In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson explains how IRAs count toward your Medicaid asset limit in Illinois, but DCEL can help you navigate the challenges associated with these retirement assets.
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 of our series of videos on the general topic of what an Illinois Medicaid applicant can and can’t keep.
Today I want to talk about IRA’s and other qualified retirement assets. The word qualified, relative to retirement assets means that its the type of thing were money was set aside while you were working and when you take the money out that’s going to be the time that you’re going to have to pay tax on it, it wasn’t taxed at the time that it was set aside.
The first thing that you need to know is that if you have talked to someone, a relative or a friend who has been through this process for a relative in another state, there are several states in which those types of assets don’t count toward the total. That is not, repeat not the case in Illinois, those assets count towards your two-thousand dollar limit. They’re particularly problematic and difficult to deal with because of that characteristic of there still being taxes due. If you wanted to move them out of harm’s way, you can’t just take the money out, you have to pay tax on it, and if its a large retirement account that could put you up into a high tax bracket.
So this is one of the things where we do alot of planning, sophisticated strategies and you obviously need to do something, because you don’t want to say “well geez, I don’t want to take the tax hit so i’ll just spend all of this money until there’s nothing left paying for the nursing home care.”
Moral of the story here is if you have an IRA or other retirement account of any significant value or a loved one for whom you’re helping with the planning does, you really need to see a good experienced Elder Law Attorney because how those are addressed are gonna make a big difference in the outcome. By the way, when I say a good experienced Elder Law Attorney, that’s us! we can really help with this.
Thanks.
Also looking for information about Medicaid and Asset Preservation? Visit these articles:
“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.
