The Medicaid program was born in 1965. It has been a financial savior for millions of Americans. It will be less help in the future.
When Shakespeare was writing the masterpieces attributable to him he suggested that King Lear was more than eighty years of life to the king. This is rather odd, because when Shakespeare or Bacon, or whoever he was (it was not I, in any event) wrote King Lear, the average man lived for 42 years.
Once a man lived to age 65, received a gold watch at his retirement party, and, within a fairly short time, his life insurance matured. Today it is not unusual for people to live into their 90s. With advanced age comes illness and the need for care.
Nursing homes may cost as much as $13,000 per month. Medicaid has contributed vastly to the cost of long-term care but with the current budget strains, Medicaid will be under pressure and the rules for receiving Medicaid will become more restrictive.
We are ready to help you with Medicaid planning. As the Medicaid rules become tougher, the process of preparing for Medicaid entitlement becomes more difficult.
Medicaid planning is very complex. It may be necessary to retitle securities, change ownership of real estate, examine present estate plans, draft special needs trusts, prepare wills, evaluate long term care contracts, arrange for domicile out of state, determine pension benefits, write care contracts, review life insurance policies, supervise the purchase of annuity contracts, evaluate plans to draw down IRA benefits, and, finally, prepare Medicaid applications, among other things.
All of this takes time, so this is one good reason for contacting us as early as possible. Another good reason is the five-year lookback period for transfers of property - the sooner you can start the clock running, the more planning options you may have.
When I first was learning my way around the rules, Medicaid was relatively simple. Medicaid is now exquisitely complex, and the rules vary from state to state and even from one Medicaid office to another. In our firm we are working daily with the Medicaid rules and we see constant changes. We look forward to sharing our expertise with you.
