Liz Durnell-Maier, Certified Elder Law Attorney from Durnell Maier Law, LLC, talks about how you can protect assets from the nursing home. A common misconception is that if you enter a nursing home, you have to spend all of your assets down on the nursing home until you get to $2,000, and then you will qualify for benefits. That is NOT necessarily the case. You can do things to protect your assets, such as setting up a special type of trust that has one of your children or a trusted family friend as trustee along with any beneficiaries you select. Assets will be transferred into this trust, which creates a penalty period or restricted period with Medicaid. You can still apply for Medicaid; however, if you give assets away five years prior, they will look back to see if assets were distributed. They will take the amount you’ve given away and determine the number of months they will not cover your care. Together, we know we have to set up plans to help cover that difference so you can still give assets away to loved ones while paying for the care you need.
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