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"Do revocable or irrevocable trusts help qualify for Long Term Care Medicaid?"

That is the question we often get from clients and prospective clients who are concerned that they will lose their savings and home if they wind up in a nursing home facility.

There are many different kinds of trusts, but often people tend to break them down into two types: revocable and irrevocable.

Regarding revocable trusts, the Medicaid Eligibility Manual could not be much clearer, "The entire corpus of a revocable trust is counted as an available resource to the individual."

Revocable trusts have never been used to protect assets from nursing home expenses. Revocable trusts are, however, used extensively for Succession / Probate avoidance purposes. And quite frankly, when the revocable living trust works like it should, it's a wonderful thing for the survivors of the person who set up the trust. When the person who set up the trust (Settlor) dies, the Successor Trustee (often a family member) can immediately disburse assets to the trust beneficiaries (often the children) without any of the attorney and court involvement, expense, and delay associated with a courtsupervised probate process.

Regarding irrevocable trusts, it is important to note that not every irrevocable trust offers nursing home protection and Medicaid eligibility. An important provision in the Medicaid Eligibility Manual provides, in pertinent part, that, "The portion of the corpus that could be paid to or for the benefit of the individual is treated as a resource available to the individual..."

There are several other factors that affect Medicaid eligibility when someone has established an irrevocable trust, but clearly of the trustee can pay corpus to or for the individual seeking Medicaid eligibility, then the trust assets will need to be spent prior to eligibility.

Some parents, in order to protect assets, establish an irrevocable trust and provide in the trust instrument that a trustee may make distributions to or for the children of the Settlor of the trust.

Here's my words of warning regarding Medicaid eligibility. Seek out good legal help in your area. Medicaid is a combined state and federal program, so you must work with someone who is wellversed in your state's eligibility provisions. Don't try this at home on your own. Get it right the first time.

This post is for informational purposes only and does not provide legal advice. Please do not act or refrain from acting based on anything you read on this site. Using this site or communicating with Rabalais Estate Planning, LLC, through this site does not form an attorney/client relationship.

Paul Rabalais
Estate Planning Attorney
www.RabalaisEstatePlanning.com
Phone: (225) 3292450