As part of a good estate plan, most people also do an incapacity plan, so that someone else can manage their affairs if they ever become incompetent
A major component of some incapacity plans is a trust, which many people think of as simply an estate plan.
In addition to the savings in state estate taxes in estates (See Part I) where a couple has assets that total more than a million dollars, including their home, their life insurance, and their retirement assets, if a couple either has no estate plan at all, or has a simple will based estate p
It can be important to complete a Medicaid application, and to provide all supporting paperwork, have any needed Income Cap Trust in place, and the like before the end of a month.
It is not uncommon for people to buy a house together with an elderly relative.
Generally, it is very difficult to move forward with health care if a person is no longer able to direct their own health care if there is not a valid Advance Directive for Health Care in place.
In some circumstances, a Medicaid recipient, or even a person who is planning to make a Medicaid application, may be able to transfer their home to children who lived in the home with them for a certain period, and who provided a certain level of care during that period.
In some circumstances, contacting Medicaid can start time clocks running.
In other cases, contacting Medicaid can stop a time clock.
In general terms, Medicaid expects that a person who provides care for a relative does so for love and affection, and without the expectation of pay, either at the time of service or in the future.
Sometimes people put off applying for Medicaid far longer than they should.
This can result in far more money being spent paying for long term care privately than was necessary, if Medicaid could have stepped in earlier.
While it can be very unfortunate to wait too long to apply for Medicaid, possibly losing benefits that might have been available, and possibly losing money that did not need to be spent on care costs that could have been paid by Medicaid if an application had been made at the correct time, it