Before we get into asset protection, have you taken a look at the resource limitations that exist in order for your spouse or loved one to qualify for Texas Medicaid nursing home benefits? If you haven’t, I suggest doing so now.

There are two basic categories of Texas Medicaid asset protection. The first kind is advanced planning which is completed five or more years before a nursing home placement is expected. With advanced planning you have many opportunities for protecting your assets that are not available when you are within the 5 year lookback window for penalties. I’ve helped families protect over $1 million in family wealth through advanced planning. If you are already within the five year lookback period or even in a nursing home do not give up hope, you may still have options available to protect a significant portion of assets. Keep reading for more information.

The second kind of asset protection is referred to as crisis planning. Families contact me for crisis planning when there is an unexpected nursing home placement and there are assets at risk of being spent down to the eligibility resource limits. You generally have fewer options in crisis planning, but many families still realize some benefit from the process. The biggest mistake people make in a crisis situation is not getting experienced legal representation. Mistakes in a crisis situation are generally very costly. Even innocent mistakes can result in:

Giving away more money than necessary to the nursing home;
Any number of months of ineligibility for Medicaid benefits which the nursing home will try to collect the unreimbursed bills from your family;
Failing to maximize the benefit your loved one receives from his or her life savings.

Beware of This Common Mistake

All too often a staff member from the nursing home or rehab center will tell someone like yourself, who is dealing with a difficult situation and in a vulnerable position, that all you can do is spend, spend, spend your family’s life savings on nursing home bills and once it is all gone then your loved one can qualify for Medicaid.

That is not good enough for me and I’ve been working for 15 years to prove how wrong that statement is.

If that is not good enough for you also then give me a call and let’s see what we can do to the make the most of the situation.

Examples

Every case is different when it comes to Medicaid eligibility and asset protection, but here are a few examples of the results I have achieved in previous cases. If you would like to see what I can do for you then please contact me to get started. While I do help families throughout the entire state of Texas my office is based in The Woodlands just outside of Houston. If you require a local attorney I cannot help you.

Developed an asset protection plan for a husband that reduced his wife’s nursing home cost from over $5,600 per month down to less than $2,200 per month. That saved him almost $3,500 every month. On top of that I was able to create a strategy to protect over $500,000 in assets for his own use that the HHSC would have required him to spend down. This asset protection was completed during the 5 year lookback period without interfering with his wife’s Medicaid eligibility, in fact it accelerated her eligibility.
Created an asset protection plan for an unmarried mother that protected almost $30,000 in existing assets and preserved over $75,000 in gifts that she had previously made during the 5 year Medicaid lookback. If this family did not come to me when they did and had let her money run out before taking any steps they would have been looking at a Medicaid ineligibility penalty of almost 480 days (over 1 year) and they would not have protected the additional $30,000. This asset protection was completed during the 5 year lookback period .
Created a Medicaid eligibility plan for a married couple that reduced the husband’s cost of nursing home care from $4,290 per month down to $914 per month. This created monthly savings of $3,376. In addition to this monthly savings I designed a strategy to protect over $80,000 in assets for the wife’s use that the HHSC would have required her to spend down. This asset protection was completed during the 5 year lookback period without interfering with her husband’s Medicaid eligibility.
Protected over $12,000 that an unmarried Medicaid applicant wanted to set aside for her descendants. I was able to do this during the 5 year lookback period without interfering with her Medicaid eligibility. In addition to that asset protection, I helped the family avoid a 116 day Medicaid ineligibility penalty for a transaction they previously completed before hiring me.

Remember, I can help protect your assets and qualify for Medicaid anywhere in Texas. One of the most important things to consider in a Medicaid situation is who you are hiring and what they can offer you. Being close and convenient is nice, but if it were me I’m not willing to lose large sums of money just for the sake of having someone close.

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