Palm Beach, FL Medicaid Planning Attorney

If you’re nearing retirement or are already retired – like many other Palm Beach residents – Medicaid planning should be high on your list of priorities! Medicaid planning is a way for seniors to get legal protections in place to safeguard their hard-earned assets from the costs of long-term care. It can be legally complex, and will potentially have a major effect on your and your family’s financial stability during the golden decades of your life, which is why it is best to work with a Palm Beach Medicaid planning attorneywho can do it for you! 

No one knows what the future will hold. Even if you are in relatively great health now for your age, or think you will have many years to go before you need to start thinking about nursing homes, an unexpected illness or injury could cause you to need care sooner than you think. Medicaid planning needs to happen in advance to be effective, so contact Elder Law, P.A. today to schedule a free consultation and get started! Our law firm is here to give you peace of mind.

Why Is Medicaid Planning So Important?

The average cost of a nursing home in Palm Beach is around $5,000 a month, depending on what nursing home and whether you have a semi-private or private room; residents can expect to pay anywhere from $60,000 to $80,000 or more per year for long-term care. Most seniors don’t realize that nursing homes are so expensive, but what makes the reality even more grave is that nursing home costs are not covered by Medicare; they are also not covered by most private health insurance plans. This essentially leaves seniors with 5 options:

1. Pay for care on their own (which may be fine for seniors with great wealth, but is nearly impossible for many seniors who are on fixed or low incomes). 
2. Deplete their life savings to pay for care (thus depleting their financial security and the inheritance they planned to leave their children). 
3. Become a financial burden on their family who will have to pay for their care if they can’t afford it or take them into their own homes if they can’t pay for care.
4. Go without care. 
5. Qualify for Medicaid, which is a form of government assistance that can pay for care. 

Option 5 is superior for many different reasons, but qualifying for Medicaid can be difficult. The program has strict income/resource requirements and a tedious, extensive application process. Many retirees find themselves in a tough position of having too much wealth to qualify, but not enough to afford a nursing home. That’s why working with a Palm Beach medicaid planning attorney can be enormously beneficial; we can help you understand what options you have to qualify for Medicaid and handle the application for you.

What Does Medicaid Planning Involve?

Medicaid planning involves shielding your assets from Medicaid eligibility by converting them to “non countable” so you and your family can still access them but they won’t prevent you from qualifying! There are many different ways to do this. One of the most popular is to create a Qualified Income Trust, or Miller Trust, to diversify any excess income you have over the program’s limits. This is legal, ethical, and can help your application be accepted.  

Note that Medicaid planning is not simply giving all your assets away to your children; Medicaid has a 5 year “look back” period, and will count any gifting during that time towards your eligibility. 

What Our Knowledgeable Palm Beach Medicaid Planning Attorney Can Do For You

It can be confusing to understand Medicaid’s program requirements and what options you have available to you. Our Palm Beach Medicaid planning lawyer is well-versed in Medicaid law and trust creation; we have worked with hundreds of seniors over the past three decades. You can call Ryan J. Smollar of Elder Law, P.A. today to find out how our firm can protect your legacy! Call now to book a free consultation.