In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson explains why DCEL takes transfers seriously when helping you know what to prepare for.
Video Transcript:
Greetings, I’m Wes Coulson from Dent Coulson Elder Law, and this will be your Elder Law Minute. We’re happy to present these because we think we can help inform you as to the ways in which we can help you and the things that you need to think about relative to the elder care and estate planning journey. Hope you enjoy.
You’ve probably seen and heard me in previous videos talking about Medicaid transfer penalties. Those are the things that can delay eligibility for Medicaid. Generally speaking, when we hear that term, we think that transfers are just another name for gifts; that if you give away money or property, that’s going to delay your eligibility for Medicaid. Well, they use the term transfers, which is a broader term, very intentionally for a couple of reasons. First, they don’t want people to think they can do something cutesy to get around the rules. For example, “I didn’t give my daughter a new car, I bought a new car for $30,000, and I sold it to her for $5,000.” Sorry, that’s a $25,000 transfer. “I didn’t give my son $20,000, I loaned him $20,000 when he got behind on his bills, and no, we didn’t have anything written down. I just said, ‘Son, I trust you. When you get back on your feet, you can pay me back.’ Well, he hasn’t quite gotten back on his feet yet.” Sorry, that was a $20,000 transfer.
The other reason they do it is something that, as an elder-law attorney, bothers me. They seem to, when they’re looking at transactions between an applicant and family members, apply a “guilty until proven innocent standard”. That if they see a payment to a family member for $1,100, they’ll just assume that it’s a gift unless you can come up with every single receipt that shows that it was just a reimbursement for things that you paid on their behalf. You know, if that was six months ago, it may not be too hard, but try coming up with receipts four years ago that you had no idea that your loved one was going to be in a nursing home at that point. So, there’s something that we take very seriously. We need to know about transfers so that we can deal with them in your planning so that you don’t get the bad surprise of a transfer penalty that you’re not prepared to deal with. Come see us, we can help.
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“Your Trusted Advisor on the Elder Care Journey”
Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000 (IL) or (314) 567-9292 (MO), or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
