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Hi , I'm Greg McIntyre . Welcome to today's edition

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of the Elder Law Report , where we'll be talking about Medicaid

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Asset Protection Trusts and Medicaid Crisis

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Planning , and I'm here with .

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Thank you for having me . All right , let's talk about it All right

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.

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Medicaid Crisis Planning . What is it

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? Medicaid Asset Protection

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Trust what is that ? How are

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they different and how can it help

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you prepare for a long-term care situation

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while protecting your assets

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? Medicaid Asset Protection Trust first

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. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is

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an irrevocable trust , but

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a specific type of irrevocable

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trust made to protect your assets

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in case you need long-term

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care . Sam , do you want to say a few words

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about Medicaid Asset Protection Trust ? Sure .

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So what an irrevocable trust is

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? It's very different than a revocable living

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trust . Irrevocable living trust is

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a trust that is attached to you that you manage

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, whereas a Medicaid Asset Protection

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Trust and Irrevocable Trust is its own separate

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entity . It has its own tax ID number

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. You appoint a trustee , another

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individual , to manage the assets

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in that trust , so it is not no longer attached

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to you . And there are specific reasons

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why you may want to put assets in an irrevocable

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trust to set yourself up if , in the event

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, you need to go on a long-term care benefit for

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, say , a nursing home .

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Agreed . So that's a plan ahead tool . I

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put that in the plan ahead tool category

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, okay , as

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opposed to what we call Medicaid

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crisis planning , which is really a

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situation where I'm

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sitting down . You're sitting down with

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a husband

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, a wife , a child

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of someone who

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has maybe assets but

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needs to apply for a benefit

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to help pay for assisted

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living or nursing home care , which

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are two different benefits . In North Carolina

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, special Assistance for Assisted Living Care has

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a three-year look-back period from the date

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of application . Lawn Trim Care Medicaid

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has a five-year look-back period

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from date of application . So

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that means if we were going in the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust

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with the house and some retirement assets

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, things like that , we would have had to have done that outside

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of those look-back periods , correct , but

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in this situation we don't have that

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luxury . We need to do something

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now and maybe husband

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, wife , mom , dad they failed

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to put in place , say

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, on the home a lady bird deal

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or place

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those things in a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust to

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have that foresight . Always better

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to plan ahead , but we can absolutely

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do it when we're sitting down talking about

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what we call Medicaid crisis planning

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. So in that situation

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, sam , what

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might we do ? Let's say , if I'm

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sitting down with a wife , husbands

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in nursing home care and rehabilitation , going

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into nursing home care , they have a home

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, maybe they have several

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hundred thousand in assets , maybe more . What

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are some ways that we could maybe

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position assets ?

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So really we have a whole department

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it's our benefits department and what they do

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all day , every day , is they are working

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on these applications with the attorneys to

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make sure that we can look at these assets

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and figure out a Medicaid compliant way

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to set up the assets to ensure

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that when we apply for long-term care Medicaid

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which is the government benefit that pays for a nursing home

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that individual dad , for example

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, husband would be eligible . There's

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different Medicaid compliant ways , specifically

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with the house you'd want to do a ladybird deed . A

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ladybird deed is not affected by that five-year

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look back period with long-term care Medicaid . A

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ladybird deed is an enhanced life estate deed

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where that house can still be

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in dad and mom's name but you

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will ensure that after that individual passes

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away , the house is not going to be subject to

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a lien from long-term care Medicaid and

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the house will no longer be theirs and it's protected

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through a ladybird deed , for example with

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monies or a big lump sum

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of money . We'll figure out some Medicaid

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compliant ways in order to manage that

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money , to set up dad or husband

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, to make sure that they're Medicaid eligible

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. So there are Medicaid compliant annuities

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that you could do . There's also investing

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in real property . You can also do something like

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that as well .

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And move over a certain amount up to what

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is called the community spouse resource last

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, the CSRA and everything over

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that we have to deal with Correct , in a way

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that complies with the Medicaid rules and doesn't

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negatively impact

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dad or husband from getting

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an approval for that benefit

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, and there's another big part

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of this which is thinking

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about it's . You have to hold kind of a lot

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in Medicaid crisis planning because

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you're trying not to run afoul of the rules , get

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the benefit while also

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not leaving those

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assets in a status where they can

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be collected by claim later

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on Correct , which is absolutely

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achievable , and we've done that for a long

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, long time . We love working with families

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to achieve that . If

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you or your loved one would

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like to talk about planning ahead

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to position assets

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, to control them and

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pass them outside of being

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able to have a claim attached to

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them , to really open yourself

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up for benefits

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, to pay for long-term care and

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position and protect assets or

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in a Medicaid crisis planning situation

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, we would be glad to offer a free

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consultation to sit down and discuss those

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and work with you and your family

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. Give us a call to

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take advantage of that free consult it's 1-888-999-6600

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or schedule directly online

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at mclverlawcom . Slash

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scheduling . Thank you , have a great

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day .

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Thank you .