In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson explains that there are exceptions to the personal residence rules and planning with DCEL helps you properly prepare for them!
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!
This is another in our series of videos on what an Illinois Medicaid Applicant can and can’t keep. Today I want to talk about the single biggest exempt asset, and that is your personal residence.
Now let me tell you, if you look at the rules it just says that your residence is exempt, and you might think great, no problem with that, in fact if you’ve talked to your caseworker they’re going to say “hey don’t worry about your residence, its exempt”: Does the expression catch-22 mean anything to you, because this is one of the biggest catch-22’s every. It’s actually a temporary exemption, it’s only exempt until you either sell it during your lifetime, in which case the states basically got dibs on money from the sale to pay back Medicaid benefits that you’ve gotten so far, and if there’s any money left, now you’re over the asset limit; or until you die, in which case through something called “estate recovery” they can force it to be sold and come after the money then.
So quick thing in here is that there’s always planning that needs to be done to protect the residence and don’t let that exempt status fool you.
The other thing that I want to talk about though, is something that is of particular interest to those of you watching this, who may live on a farm, or watching this on behalf of parents or other loved ones who live on a farm. In this sense, the term residence, includes all property that is not separated by someone else’s property. So in other words, if you live on a 500-acre farm, as long as there is nothing but roads separating you from all of the other fields, that entire 500 acres is an exempt asset. Now if there’s your farm, somebody else’s farm or field and then more of your land, the rest of that is going to be a non exempt asset, but for people who are in a farm that exemption for surrounding acreage can be a big deal.
So this is something again one of the things that obviously because of the value involved it’s very important that you plan for properly, so give us a call and we will certainly help you do exactly that.
Thanks.
Also looking for information about Medicaid and Asset Preservation? Visit these articles:
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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.
