Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

No, you cannot evade Medi-Cal reimbursement rules by giving away the recipient's assets, regardless of whether they are property or cash or something else. In fact it is a crime to try to evade Medi-Cal reimbursements in some cases. You need to talk to an estate planning lawyer in person right away and come up with a plan. If you have the good sense and/or luck to be holding title as joint tenants, I believe the property will escape Medi-Cal claims when he dies. Otherwise you need in person legal help with this.

It may be possible under the circumstances to shelter the Medi-Cal recipient's property. The means of doing so is the creation of an irrevocable trust into which the one-third interest in the property would be transferred, either by an agent under the recipient's DPOA (if the DPOA authorizes the gifting of assets) or perhaps under a substituted judgment order granted by the court in a conservatorship action. Then, the real property could be sold, and the proceeds of the sale payable to the irrevocable trust won't be counted as property owned by the Medi-Cal recipient and he will not be disqualified for Medi-Cal, and the proceeds of the sale will not be subject to Medi-Cal's estate recovery claim. While there are some factors that may prevent this from working, this can work.