Medicaid Nursing Home Cost Protection Lawyers 

Those who receive Medicaid Long-Term Care (LTC) coverage often still retain the ownership of their family home as a non-countable asset. However, when such a person passes away, Medicaid can seek to recover what it paid out for that coverage through the person’s remaining assets, including the home. This is referred to as Medicaid estate recovery. When this happens, the surviving family will be forced to sell the home so that Medicaid can recover the funds it paid out for the LTC. 

Unfortunately, this leaves survivors without the family home which may be one of their most cherished inheritance assets. With the right planning, however, this can be avoided. 

The Medicaid Asset Protection Trust

The above scenario can be avoided with a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust. In planning ahead, the home can be conveyed into this trust, thereby removing it from the person’s estate and from being lost to Medicaid. This is generally done through an irrevocable trust which is managed by the trustees who are named within the trust document. Trustees can include family members who will administer the trust upon the death of the person who created it. 

For example, as the creator of the trust, Mary transfers the ownership of her home into the legal entity of the trust and names her son John as the trustee to be in charge of the trust. John will administer the trust upon Mary’s passing according to the instructions she has set up in the trust document. These instructions include passing on the home to John and Mary’s other children. Because the home was not legally owned by Mary at the time of her passing, it cannot be used for Medicaid estate recovery. 

Benefits of the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust

All of the benefits of a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust include: 

• Shielding assets from Medicaid as well as from other creditors
• Allows the trust creator to remain in the home and maintain it while it is in the trust
• Allows the trust creator to make changes in trustees, removing or replacing them
• Allows the trust creator to collect any income generated by assets held within the trust

Plan Your Medicaid Strategy with Help from Montgomery & Hart

You will need to plan ahead, by at least five years, to avoid the loss of a home through Medicaid Estate Recovery. Our firm is here to help you understand how to optimally plan well ahead in advance for the protections you need in all aspects of estate planning.

By discussing your situation and needs with us, we can ensure that you or your loved one can look forward to the future with security and peace of mind. 

Learn more by calling us (980) 243-4470 today.