Protect your home and savings from the cost of long-term care.
Nursing home care on Long Island often costs more than $15,000 a month. With the right planning, you don't have to lose everything you've worked for to pay for it.
"I don't want my house and my savings going to a nursing home."
Medicaid will pay for long-term care, but only after most of your savings are gone. Without planning, many families spend down a lifetime of savings in a few years, and the house can be at risk as well.
New York law allows you to plan for this. The key is to plan early, and to plan correctly. I've been doing this work for decades, and I'll tell you plainly what can be protected and how.
Elder law and Medicaid services
Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts
An irrevocable trust that holds your home and savings so they are not counted by Medicaid once the five-year look-back has passed. You can keep living in your home.
Protecting the Family Home
Strategies to keep the house in the family and protect it from Medicaid estate recovery, while keeping important tax benefits in place.
Planning for a Spouse at Home
When one spouse needs care, the other still needs to live. I plan to protect the healthy spouse's income, savings, and home.
Nursing Home Medicaid Applications
Essentially a five-year audit of your finances. I handle it from beginning to end: gathering records, preparing and filing, and answering the agency.
Home Care & Community Medicaid
Help qualifying for Medicaid-covered care at home, so a parent or spouse can stay where they are most comfortable. Right now there is no look-back penalty for home care.
Powers of Attorney & Health Care Proxies
Documents drafted with the right authority, including gifting powers, so your family can act for you and carry out your plan if you can't.
Planning ahead, or care needed now
Planning ahead
If you're healthy today, this is the best time to act. A Medicaid asset protection trust put in place now can fully protect your home and savings once five years have passed. Many clients do this in their sixties and seventies, alongside their wills.
When care is needed now
If a parent or spouse is entering a nursing home or needs care at home, it is not too late to call. There are often steps that can still protect part of the savings, and I'll handle the Medicaid application so your family can focus on the person who needs you.
I handle the application from beginning to end.
Many families are understandably afraid to do a Medicaid application themselves, and those who try often end up frustrated with the process. For nursing home Medicaid, the application is essentially a five-year audit of the applicant's finances. Every account, every large deposit, and every withdrawal has to be documented and explained.
It takes time, patience, and knowing exactly what the agency will ask for. I take that off your hands.
- I tell you exactly what's needed, so you're not guessing
- I gather and organize five years of records, and review them before the agency does
- I prepare and file the application and answer the agency's follow-up requests
- I stay with it until there's a decision, so your family can focus on the person who needs care
Medicaid planning questions
What is the five-year look-back?
When you apply for nursing home Medicaid in New York, the state reviews any transfers you made during the previous five years. Gifts or transfers made during that period can delay eligibility. Assets transferred to a properly drafted trust more than five years before applying are generally protected.
Can I still live in my house if it's in a trust?
Yes. With a Medicaid asset protection trust you can continue to live in your home for the rest of your life, and in most cases you keep your property tax exemptions.
Do I lose control of my money?
You give up direct ownership of what goes into the trust, which is what makes it protected. A trusted family member usually serves as trustee, and the trust can be written so you still receive the income. I'll explain exactly what changes and what doesn't.
Is there a look-back for home care?
Not right now. New York changed the law to add a 30-month look-back for home care Medicaid, but the state has not implemented it yet, so there is currently no penalty period for transfers when applying for home care. That could change, which is another reason to plan now.
My mother can't leave the house. Can you come to her?
Yes. I regularly meet clients at home, and I'll go to a nursing home or hospital when that's where the client is. Documents can be reviewed and signed there as well.
Can I do the Medicaid application myself?
You can, but it's a lot of work. A nursing home application requires five years of financial records, and missing or unexplained items can cause delays or denials. Most families find it's worth having me handle it from beginning to end.
Why not just give everything to my children?
Outright gifts can create problems: they start the look-back clock without the protections of a trust, they expose your savings to your children's creditors or divorces, and they can cost your family valuable tax benefits. A trust is usually the safer route.