In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson explains the Medicaid rules surrounding vehicles and what to expect while planning.
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!
Today we’re going to talk about the Illinois Medicaid Rules, as they relate to motor vehicles. Here is the basic rule in the case where someone who is the nursing home applicant themselves, not the community spouse. They are entitled to keep a vehicle, up to a generous limit of forty-five hundred dollars, except in a few situations. If it is used or equipped for their medical transportation or if they live in a remote area and need that vehicle to get to and from essential services. Forty-five hundred dollars doesn’t buy you much of a vehicle these days, so that usually not something that we have people take advantage of. In the case of a married couple, the other spouse (the community spouse), can have a vehicle of any reasonable value. So, if you will on in interpreting a reasonable value, a Mercedes, a Lexus, probably ok, a Maserati sports car probably not; not to mention that, there probably won’t be enough money in the budget to maintain the thing anyway.
One other thing on motor vehicles, that includes not only cars but trucks, and there are other things if you can’t drive them down the road; a boat, a four wheeler, those don’t count as motor vehicles, those have to count as other personal property that may or may not be exempt.
Thanks.
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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.
