he Sooner You Start Medicaid Planning, the More Assets You Can Protect
The federal government offers a program for elders and the disabled called Medicaid, which will pay for custodial nursing home care that Medicare and Medicare Supplement Plans don't cover. However, there is a important catch. To qualify for Medicaid, you have to spend all of your own assets first. When you have less than $2,000 or $4,000 left, the government will pay for nursing home costs. The Medicaid resource and income limits will reduce the quality of your lifestyle unless you supplement them.
That is the bad news. The good news is that with Medicaid planning, you can potentially shelter 50 percent, or more, of your assets. For more than 17 years of their 36 years of practice, McHugh & Macri in East Hanover, New Jersey, have been providing help and guidance to individuals and families on how best to pay for the cost of long-term care at home or in assisted living or a nursing home.
The Benefits of Early Medicaid Planning
Planning in advance is key to protecting the highest percentage of your assets, and is therefore important for both elders and the disabled, regardless of age. The government currently has a five‑year look‑back and penalty on asset transfers/gifts after 2//8/06. You should never try to do Medicaid planning yourself. Seek the advice of a qualified certified elder law attorney (CELA) since the government could undo your transfers and you will end up losing the assets you tried to protect. Their fees are a minimal percentage of what they can legally shelter.
Don McHugh and Vince Macri, partners at McHugh & Macri, are 2 of only 325 attorneys nationwide who are certified in elder law (CELA) by the National Elder Law Foundation.
Under our approach to Medicaid planning, we will help to determine what is your fair share to be spent down on care costs before eligibility for public benefits like Medicaid and then shelter the balance from medical spend down. The government defines your fair share as everything you have accumulated over your lifetime. If you wait until you are admitted to a nursing home, our lawyers can still protect some of your estate; but, if you start planning earlier, we can legally shelter far more.
Our lawyers offer free seminars to explain asset preservation planning or can speak before your civic group on this subject. See our Web site for upcoming seminar dates or complete the seminar request form and e-mail it to us.
Learn more: Click on " Top 10 Medicaid mistakes/myths".
#1 Planning Goal: Protecting your home is the #1 goal of Medicaid planning. Before specializing in elder law in 1992, we devoted the majority of our practice to real estate law. Our real estate background is an important strength our lawyers bring to Medicaid planning.
Free Lawyer Consultation
For a free initial consultation with one of our CELA partners to discuss how to legally preserve your assets, call 973-577-6010 or fill out the "Fee Free" contact form on this Web site.
