Can Medicaid Planning Help You or Your Parents?
If you have aging parents, it’s probably time to start thinking about Medicaid planning. Even if you don’t personally receive Medicaid, planning early can help you and your parents or other loved ones have an easier and better life, which in turn should cause you less stress as well. As parents age, their adult children often have to take care of them emotionally and financially. So how does Medicaid planning help you and your parents?
Why Medicaid Planning is Important For You and Your Parents
If you or your parents are past retirement age and have considerable income or assets – but not enough savings to pay for long-term nursing care if and when it becomes necessary – Medicaid planning is an effective tool that can give you and your parents the option to retire comfortably and peacefully. Medicaid planning is about structuring your or your parents’ assets in a way that provides you and your family with the best option to receive quality healthcare. This often includes creating trusts, converting eligible assets into exempt assets, protecting a family home from being used when determining Medicaid eligibility, and much more.
Five-Year Lookback Period
One of the most important reasons to start planning early for Medicaid is the lookback period. When you or your parents are applying for Medicaid, the state will look at any income, gifts, or assets that you had within the last five years. If you think that all you have to do is to simply sell or gift income and assets that push you over the qualifying limit, this isn’t going to work. If the state sees that you sold assets for far less than they were worth or started gifting income or assets to other family members in what appears to be an attempt to become eligible for Medicaid, you could be penalized and therefore be ineligible for Medicaid for a significant period of time. This is why planning early and planning with a professional is so important. If you start to prepare before you or your parents actually need Medicaid, you’ll be better equipped to handle your income and assets in a way that makes sense, and in a way that doesn’t make anyone ineligible to receive Medicaid.
Benefits to You and Your Parents
Some of the significant benefits of Medicaid planning include the following:
- Preserving assets for you and the rest of your family
- Utilizing all forms of assistance to ensure that you and your loved ones receive the long-term care that is needed
- Reducing stress and fear over future and retirement plans
- Exploring all financial options and choosing the one that helps you and your family the most
- Ensuring that the non-applicant spouse can take care of themselves and the applicant spouse without depleting all of their income and assets
Medicaid planning is a crucial tool for the future of you and your parents. If you need assistance, it’s a good idea to contact an experienced Denver Medicaid planning lawyer right away. The sooner you start planning, the better.
