Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in New Jersey

Re: nursing home spend down

Beware of trusts that are promoted to shelter your income or assets. There are many trust scams, and even many that are not scams do not provide adequate counseling and tailoring to each persons needs, and therefore are not effective.

Taking actions without the correct legal advice could result in disqualifying a person for a period of years from receiving the nursing home and other assistance they might otherwise have been entitled to.

The laws concerning Medicare/Medicaid are very complicated, and if you need advice in that area, you should consult a qualified elder lawyer in your area. You can find one at: http://www.naela.com/Applications/ConsumerDirectory/index.cfm

If that link does not work for you, just go to http://www.naela.com and look for the link at the upper left of your screen for "Locate an Elder Law Attorney".

Re: nursing home spend down

It seems you may be confused. By proper estate and Medicaid planning, using an irrevocabloe trust to transfer assets to family members who will ultimately inherit your assets anyway, after a period of time (based upon the amount of assets transferred) and subject to the Medicaid "lookback" rules, you may become eligible for Mediciad benefits which might otherwise be denied because you have too much income or assets. This could result in saving the costs of nursing home bills that could be as high as $7,000/month in a good NJ nursing home. The use of a properly drawn trust could also protect your assets from other possible creditors as well. The use of these types of trusts requires proper drafting, planning and a good deal of family involvement, but can accomplish results and conservation of assets that might otherwise be consumed for nursing home costs. Someone like myself, or another attorney familiar with Mediciad rules and the proper use of trusts, should be consulted and conduct a review of your assets, income, needs on a regular basis, etc.