Medicaid

Post-mortem flexibility is imperative for Elder Law practitioners and their clients. Careful attention must be given to potential income, estate and gift tax issues and potential disqualifying transfers for Medicaid. What is favorable from…

The importance of elder law planning has grown as the costs of long-term health care continue to spiral out of control and insurance companies continue to cover fewer and fewer of these needs. Failure to plan ahead may mean the loss of…

There is considerable confusion as to the difference between the lookback and the penalty. Under HCFA Transmittal 64 § 3258.4, the lookback date is defined as “the earliest date on which a penalty for transferring assets for less than fair…

The Medicaid penalty for transferring assets is a period of ineligibility and is imposed only for the uncompensated value of a transfer. Therefore, if assets are transferred to a third party, but full value is received in exchange for the…

Parents' desire to control the way their child spends his inheritance is not new, and the resulting complications of this endeavor are evidenced throughout literature and history. A popular Bible story, that of Cain and his brother Abel,…

A Special Needs Trust (SNT) is a trust that is used to manage property for the benefit of a disabled individual. A SNT is a third party created SNTs when it is funded with the assets of a third party for the benefit of a disabled person.