Married Couple - Both Need Home Care

If your spouse and you both need home care,
this strategy can get it for you and still
protect your income and assets.

Sometimes both members of a married couple need outside assistance with managing the day-to-day needs of daily living. Having home care aides come in every day to help makes life a lot easier and safer.

Unfortunately, Medicaid does not make qualifying for combined home care easy. There are stringent standards that must be complied with to be eligible. Without proper planning, you'll have to pay the cost of your own care, until virtually all your cash and other assets are depleted.

If that sounds like your situation, there's a better way. It's possible to get Medicaid coverage of home care for both of you simultaneously, and to protect your money, income and assets. Here's a detailed explanation of how it can be accomplished with an Elder Law attorney's help.

The Medicaid hurdle for a
couple needing home care...

Medicaid allows a married couple to have combined assets of just $20,100. Also, your total income cannot exceed $1,137 per month. That means that any cash and additional assets above $20,100 will have to be contributed towards the cost of care for the two of you, plus all of your income above $1,137. Yet if you allow yourselves to be economically diminished down to these levels, you couldn't survive financially. How would you pay your bills? It's almost impossible to live in New York on these terms.

Fortunately, with proper planning there is a legal way to retain the value of your income and assets. This is how a Lamson & Cutner Medicaid lawyer can help you do so.

Three keys to preserving
your income and assets...

Step 1: If you own a house, condominium or co-operative apartment, it's transferred into a special protective trust. Under federal law, this protects your home from being subject to a Medicaid lien. Otherwise if Medicaid approves your application, it may eventually place a lien against your property equal to the amount of benefits it pays, if you move out of your home. When you both die, it will execute the lien for reimbursement or make a claim against your estate.

Since the cost of home care for two people can range up to $10,000 or $15,000 a month, you can see how quickly the equity in your home will be depleted, if you don't protect it. That means you won't be able to preserve the equity for your own future needs, or leave it to your children or heirs. Yet with this strategy, you will.

Step 2: Transfer your savings and other liquid assets such as securities and Certificates of Deposit to your children, relatives or friends or to a protective trust. Transfers of your money or other assets will not incur any Medicaid penalty when you are applying for home care benefits.

For your financial safety, Lamson & Cutner's Elder Law attorneys develop a plan that anticipates the possibility of one or both of you eventually needing nursing home care. The trusts are structured to accommodate further planning in the event of either development. Of course, it may never happen, but if it does you'll still be able to save at least some of your assets.

You can learn more about the asset protection strategies used in the event that either or both of you need nursing facility care by clicking on these links:

Step 3: If you're receiving monthly income from Social Security or a pension, any amount over the Medicaid threshold of $1,137 per month for a couple is transferred to a protective legal structure called a "pooled income trust." These trusts are run by certain charities and function just like a bill paying service. For example, if your spouse and you have combined monthly income of $3,127 a month, you just write a check every month to the trust for the amount over $1,137, or $1,990. The money goes into your own segregated account, and the trust operates under specific instructions to pay the bills you designate.

Depending on your particular financial situation, each spouse may need an individual pooled income trust account.

The trust gets a small monthly administrative fee for this service. When you pass on, anything left over in your account will be used by the charity to help others. With this approach, you get the advantage of keeping use of your money, and retaining your lifestyle. The alternative is losing it to the cost of your own care, under Medicaid eligibility requirements.

Learn more about protecting your financial future in Lamson & Cutner's brand new Special Report 25 Strategies to Prevent Financial Ruin from Long-Term Health Care Costs. It's informative, interesting and free.
Download it here.

The benefits married couples receive
with this approach.

Whether you both need eight to twelve hours a day of care, or around-the-clock assistance, it's all paid for by Medicaid. You get to stay financially intact. You keep your home, and your cash, income and investments working on your behalf. That means you can comfortably afford the way of life you've been used to. It's a lot more attractive scenario than losing everything you have to pay for the help you need yourself, before Medicaid kicks in. There may even be something left over for your children or heirs after you both pass on.

Here's an actual case:

Elder Law attorney Carole Lamson helped a married older couple qualify for Medicaid, both of whom needed home care assistance. The family anticipated that the mother would eventually need to enter a nursing home. The couple was receiving income in the form of German war reparations, which by law is exempt from having to be contributed to the cost of care.

First, L & C was able to prove to Medicaid that since their income and their resources were from the war reparations, all of it was exempt. This protected hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Next, all their liquid assets were transferred to their children. With all their income and assets now secure from Medicaid eligibility requirements that would otherwise force them to pay the bill, the couple was able to get fully paid home care at no cost to them.

As expected, Mom recently had to enter a nursing home. L & C Medicaid lawyers drafted a nursing home application that allowed her to enter the facility penalty-free, because of the effective asset protection planning that was done in advance.

A great example of how effective planning maximizes benefits and keeps money and assets in the family, safe from government rules that would have required the money to be spent on long-term care.

In addition to these important benefits, you'll also save money on your medical costs, because Medicaid will cover any gaps in your Medicare insurance. There's also a wide range of convenient community services you'll have access to, like adult day care. Medicaid will pay for all these expenses and services.

And there's yet another layer of protection. A major advantage of effective planning is that if either or both of you eventually need nursing facility care, the steps will have been taken to facilitate your eligibility for Medicaid benefits. These asset protection strategies will also help you to preserve as much of your cash and other assets as possible in that situation. The funds can then be used to make your stay in the nursing facility more pleasant, and to supplement your care as needed.

Call Lamson & Cutner to learn how you can benefit from fully paid home care for both of you, and protect your home, money, income and other assets. Call today toll free at 1 (877) 303-1414.