Planning for potential admission to a nursing home can be emotionally and financially overwhelming but thoughtful, proactive legal planning can make a substantial difference. We offer compassionate and strategic counsel to help preserve your assets and secure peace of mind.
It’s a difficult subject to consider, but are you prepared if you or your loved ones must be admitted to a nursing home? Of course, we all want to be able to live out our days in our homes. The reality is that most will be faced with the difficult decision of admitting a loved one to a nursing home, and few are prepared. With a little bit of planning and education, you’ll be in a better position to protect your assets.
Many families find themselves unprepared. Without planning, the costs of nursing home care can quickly deplete a lifetime of savings. Fortunately, with early intervention and the right legal tools, it’s possible to protect assets and maintain financial stability.
You don’t have to spend your life savings when facing the possibility of going into a nursing home. With the proper legal help, assets can often be preserved. Many people with medical issues consider gifting assets to children or creating specialized irrevocable Asset Protection Trusts in advance of entering a nursing home.
Related Post: Protecting Your Estate and Assets When Moving to a Nursing Home
Missouri Medicaid (MO HealthNet) is a program that provides assistance with paying for a portion of your nursing home bill. To qualify for this program, your assets must be structured in a way where they are not “counted against you.” There is a five-year look-back period for gifts made by the person applying for assistance. This means that assets that have been gifted away or placed in a properly prepared Asset Protection Trust more than five years prior to requesting MO Healthnet assistance will not be counted. This means:
Gifts or transfers made within five years of applying are scrutinized and may reduce benefits.
Gifts or transfers made more than five years prior typically do not count against eligibility.
An individualized Medicaid Asset Protection Trust created before the look-back window can safeguard assets from being counted toward eligibility.
Because every family’s circumstances and timelines are unique, we offer personalized assessment and guidance to determine the best course of action.
Initial consultation to understand your financial profile, family goals, and concerns.
Assessment of your current asset structure and potential vulnerabilities.
Strategic plan considering timelines, trust options, gifting alternatives, and Medicaid eligibility.
Document creation including irrevocable trusts or other planning documents as needed.
It’s important to know that programs like MO HealthNet (Missouri’s Medicaid program for long-term care) review an applicant’s financial transactions going back five years (known as the “look-back” period) to determine eligibility. Any transfers or gifts made during that time, especially if they were made without fair market value in exchange, can trigger periods of ineligibility or penalties. Early nursing home planning helps you structure legal transfers and trusts so they fall outside of this window and avoid negative consequences.
When one spouse enters a nursing home, the other spouse who remains in the community often has special protections under Medicaid rules. Planning to protect assets for the spouse must take into account the financial needs and assets of the healthy spouse, including income and resources they’ll need to live on while the nursing-home-entering spouse receives care. By properly structuring income streams, marital transfers, or protected assets, you can help prevent impoverishment of the healthy spouse while still preserving eligibility for long-term care support.
Even if full advance planning was not completed before care became necessary, there are still legal strategies to protect assets when a loved one enters a nursing home. As the article notes, speedy action with the right guidance can convert countable assets into exempt assets, restructure income, or use other tools to preserve value. However, crisis-planning tends to be more complex and less flexible than advance planning, so it’s wise to engage experienced elder-law counsel right away.
At our law firm, we can provide information about advance planning for long-term care. This is a very complex area of law and no two people have the same set of circumstances. We will work with you and help you achieve peace of mind by educating you about options to control your future.
Please call our office at (888) 887-4170 if you have any questions about this article.
Planning for potential admission to a nursing home can be emotionally and financially overwhelming but thoughtful, proactive legal planning can make a substantial difference. We offer compassionate and strategic counsel to help preserve your assets and secure peace of mind.
