My mother died on May 10, 2018. Three siblings shared ownership of her house per her will. My middle sister has been in a nursing home on Medicaid/Medicare for about five years now. Her SS is only about $900/month. We finally sold mom's house today (6/28/24) each getting about $30K, My younger sister lived in the house for a couple of years while her house was fully renovated. Myself and my younger sister have full co-guardianship of the sister in the nursing home's estate. Is there something we can do, like maybe a term life insurance policy, to avoid Medicaid from taking the middle sister's $30K. I feel sorry for her son who is not going to get anything from her estate when she passes. She's 74, fairly healthy but she is mentally disabled from birth and can't handle her own finances. I believe she's on the autism spectrum, but when she was born autism wasn't a thing. Is there some way to keep from having to send her $30K to Medicaid?
Something said about her being disabled? Does she receive Social Security Disability? May be able to get a Special Needs Acct. But, funds that aren't used will revert back to Medicaid.
Medicaid is involved in her care. That money cannot be protected, it goes to her care. The money should not have been left to her.
Exactly …….however it was in this case.
If so rules on that system are quite narrow as to what is allowed. HOWEVER if her situation is due to something from birth, childhood or to age 26, she probably can open a ABLE. Get your Google on and look up ABLE bank accounts. Can Sissy possibly qualify for one? Cause if so, you could help her to get one open and park - if I’m not mistaken- 14 K in it immediately and not affect her SSI eligibility. It’s like 14K max allowed to go into one per year and max out at abt 110K.
whomever was / is the Executor for moms estate has oodles of latitudes as to just how they do the distribution. Y’all took like 6 years to get the house sold, (I bet there’s a whole backstory on this, lol), take a bit more time to finalized out the distribution and do it over 2 years going into an Able and Voila! $ issue is like 90% solved. The other 10% is a modest preneed funeral & burial paid for.
Do be super careful on preneed as SSI and Medicaid have lots of regulations on how much $ and what the policy paperwork MUST adhere to. Like a very tight & specific “Goods & Services” listing and registration with several agencies within the State. Like TX requires registration with Dept of Insurance, Dept of Banking AND Funeral Services Commission. The IFT type of funeral “Trust” may not be ok & you better make sure bc these usually are irrevocable
The Term is to leave something for her son, right? Buying a Term life to me is meh as she’s probably to old to get a decent rate, and if any have it so the underwriter wants to look at health records she’s toast on getting one. Plus most States “at need” programs place a low limit on Term to be OK without any issues, like Face Value of $1500 (it may actually be worth more at death, but Term is about the face value for what Medicaid looks at). If you actually found one that’s affordable premiums for 50K -100K, the State might - might - require that the primary beneficiary becomes the State with her heirs becoming secondary. This lil move is called “Residual Beneficiary” & States doing this is an offshoot Estate Recovery.
If your sister was “mentally disabled from birth”, the chances are that the tax payer has provided a lot of support over the years. You may not like the idea of the money going back to the tax payer, but remind yourself that there is some justice in it.
You can check with a lawyer about the rest , but don’t get your hopes up too high. I don’t know all the Medicaid rules.
Her son, well, getting an inheritance is not a guaranteed gift, her money should be used to pay her way. I imagine we tax payers have paid a lot for her care already.
Next step is to consult with an Elder Care Attorney ASAP in the state where your sister resides. The attorney will know exactly what to do to protect your sister's inheritance (if there is a way), but a lot depends on setting up things immediately the right way.
Don't wait on contacting an Elder Care Attorney.
Good luck and best wishes