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May 12
Love0

What is the Caretaker Child Exception?

By Uncategorized

Caretaker Child Exception

You can receive Medicaid coverage while still keeping an ownership interest in your home. However, at your death the state will have the right to recover from your probate estate—essentially your home—whatever it pays out for your care. Your home could escape this claim if it were transferred to one or more of your children. A problem with doing this is that under the general transfer penalty rule, you would be ineligible for Medicaid benefits for up to 60 months following the conveyance.

Children who care for their parents can take advantage of provisions in the Medicaid Regulations

The Caretaker Child Exception to the transfer penalty can be a valuable tool to preserve the home of parents.

However, an exception to the transfer penalty allows a Medicaid applicant to transfer his or her home to a qualified caregiver child. The law defines a caregiver-transferee as a child  of the Medicaid applicant “who was residing in the applicant’s…home for a period of at least two years immediately before the date of the applicant’s…admission to the institution, and who (as determined by the DHS) provided care to the applicant…that permitted him or her to reside at home rather than in an institution. “ In order to qualify under this exception, an applicant should be prepared to submit a certification by his or her attending physician which basically states that, but for the caregiver, the applicant would have had to move to a nursing home.

If you can get the necessary certification, and if you would feel comfortable with the property in your caretaker’s name solely, it is recommend that you transfer your interest in your home to your caretaker child. No transfer penalty would be triggered and, in addition, the unit would not be subject to any reimbursement claim by the state. Once the transfer is made, your caretaker child would be free to sell the house or simply rent it out. If you choose to transfer the house to your caretaker child, you should discuss the form of conveyance—trust, life estate, or outright ownership—and the tax consequences to each approach.

If you decide to make the transfer, you will have the option of doing so after you qualify for Medicaid, or before you submit the application. To make the transfer before you have qualified for Medicaid may prolong the application process. For that reason, it may be easier to make the transfer after you have been determined eligible for Medicaid. However, we have submitted applications where the home was transferred before and after and all were approved.

Want to discuss how to take advantage of the Caretaker Child Exception with your family? Call us to schedule a no obligation consultation.

Jan 13
Love0

4 Reasons To NEVER Give Your Home To Your Children

By Uncategorized

Many people plan to continue to live in their home as long as they are able to do so. If they eventually ever have to go to a nursing home, your house and its contents would NOT have to be sold in order to qualify for Medicaid. However, it is still at risk because the state has a right to recover whatever it pays for your care from your probate estate. Your home may be protected from such estate recovery by keeping it out of your probate estate.

The simplest approach to doing so would be to deed it to your children. There are four problems with doing this:

  1. You lose control over your house. Your children now are the tile owners of the home and as such it would be subject to and vulnerable to your children’s debts or if they were sued or divorced.
  2. This would be a transfer which would make you ineligible for Medicaid for the following 60 months.
  3. Your children would lose the opportunity of getting a “step-up” in basis by receiving the property through your estate. Your children would be subject to potential capital gains taxes that could be avoided.
  4. Selling the home later can become problematic. Many clients expect at some point to need to sell their home and possibly downsize. By transferring the home to your children you have added complexity with title issues and taxation issues with any sale.

So how do you keep the house out of  your probate estate so that the state has no access to place a lien on it? How do you ensure your heirs get a stepped-up basis in the house? How should you own the house that allows for a ease of downsizing? There is one SOLUTION: using the Irrevocable Income Only Grantor Trust.

This trust allows you to keep the property out of your children’s hands, allows them to received a step-up in basis, allows you the freedom of selling the property without a hassle, avoids estate recovery and five years after the transfer is completely protected for Medicaid.

Want to lean more? Contact our office for a free consultation.elderly-couple-in-front-of-home-960x683

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