Louisiana Long Term Care Medicaid Planning Blog

How Much To Transfer Can Be a Guess

Was working with a family today on their Medicaid planning. Grandma wanted to protect her assets from long term care nursing home costs. We formed a trust for certain members of the family and Grandma is going to transfer assets to certain family members and to the trust.

The question was, "How much should Grandma transfer?" Essentially Grandma wanted to keep enough money in her name to pay her expenses for the next five years during the penalty period, and then transfer the remainder and protect that from nursing home costs which run $70k per year.

Since no one can accurately predict one's future living and medical expenses, the family made an educated guess. But there is little question that Grandma's actions today will save her and her family tens of thouands (probably hundreds of thousands) of dollars in the future.

This family took this action at the right time - which is long before the individual needs to reside in a long term care nursing facility.

If you would like our law firm to provide legal services to you and yours in the area of Louisiana Long Term Care Medicaid eligibility, you can call us at 225-329-2450, or send me and email at paul@rabalaislaw.com. Put in the subject line: need to hire Medicaid lawyer

My Book and the new Louisiana Medicaid Eligibity Rules

As some of you know, I authored a Louisiana Estate Planning book not too long ago. Hundreds of people have commented to me personally about how they enjoyed the book. Most people enjoy the fact that the book is written in Layman's terms and that I use many easy-to-understand examples. Some like the fact that I use print that is a little larger than normal, while others like the summaries that I provide at the end of every chapter. The book is titled, "Estate Planning in Louisiana, A Layman's Guide to Understanding Wills, Trusts, Probate, Power of Attorney, Medicaid, Living Wills & Taxes."

It's available for sale at amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other fine bookstores. I'll send you a free copy of the entire 173 page e-book after you fill out the webform below. I'd love to hear your comments after reading the book.

Chapter 13 is devoted exclusively to Louisiana Medicaid Planning. However, the book was published just before February, 2008, when Louisiana issued new regulatons based on Congress' Deficit Reduction Act. The rules I describe in the book - particulary with regard to transfers - may no longer be applicable to your particular situation.

When I update my book, most of the new material will revolve around the new Louisiana Medicaid eligibility rules. Anyway, feel free to complete the webform, and I'll send you the ebook right away.

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Check Out My New Special Report

Over the past weekend, I sat down and wrote out a seven page report titled:

How To Qualify For Louisiana Medicaid While

Protecting Your Home and Life Savings

Among other things, this Special Report:

• Identifies the four main Louisiana Medicaid Eligibility Rules;
• Identifies the two biggest mistakes Louisiana families make;
• Describes six different planning strategies to protect your estate; and
• Shows you how to get started to protect your estate from the rising costs of long term care.

You will receive your Special Report as soon as you complete and submit the webform below:

 

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Enjoy your Report.

Why Don't More People "Medicaid Plan?"

Occasionally I wonder why more people are not motivated to plan for a potential stay in a nursing home or other long term care facility. The benefits of planning can be tremendous, including:

• protecting the value of the home for your surviving loved ones;
• protecting your life savings from being depleted on long term care costs;

• you will be able to leave an inheritance to your children and other loved ones;

• you will have peace of mind that comes from know you've taken positive steps to protect your estate even if your health turns south;

• you can avoid succession and probate costs that result from owning assets in your name when you die;

• you can act now to take advantage of existing laws before Congress and the state change the laws again to make it even more difficult to qualify for long term care Medicaid.

While I have no scientific data to back me up, ten reasons people fail to plan are:

1. They don't know what their options are because they do not understand the Medicaid rules, and they do not understand the legal, tax, insurance and financial strategies that are available;
2. They do not think they will require long term care (this is a silly reason);
3. They do not know where to go for help (its our responsibility to educate);
4. They do not know that they need to plan so far ahead (at least five years before they need care is best);
5. They do not want to give up control of their assets (even though they do not have to).
6. Medicaid planning is too complicated (but it isn't)
7. They don't realize how expensive long term care / nursing homes cost;

8. They assume their spouse or children will take care of them in their home forever;

9. They base their decisions on genetic reasons like how long their parents lived;

10. Simple procrastination.

If you can think of additional benefits of planning for long term care, or if you are aware of additional reasons people fail to plan, post them in a comment so we can all benefit from your thoughts.

Until next time...

Paul Rabalais