Watch out for elective share issues in Medicaid planning
When a married person requires nursing home care, the spouse often seeks advice on how to preserve assets and minimize his/her exposure to the high cost of care. Often this will require consideration of how the Medicaid program (MLTSS or NJ FamilyCare) can help out. Assets may be transferred to the “community spouse,” and beneficiary designations may be changed. Some assets will be...
There’s no “income cap” anymore for Medicaid long term benefits
When I first started filing Medicaid applications for my clients back in 1995, a person who needed long-term care services in the home or assisted living but had run out of money could not even apply for Medicaid if their gross monthly income was higher than the “income cap.” Of course, the income cap was well below the amount that was needed to pay for care, which meant that a lot...