In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson discusses the type of help you need when filing a nursing home Medicaid application.
Transcript:
Hi! I’m Wes Coulson from Dent-Coulson Elder Law, proudly serving clients throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area and beyond. I’d like to welcome you to our Elder Law and Estate Planning Minute. We do these to help educate people, give them some little tips, and especially to let them know the questions they need to ask, things that they’ve maybe not thought of. Our thought on that is that we can help you best if you realize the things that you need help and that we can help you with. So I hope you enjoy. Thanks!
Today, I’m going to address the question, should you get professional help in filing a nursing home Medicaid application. My answer is going to be yes, but I’m going to differentiate the type of help that you need, and let me do that in terms of, I want you to think about a tax return, okay? If you are filing a basic 1040 and, maybe, attaching some W-2’s and 1099’s, but you haven’t done anything to save taxes, then it’s a good idea to have some kind of help.
By the way, there’s not a “Turbotax” for Medicaid applications. And, there are services within my area, Saric Consulting, in Belleville does a nice job of assisting with the Medicaid application process. Making sure that all the many pages of the application are filled out correctly and then all of the documents that you need to provide, are provided. But, that’s not enough if you’re, back to the tax analogy, into a situation in which you’re paying, let’s say, $25,000 less in taxes because you had an ace accountant who was able to tell you a bunch of things that you could do by way of tax planning that would reduce your tax burden.
Well, that’s the situation when you had, for example, our help with Medicaid planning. We are able to do things that could protect an awful lot of your life savings. But that also means that there could be some pretty complicated stuff that needs to be explained in the process of a Medicaid application with, obviously, a lot at stake. Though, in that situation, you really need to see an attorney.
So, if you’re starting out with an amount of assets that you don’t need planning, you’re already eligible, then use one of the professional application services. If you have some assets to protect, come see us, we’ll do that, and we can help with the application. 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.
