When Christine Snow was looking for a care home for her 96-year-old mother, the priority was to find somewhere nearby and where her mother would be happy.

Christine found the perfect accommodation the White Lodge care home in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, only one-and-a-half miles from her home.

"It's a lovely place and the staff are delightful," says Christine, 71, who now spends most of her time doing voluntary charity work for the Red Cross, Age Concern and the local Marlow Cottage Hospital.

But having settled her mother, Dorothy Jones, Christine and her husband, John, a 62-year-old semi-retired university lecturer, turned their attention to how they would pay the steep 41,000-a-year care bill.

Though their first move was to sell Dorothy's semi-detached bungalow, thereby freeing up much-needed capital, their next step was an unusual one. They sought help from an independent adviser specialising in long-term care advice.

According to financial experts, fewer than ten per cent of the families of the 95,000 elderly people who go into long-term-care homes each year seek advice about how best to pay the fees. Even fewer find an adviser specialising in long-term care, despite the fact that the care costs can be between 350 and 1,500 a week.

"State funding of long-term care costs is now only available to those with meagre assets," says Janet Davies, joint managing director of Symponia, a specialist financial advice planning network for older people.

"It means the majority of elderly people going into a home will have to fund the full costs themselves."

In England and Wales, for example, assets over 21,000 will disqualify an elderly person from state funding of long-term care. In Scotland, the level is even lower.

There are now about 1,000 financial advisers nationwide who are qualified to give specialist long-term care advice. As well as being allowed to recommend specific long-term care financial products, they should be well-versed in the many issues that need to be taken into account when someone enters a care home.

These range from ensuring that state benefits such as attendance allowance are claimed through to the setting up of enduring powers of attorney to ensure that the elderly's financial matters are looked after in the event of them not being able to take care of themselves.

Christine Snow turned to Janet Davies for help in finding a suitable home for her mother. As well as setting up Symponia, Davies is head of care fees planning at financial adviser Warwick Butchart Associates in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Her answer was for the Snows to fund the shortfall between Dorothy's care costs and her income through the purchase of an immediate care plan.

These plans, now provided by only three companies, GE Life, Partnership Assurance and Axa, provide a regular monthly income in exchange for a lump sum payment.

For Dorothy, a 69,000 immediate care plan bought in August last year means she now has 25,000 of annual care costs paid for by plan provider GE Life. "It's a great comfort to know this plan will meet more than half of my mother's care costs," says Christine.

"Looking at it from a brutal financial point of view, I suppose she must live for another 18 months at least before the plan breaks even.

"However, as my mother constantly reminds me, she plans to live until age 100 at least!"

Davies says: "An immediate care plan is only one of several financial solutions to the problem. Indeed, sometimes the best advice is simply to do nothing. "But the key is to seek professional help so that all avenues are explored and that any final financial decision on the issue of long-term care funding is a truly informed one."

As well as the Symponia network, symponia.co.uk, which provides access to more than 60 qualified long-term care advisers, Nursing Homes Fees Agency is a dominant player in the long-term care advice market.

The agency was bought last year by HSBC, which means advice can now be obtained at any of the bank's High Street branches.

Independent website unbiased.co.uk will also allow you to find a long-term care specialist.

First, click on "find an IFA," then type in your postcode and request advice on healthcare/long-term care from an adviser with long-term care qualifications, in particular CF8 (certificate in long-term care insurance).

You should then receive details of four local advisers specialising in long-term care advice.