Medicaid Planning

There is great freedom in grabbing your keys, jumping into your car, and driving wherever you want to go.  Nobody wants to think of a day when we might lose that freedom.  But as we age, a time can come to give up those precious keys and rely on others to drive us where we

During your working years you and perhaps your employer made contributions to your retirement account. You learned the benefit of putting your employment income into a 401k so that you would not pay income tax on it while you had earnings from employment. Rather, when you retired, you would then draw on those funds and

I find that most people are already aware of the five year look back period that impacts Medicaid benefits to cover expenses for in-home care, assisted living, or nursing home care.  The Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) must be told about all transfers within five years of applying for benefits that were for

The Department of Health and Human Services (“DHHS”) that processes applications for those who need assistance paying for assisted living or nursing home care has changed the treatment of promissory notes. Formerly, Medicaid-compliant promissory notes were non-countable assets that did not really impact eligibility for benefits.  But now, promissory notes are always going to be:

A Medicaid policy change that could impact many families is proposed to take effect on July 1, 2019.  Here is the scenario.  Mom and dad have three children.  One child has fallen on hard times and needs financial assistance to get back on his feet.  Mom and dad are on a fixed income and have

Years ago brokers, life insurance, and annuity sales people used to aggressively push Medicaid annuities claiming this product would protect your assets if you went to a nursing home.  In almost all cases, this wasn’t true and the State of Michigan took action to shut down this sales practice.  What is a Medicaid Annuity? A