Medicaid Planning is a complex, and ever-changing exercise. If you’re like many estate planning clients that I have met, I bet you “don’t want the nursing home to get all your money.” There are many ways that Medicaid planning can be accomplished to make sure your heirs inherit your estate, rather than having those funds paid to a long-term care facility.
While planning ahead with a solid estate plan is perhaps the most important aspect of Medicaid planning, the application and qualification process for Medical Assistance is very confusing and complex. Even though most social workers and health and human service employees are very helpful and knowledgeable, they will not be able to help you in transferring and retaining the correct assets in order to qualify for aid. In addition, if you do something wrong, and you forget to mention it, the penalties for lying can be serious.
Medicaid planning is an ever-changing area of law, and new rules are created all the time. The best advice I can give you is that if you are thinking about Medicaid planning: call someone who knows what they are doing! Trying to navigate this by yourself, even if you are fairly sophisticated, can cause serious problems and leave you or a loved one in a financial and emotional lurch.
In closing, it is important to plan ahead, both through estate planning and when navigating through the application process. It is not worth it to save money on attorney fees, only to make matters worse, especially when an average month in a nursing home is currently nearly $8,000.00 per month.
The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation.