Edgewater Medicaid Planning Lawyer

Long-term care can be costly as people age, and many families rely on Medicaid to cover these expenses. However, qualifying and applying for benefits can be complex. An Edgewater Medicaid planning lawyer can help you navigate the process, protect your assets, and plan ahead to ensure your estate remains secure.

Without Medicaid, the costs of long-term care and assisted living facilities can drain your life savings, leaving little to nothing for your loved ones to inherit. You may not even be able to pay the entirety of your own care. Medicaid can provide essential financial support, but you must meet the low-income and asset requirements to receive it. A skilled attorney can help.

Medicaid Planning Lawyer in Edgewater

The Preston Law Firm provides compassionate and comprehensive legal services for those planning for long-term care and Medicaid. For more than 35 years, our firm has provided legal support for individuals and families as they manage their finances and their wishes for their estate. Medicaid planning helps families maintain financial stability and get the care they need.

The attorneys at The Preston Law Firm work to provide individualized care to our clients. We can review your finances and your goals for your estate to find the right strategy for protecting your assets.

Understanding Medicaid in Edgewater

Medicaid is a state-provided health insurance and federal program that provides healthcare services for those with low income, are disabled, have children or are responsible for children, or are 65 or older. This healthcare insurance can cover basic medical care services. Individuals in need of long-term care in an assisted living facility or another location may be able to use this coverage to partially or fully fund their care.

However, this support has eligibility limits. If you are expecting to have to move yourself or a loved one into long-term care in the next five to ten years, it’s important to begin planning ahead. Financial restructuring and estate planning tools can help you protect your assets and estate while meeting Medicaid’s income and asset eligibility requirements.

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Qualifications for Medicaid in Florida

To qualify for Medicaid in Florida, you must meet all the following requirements:

1. Be a resident of Florida
2. Be a U.S. citizen, national, legal alien, or permanent resident
3. Be in need of healthcare and insurance assistance
4. Have a financial situation considered low-income or very low-income

You must also meet one of the following criteria:

• You are pregnant
• You are blind
• You have a disability
• You are responsible for a child 18 or younger
• You have a family member in your household with a disability
• You are 65 or older

In order to be considered in need of assistance and have a low income, you must meet income limit requirements. In Florida in 2024, the income limit to qualify for Medicaid is $20,030 per year before taxes for one-person households. This limit increases to $27,186 for two-person households. There are also asset limits for eligibility, although not all assets count towards this determination.

Specific Medicaid services may also have unique eligibility requirements, including long-term care programs. An experienced attorney will be able to review your unique circumstances to determine how to properly plan for eligibility.

Planning Ahead for Medicaid Eligibility

Ideally, you want to plan several years in advance to qualify for Medicaid. If you wait until you or a loved one needs to enter long-term care, you will have to pay for the costs out of pocket or through your existing healthcare coverage. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to recover those costs when you do qualify for Medicaid.

By planning ahead, you can protect those assets through methods such as buying exempt assets or giving assets to loved ones. This protects your wealth and allows you to benefit from it while still qualifying for needed insurance benefits.

Common Strategies for Medicaid Planning

Several potential strategies can protect your assets and enable you to continue receiving Medicaid. Some common strategies and tools include:

Irrevocable Trusts

Creating irrevocable trusts is one of the most effective ways to protect your assets and ensure they benefit your loved ones and still qualify for Medicaid. A trust is a private legal entity that can hold assets and is commonly used in estate planning. When you die, the trust remains in the legal care of the trustee, so it does not belong to state jurisdiction.

A trust is irrevocable when it cannot be updated or modified by you, the grantor unless you have permission from all the beneficiaries and the trustee. Beneficiaries in a trust are individuals or entities who are named to inherit the assets held in the trust. Because you have no control over the assets, and they are under the management of your trustee, they don’t count towards your asset limit.

There are several forms that an irrevocable trust may take to help with Medicaid financial planning. A qualified income trust can be used to pay certain bills without counting towards your assets, and a funeral trust can set funds aside to pay for your funeral, burial, or cremation costs.

Spending Down

Spending down refers to different methods of lowering your assets until you meet the Medicaid qualifications. This may include purchasing assets that are exempt from the asset eligibility process, paying your expenses and bills, paying off debts, and paying for other services that benefit your estate and don’t affect your asset limit, such as home improvements.

Gift Assets

Giving assets to your loved ones, heirs, and beneficiaries can help you lower the countable assets you own. It’s important to do this early to avoid penalties.

Spousal Waiver

Transferring assets to a spouse not receiving long-term care, who then declines to pay for care, can exempt those assets from Medicaid eligibility calculations.

Other strategies include converting assets into income-producing resources, purchasing long-term care insurance, or creating caregiver or personal service agreements. When using methods like setting up trusts or gifting assets, it’s crucial to consider Medicaid’s five-year look-back period to avoid penalties.

The Importance of the Medicaid Look-Back Period

Planning years in advance is crucial. The Medicaid look-back period means you may be ineligible for Medicaid if you transferred assets within five years prior to applying. This five-year period is important to consider, as you want to ensure transfers occur at least five years prior to your Medicaid application. An attorney can help you plan ahead.

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Protecting Your Estate Ahead of Time

It can be complex to navigate the Medicaid requirements with your own financial stability and personal well-being. The Preston Law Firm can help you navigate each part of this process and enable you to protect your estate. Contact our firm today.