Some trust assets may disqualify a Medicaid applicant
One friend tells another, “Put your assets in a trust so the nursing home won’t take them.” But this technique isn’t necessarily the “magic bullet.” The concept of countable assets and resources is broader under Medicaid law than it is under some other bodies of law. Placing your assets into a trust structure might avoid some problems — like probate...
New Jersey’s Medicaid agencies are imposing extra unpublished requirements for “caregiver child” house transfers
Federal and State Medicaid law allow the transfer of an applicant’s home to his/her “caregiver child” without imposing the usual penalty for that transfer. But what does it take to be a “caregiver child?” There is an alarming trend we are seeing. County Medicaid agencies are imposing penalties when houses are transferred to such children, citing factors which the...
Testator’s hostility toward the heir he excluded doesn’t necessarily invalidate the Will
In the recent case of In the Matter of Estate of Jameson , the New Jersey Appellate Division reiterated that there are limited bases to set aside a duly-signed Last Will and Testament. Kenneth Jameson’s Will disinherited his daughter and made various strongly-worded statements about his feelings about her alleged behavior toward him and about her relationship with someone of a...
Texas is trying out Supported Decision-making as an alternative to guardianship
The law allows a Court to appoint a legal guardian for a person who is incapacitated. An Incapacitated Person is defined in NJ as someone who by reason of mental illness, intellectual disability, physical illness, physical disability, chronic drug or alcohol use, or other cause, “lacks sufficient capacity to govern himself and manage his affairs.” Since we are dealing with the...
Behavioral Therapy Techniques Show Promise for Alzheimers’ Patients
If you are caring for a person with Alzheimers’ dementia, you are probably seeing a number of behavioral changes that are difficult to understand and challenging to respond to. These are sometimes called “neuropsychiatric symptoms,” and they span the spectrum from apathy and depression to wandering, disinhibition, irritable verbal onslaughts, agitated pacing, and...
Medicaid applicant gets penalty period for cash transactions
Followers of this blog know that if a person applies for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care (or assisted living or home care), they have to provide five years’ of financial records and prove to the agency just what they spent every dollar on during the five year look-back period which immediately precedes the application. If the applicant can’t prove that the dollars were spent...
When the caregiving ends, new problems to tackle as Executor
In our legal practice, we advise many family caregivers who are managing and supporting the lives of their frail loved ones, and we also advise executors in the administration of estates. Very often, the person who was our client in their role of caregiver is now the client in the role of executor. It’s a very tender time when that transition occurs.
They may have spent years involved...
A disinherited spouse could have a medicaid problem
When a person applies for Medicaid benefits, a five-year look back is done by the county board of social services to see if the applicant had given away any assets that they owned or to which they were entitled. If that occurred, it’s referred to as a “transfer of assets” or “uncompensated transfer of assets,” and the result will be a penalty period in which the...
Family caregivers and decisionmakers in the complex care of dementia patients
Tha AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving report that there are 40 million Americans taking care of family members with dementia such as Alzheimer’s Disease, cancer, and other debilitating chronic diseases, or physical disabilities, and that 25% of the caregivers are under 35 years old. The medical issues can be complex. There can be myriad medications to manage and the side...
Distributing an Estate? Watch out for child support judgment liens
The Executor of an Estate (named under the Last Will and Testament) or Administrator of an Estate (appointed by the Court because there was no Will or the Executor couldn’t serve) has an obligation to take care of all of the bona fide creditors of the estate before distributing the rest and remainder to the beneficiaries or heirs according to what the Will specifies or the law requires....