Whose Fault When The Nursing Home Takes It All?

I met with an amazingly nice couple recently. What I asked them what their main concerns were, they jumped out of their seat and told me that their #1 concern was that they wanted to avoid losing what they had to the nursing home. You see – the husband’s parents had lost everything they had worked for to the nursing home, and they learned from their parents’ mistakes. They said they had worked – too hard and too long – to see everything go down the drain due to long term nursing home expenses. We talked about the top five nursing home rules that Missouri families need to be aware of prior to thinking about protecting their life savings from nursing home poverty:

1. Five Year Look-Back Period. Don’t call us when your spouse or parent is on the doorstep of the nursing home – about to check in. It’s too late. But you can protect your home, your real estate, and every penny you own if you take the right legal steps at least five years before you enter the nursing home.
2. Trusts Help You Protect Things.You don’t have to give up control (and often pay unnecessary tax) by putting your assets in the names of your children. You can use certain types of trusts to keep control but keep it out of the nursing home’s hands. BE CAREFUL THOUGH! Only certain kinds of trusts with certain kinds of provisions work to protect what you have.
3. Protect Your Home From Estate Recovery. Many people realize that generally you cannot be forced to sell your home to pay for nursing home costs. But most people don’t understand the State of Missouri has Estate Recovery rights which put a lien on your home for the costs of your nursing home stay.
4. IRAs Require Special Planning.You can’t just put your IRA in someone else’s name, and you can’t transfer ownership of your IRA to a trust. But you can take certain actions to protect your IRA from being depleted at a nursing home.
5. Special Rules for Married Couples.The Long Term Medicaid eligibility rules are different for single people and married couples. Know the differences so that you can take the necessary actions to protect what you have – whether single or married!

Avoiding nursing home poverty is one of those things in life that often trap the uneducated because they wait too long before they take action to protect what they have.

Contact us at (225) 224-8099 so that we can walk you through what you need to do to stay in control of your estate – both while you’re alive and able, and when you’re not here to manage it yourself.