Many Oklahoma residents who are getting older need to live in a skilled nursing facility. A nursing home is an extremely expensive place to live and many people can spend their life savings in just a few months. Planning ahead for a nursing home stay is smart, especially in order to preserve a family’s assets and use Medicaid.
Many will advise seniors to use Medicaid to pay for their nursing home stay. But, in order for a senior to qualify for Medicaid, they must reduce their assets. Medicaid reviews a person’s assets and places them into two categories, exempt assets and non-exempt assets. Exempt assets include the person’s house, personal belongings, one car, life insurance policies whose face value is less than $1500, cash less than $1600 and certain kinds of trusts.
It is smart for Oklahoma residents to develop a strategy to pay for long-term care facilities. Medicaid can be a way for a person to reside in a care facility that they would not be able to afford. It can be important to get the right information to develop these strategies so that they will be eligible for Medicaid when the time comes. The strategies may include a gifting schedule, moving wealth into exempt assets, creating an irrevocable trust and other options.
Preparing in advance for any life events is usually a smart move. A family would like to keep their hard-earned assets instead of losing it all to a nursing home and there are legal strategies that can help. Asset protection is one way that a family can keep their legacy while not having to lose it all to pay for nursing home expenses.
Source: centralctcommunications.com, “The basics of Medicaid-What you can and cannot keep“, Daniel O. Tully, Jan. 22, 2017
