Palm Beach Medicaid Planning Attorney
Elderly and disabled people face expensive healthcare needs that often exceed what is available through Medicare. Medicare is intended primarily to cover short-term care needs. As a result, people in need of in-home medical assistance, nursing home care, or long-term medical treatment must either purchase expensive private insurance or qualify for Medicaid. In order to qualify for Medicaid a person's assets must first be spent down or they must be impoverished. As a result, people without long term care insurance or without significant financial assets often have to sell their home or liquidate their remaining assets. However, you may avoid impoverishment if you take proper Medicaid planning steps, even if you have fallen ill or moved into a nursing home.
As an attorney who helps people plan for obtaining Medicaid eligibility, I often hear from people who have spent money they earned over a lifetime in order to qualify for Medicaid. You do not have to lose all of your assets or your home in order to qualify for Medicaid! Only a fraction of the people who could benefit from Medicaid planning do so. I am attorney Lee A. Rosenthal. If you want to get an understanding of your options under the law, contact my law firm today.
Palm Beach County Asset Protection Lawyer
In our initial consultation, I will evaluate your finances and assets in order to gain a clear picture of how best to achieve your goals. At this point, we can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of certain planning tools.
One potential tool to help qualify those with income in excess of Medicaid standards can be a Qualified Income Trust. A Qualified Income Trust is an irrevocable trust that pledges all income you have over the limits proscribed by Medicaid to a care facility. For those with countable assets over the Medicaid limit, a personal service contract may immediately help to qualify you. In a personal services contract, you contract with another person, typically an adult child, to provide services to you in exchange for a specific amount of money. I can help you utilize any number of different Medicaid planning tools, such as:
- Personal services contract
- Special needs trusts
- Irrevocable or revocable trusts
- Testamentary trusts
- Transfer or reallocation of assets
Interspousal Transfer of Assets
It is not uncommon for one spouse to require nursing home care or long term treatment. Even after an ailing spouse has entered a nursing home, assets can be transferred from the sick spouse to the healthy one by establishing a trust or other financial planning tool in the other's name. This not only protects the healthy spouse from losing their home and other assets it also allows the sick spouse to qualify for Medicaid. As your lawyer, I will thoroughly examine your financial situation and the best financial options available to you. I will answer your questions and make it a point to guide you through the process of obtaining Medicaid eligibility. If you would like to learn more about various aspects of Medicaid planning, please follow this link.
Contact Lee A. Rosenthal, Attorney and Counselor at Law • 561-799-5290
When it comes to gaining eligibility for Medicaid, either you can plan or you can drift. Start planning today with a Florida estate planning lawyer today. Call or e-mail my law firm to discuss your goals. I offer a free initial consultation to discuss your needs.
