Long term medical care and end of life care consume easily the largest medical expenditures in your life. Planning for these expenses takes time and careful consideration.
There are long term care insurance policies that you can start paying, and like any insurance the earlier you start the cheaper it will be. But the biggest issue is that it can be expensive, very expensive. You can easily end up digging into your assets that you were trying to protect and leaving your loved ones even less.
A far cheaper option is to create a Medicaid Trust. No, a trust is not an easy thing easy to set up on your own, but with an experienced Queens elder law and estate attorney the trust can be no problem at all.
How does a Medicaid Trust work?
A Trust, in general, requires a settlor, who is the individual transferring their own assets into the possession of the trust.
A trust, unlike corporations, has no shareholders and is considered its own owner. Once the assets are in the trust, they are not considered for taxes and eligibility qualifications for Medicaid.
A trustee is a third party who is responsible for carrying out the trust and managing it, with the ultimate goal of paying out the assets to a beneficiary, the person decided in advance to receive the assets, usually at a given time or after certain prerequisites are completed.
In the case of a Medicaid Trust. The elderly owners who plan to enter a nursing home are the ones that settle the trust (or create it). In order to comply with regulations, they must do it at least 5 years before the plan to benefit from Medicaid nursing home long term care.
The adult children in most cases are considered the beneficiaries (who will receive the money upon the death of the settlor). Local lawyers that specialize in Medicaid trust know all the guidelines and regulations surround trust so with their assistance they can be set up in no time.
What counts towards Medicaid long term care eligibility?
- Bank accounts (i.e checking)
- Investments (i.e Stocks)
- CD investment
- Any real estate other than your primary residence
- Any cars above and beyond the first one.
This means that you can continue to own and drive your car, live in and own your home, have some minor cash funds, and keep some personal possessions. Other than that anything you might own can contribute towards disqualifying you from Medicaid.
A well-rounded estate attorney in Queens can also assist with protecting assets in wills, power of attorney, healthcare proxies, and more. Don’t wait to plan for your future!!
Sponsored by one of the finest probate and elder law lawyers we have in Queens NY, free consultation to anyone in our community:
Law Offices Of Roman Aminov 147-17 Union Tpke, Queens, NY 11367 (347) 766 2685 https://www.aminovlaw.com/queens-ny-estate-lawyer/
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