Often confused, the look-back period and the penalty period are two distinct concepts in Medicaid planning. It is important to understand the applicability of each. The look-back period is the five-year retroactive period beginning on the date you enter a nursing facility. Thus, if you enter a nursing home on November 1, 2017, the look-back…
Unfortunately, we cannot control if and when we may fall ill but we can be proactive to protect our financial assets by planning early. The risk of requiring a nursing home within five years of creating a Medicaid Trust is generally a risk associated with waiting too long to meet with and elder law attorney….
It is worth noting at the outset that there are many types of irrevocable trusts. I think it is safe to assume that when you reference an irrevocable trust, you are speaking of the trust that we regularly use to protect your assets if you need to apply for Medicaid in the future. For our…
For 2017, the federal lifetime estate and gift tax exemption have increased to $5,490,000. This means that you can gift this amount over your lifetime without incurring a federal gift tax and to the extent you haven’t done so, any exemption remaining at death can be applied against the value of your estate for…
Medicaid Planning in Advance of Changes to the Healthcare System By: Salvatore M. Di Costanzo, Esq. With Congress about to break for a two week Spring recess, the repeal of Obamacare appears to have stalled and remains uncertain. Notwithstanding, we must pay attention to the various proposals that have been put forth by the…
This is a real fact pattern. I recently met with a family whose 86 year old Mother was admitted to a nursing home for dementia. They sought my assistance in obtaining Medicaid eligibility to pay for the nursing home, which cost $15,000 per month. Mother is still on Medicare which pays for the first 100…
At some point, most people experience that enlightening moment when they realize there is a risk of losing their assets if they fall ill and require long-term care. Some will contact an elder law attorney and receive sound advice; others will contact their friends and relatives, who after all, usually know more than most attorneys…
The look-back period is very different from the penalty period and as always the rules are different depending on whether you are seeking Medicaid to cover the cost of homecare or nursing home care. Conceptually, the look-back period is the period where asset transfers may impact your eligibility for Medicaid. The penalty period is the…
Second to the house, an individual retirement account (“IRA”) is usually the largest asset when looking into someone’s financial portfolio. The tax and Medicaid rules dealing with IRAs are very different yet related, quite complex and often misinterpreted or misapplied. It is important to have a general understanding of these rules in order to avoid…
If you are reading this article, it is likely that at some point in your lifetime you may have worked through the placement of a loved one in a nursing home. If not, there is a high probability you know of someone who has. With the cost of nursing home care exceeding $150,000.00 per year…
If there is one unavoidable consequence of life and relationships, it is that our loved ones may fall ill at some point, whether it be a parent, grandparent, child, aunt or uncle. Sometimes it could be a tragic accident or disease that affects them, and other times it is simply part of the aging process….
In Yorktown, NY and the surrounding community, I often see the homestead as the single most valuable asset of an estate. The “American Dream” is to own a home, create memories there, and one day, leave it to your children. However, without proper planning, the dream can soon turn into a nightmare if nursing home…
In a perfect world, everyone would craft an estate and elder care plan well in advance of having to implement it˗ but the world isn’t perfect! I have had the opportunity to work on a fair amount of cases where clients, who had no estate or elder can plan, fell ill or became disabled. In…
Over the years, I have found that one of the biggest obstacles preventing clients from pulling the trigger on a Medicaid Trust is the perception that all control is lost over the assets being transferred to the trust. While it is true that legal title to the assets must be transferred to the trustee, a…
