We are all passionate about ensuring that our loved ones will be well cared for and knowing that the future our families worked so hard to achieve is secure. That, in essence, is why we are so passionate about Elder Law & Medicaid Planning at Lacy Katzen.
Our elder law and medicaid planning lawyers work tirelessly advocates for clients in need of long-term care. We develop a care plan that will provide your loved ones with quality care, maintain their quality of life and protect as much of their assets as the law allows, while accessing the appropriate public benefits.
We use a multidisciplinary approach to coordinate with financial advisors, physicians, geriatric-care managers, social workers and, of course, family members. We are especially adept at shouldering the burden of managing the Medicaid application process—for clients with children residing out of town or for clients who have simply found the process to be overwhelming.
At Lacy Katzen, our elder law attorneys have been doing this for generations—both the elder generation and the younger—for more than 25 years. Contact us to find out how we could help you plan for the future.
Medicare Part A can cover, in full, the first 20 days of a rehabilitative nursing home stay only after a qualifying 3-day hospital stay and can cover a portion of the nursing home stay for up to 100 days.
Not necessarily, we can typically undertake lawful asset protection planning to save approximately one half to potentially all assets for a single person depending on whether or not there were sizable gifts made during the past 5 years or other exemptions that may be available. Even if gifts were made during the five-year period, there may still be planning available to protect those gifts and in many cases, protect additional gifts. We may be able to save substantially everything if the nursing home bound individual has a spouse living in the community.
With proper planning your house may be protected. Planning is still available after a client enters a nursing home, in many cases.
Transferring the house is a planning option based on each individual’s circumstances. For the vast majority of cases, the house or one half of its equity can be protected after a client enters a skilled nursing facility depending on each circumstance.
Typically, the spouse living in the community is allowed to keep between $74,820 and $137,400 in total assets, subject to Medicaid gifting rules.
However, if we undertake asset protection planning, we can often avoid the need to spend down assets and protect substantially all assets for the spouse, again subject to Medicaid gifting rules.
Non Lawyers are working for the nursing home, and they typically want you to spend down your assets privately paying the nursing home. They cannot provide legal advice to you and as a result will not provide what lawful asset-protection strategies are available to protect your assets. Further, without legal planning, if there is a Medicaid penalty period assessed and/or an unpaid nursing home bill not covered by Medicaid benefits even after the non-lawyers obtain Medicaid benefits for you, you are on your own and, in many cases, a lawsuit will be commenced by the nursing home for the unpaid bill.
No. A revocable trust does not protect assets from long-term care costs; you will still require asset protection planning.
