very different in an overseas country, or there may be no state provision at all, making the need to prepare even more vital for British expatriates. Exceptional home care, custom support and private medical treatment could increase that budget many times over.
Let’s look at some options to consider including in your later life strategy and some factors that will help support your long-term financial security.
Understanding the Average Costs of Later Life Care
Whatever your age, when you look at investment plans or financial approaches, the aim is always to provide the best quality of life for yourself and your loved ones.
Many expats face challenges when trying to appoint trusted, high-quality carers to look after their elderly relatives living in their home countries but also need to think about their own future health and welfare.
How to Calculate a Later Life Budget
Much will depend on your location, but as a rough idea, we’ve collated the average costs of care facilities in some of the most popular expat destinations:
- Spanish care facilities cost between £1,300 and £3,000+ a month
- Residential care in Portugal comes in at £2,600 to £3,000 per month
- Canadian nursing care costs range from £3,200 to £8,200 a month
Specific costs will vary between areas and whether you require general, nursing or specialist care, but over a few years, any level of care will cost a significant amount, without considering other living costs, expenses and outgoings.
Note that there isn’t any reciprocal agreement between the UK and other countries, so you’ll need to cover the costs independently if you need care support abroad, particularly if you are ineligible for state or subsidised care.
The Importance of Having a Valid Power of Attorney
Before looking at potential ways to invest for your future care, a vital step is to think about appointing somebody with a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).
Having a designated attorney, usually a trusted family member, protects your interests and ensures that you have control over who makes decisions about your care or finances if you are unable to do so. LPAs must be registered when you have the appropriate capacity, so it’s well worth doing now, rather than waiting until a point in the future where your health might mean you are not able to choose who represents your wishes.
It’s also important to ensure your Will is legally valid and up to date, which makes life easier for family members and safeguards your right to dictate how you’d like your estate to be distributed. This process becomes more involved for expats, since any inconsistencies or ambiguities between Wills registered in the UK and your host country can be problematic.
In addition, many countries have forced heirship rules which state a minimum proportion of your estate that must be left to specific relations, including a spouse or children. While you can elect to override these rules, you must ensure you have a Will and instructions in place that are legally valid and enforceable.
You are welcome to get in touch with Chase Buchanan at any time to talk about creating an LPA agreement. You can also download our complimentary Retirement Planning Guide for further information.
Strategies for Later Life Care Budgeting
The complexity of creating a later life care plan is that there isn’t a sure-fire way to forecast the costs you may need to cover. While we all hope to live long, healthy lives, it’s impossible to predict whether you or a loved one might need several years of high-quality care.
This is why it’s important to develop a stable plan, avoiding any potential of being left dependent on state care facilities or struggling to maintain your health in the retirement years you should enjoy.
Fortunately, there are many ways to incorporate a later life care budget into your plans, alongside other aspects such as succession planning, and we’ve shared just a snapshot of some of the options below:
Annuity Products
A fixed annuity pays out a static monthly value, and while these products aren’t insured, they are considered safe investments commonly used for retirement planning. There are, though, some caveats:
- Some annuity products earn little or even no interest
- Guaranteed income may not keep pace with inflation
- Depending on the annuity type, it may not provide a death benefit to your recipients
- As an expat, tax relief regulations may mean that the benefits of an annuity cease to apply, which means some families will be better off with investment options more suited to overseas residents
If you’re considering buying an annuity, it’s important to seek independent advice to ensure that any product you select is suitable for your needs and offers competitive returns.
Guaranteed Income Investments
Guaranteed investment bonds may be an option, with fixed interest payments made periodically, so you can budget accurately. Bonds offer fixed interest rates that are agreed in advance, and this could be an investment opportunity worth considering.
However, there are countless investment options and products available, and it’s always wise to work with an adviser who will help you select a fund that meets your expectations while having the stability you need from retirement and later life savings and investments.
Defined Benefit Pensions
If you have a defined benefit pension, you must seek guidance before transferring that pension overseas, with FCA rules that make it mandatory to obtain advice from an authorised professional if the fund is worth £30,000 or more.
The security of a guaranteed pension income each month might be more advantageous than another investment, so in most cases, you should only consider changing this if there is a strong level of certainty of beneficial returns.
You can read more about international pension transfers and some of the varied options via our SIPPs vs ROPS Guide.
Investing to Support the Potential Costs of Later Life Care
As we’ve shown, there is no one-size-fits-all resolution but making plans to protect your health and well-being in later life is never something to ignore or compromise on.
Some of the example products we’ve mentioned may also be more or less relevant depending on your residency status, financial liquidity, wealth management strategy and investment portfolio, but in every case, a consultation with the Chase Buchanan team is highly advisable. We can provide:
- Accurate forecasting and budgeting, evaluating your income, assets, and average expenditure to calculate any potential shortfall and the returns needed to cover the difference.
- Investment recommendations to ensure your portfolio is geared to an acceptable risk level and is expected to provide the requisite income to cover shortfalls or act as a contingency.
- Advice on property and other assets and the options to use them to supplement your income or capital wealth, whether your property is in the UK or overseas.
- Taxation guidance, working through strategies to safeguard your wealth for the next generation, and protect your estate from unnecessary inheritance taxes.
Please get in touch with the experienced team at Chase Buchanan Private Wealth Management for more information, and we will be happy to arrange a convenient time to discuss your current position and ensure you have the support you need to make sound decisions for the long term.
All investments carry risk, including the potential loss of capital. You should carefully consider whether investing is suitable for you, taking into account your personal circumstances, financial situation, and risk tolerance.
*Information correct as at August 2025
