Medicaid planning is a complicated process and must be started a minimum of 5 years before you anticipate needing Medicaid. The primary way to Medicaid plan is to divest you and your spouse of ownership of your assets in a strategic manner so that you can qualify for Medicaid based on your income and assets. There are assets that can be maintained by the spouse the does not need nursing home care. These include a car, a house and a certain amount of assets the amount of which changes annually. The spouses can put assets into what is called a Medicaid Trust a minimum of 5 years prior to needing Medicaid. There are some protections if an adult child care giver resides in the house.
The issue is that while the spouse not needing nursing care may maintain certain assets upon the death of both spouse Medicaid can recover up to the value of the amount of care the nursing home spouse needed. Upon the need of the second spouse needing nursing care then the assets must be spent down in order for that spouse to qualify for Medicaid.
The sooner you assess what assets are vulnerable to spend down for Medicaid and how you want to address the ways you can protect them the further ahead you will be in your goal to protect your assets. To book an appointment, Click Here.