Money & Other Assets Held in Trusts
In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson explains how the Medicaid-Compliant Annuity does not count as an asset and can be beneficial when used as income toward nursing home payments. Call DCEL today to learn more!
Video Transcript:
Hi I’m Wes Coulson. On behalf of all of us at Dent Coulson Elder Law, I’d like to wish you and your family a very joyous and memorable holiday season.
In today’s elder law minute, we’re continuing the series on what an Illinois Medicaid applicant can and can’t keep. This is another one where we’re going to talk about something that’s not particularly familiar to a lot of people, and that is trusts and money and assets held in trust.
A trust is an arrangement, by which money and property can be held over time under rules set up by the person who puts those things into the trust. There are various types of trusts. The most common one is a living trust, otherwise known in a lot of cases as a revocable living trust. The big thing you need to know about that, is that having Assets in a living trust, does nothing whatsoever to protect them from Medicaid. Those are countable assets, because essentially, if it’s your living trust you have control, you own those assets.
So the types of trusts that can help protect things are irrevocable trusts, its got to be a done deal and you can’t be the one in charge of it, and you cant have the right to get money directly out of it, and things that are called special needs trusts. Irrevocable trusts, when you put assets in you are making transfers so, unless those are outside the five year look back period, you’ll need to reference our other videos that talk about how setting aside assets as gifts can be a good part of a planning strategy. For people to whom it applies, the special needs trust, which is basically money for somebody who in incapacitated from working, relying upon government benefits and is under age 65 when its done, can be an excellent way of setting aside assets for their benefit and later lifetime use.
So we use trusts an awful lot in planning, because they are really valuable planning tools and everybody’s situations is a little bit different. So, I guess this video as much as anything, underscores what we’ve been saying all along, which is that if you want to protect your life savings from having to be spent down to pay for nursing home costs, give us a call because the planning that we can do can make a world of difference.
Thanks, Happy Holidays.
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.
