Long-term care costs can overwhelm even those seniors who otherwise feel financially secure. At Harrison & Johnston, we develop thoughtful and proactive Medicaid pre-planning strategies designed to shield our clients from financial catastrophe while ensuring that they get the long-term care they need.
A Secure Tomorrow Can Depend On What You Do Today
If you are like most folks, you’ve spent some time planning for retirement. You have invested, saved, put money into a 401(k) or IRA, and worked with a skilled estate planning and asset protection lawyer to ensure you have financial security and the ability to enjoy your golden years the way you want and deserve.
But all of that planning, hard work, and dreams for your future can be for naught if you or your spouse gets sick and needs long-term care. The harsh reality is that nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other comprehensive care can easily cost between $6,500 - $10,000 a month – for years on end. That is your retirement savings. That is the money that your spouse needs to live on. That is the money you planned to pass on to your children. That is your financial legacy, wiped out by the cost of your care.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
Securing Long-Term Care While Preserving Your Hard-Earned Assets
Medicaid pre-planning can preserve your assets and allow you to use them as you always wanted while ensuring that you get the help you need. By taking the same thoughtful and proactive approach to planning for long-term care as you did preparing for retirement, you will provide yourself and your loved ones with invaluable peace of mind.
But qualifying for Medicaid when you are financially stable can’t be done overnight, nor is it something you can or should try to do on your own. Medicaid pre-planning is complicated and fraught with the potential for missteps that could delay your eligibility or threaten your ability to receive benefits altogether.
The Elder Law attorneys of Harrison & Johnson understand the critical importance of Medicaid pre-planning and work closely with seniors throughout the Shenandoah Valley to craft sound, workable, and effective strategies designed to protect their health, their well-being, and their lifetime of hard work
What Is Medicaid Pre-Planning?
Medicaid is a federal and state government program that, for eligible individuals, kicks in when Medicare stops paying for custodial expenses and long-term care costs.
Medicaid pre-planning is how financially stable people who have a steady income stream, a home, and a solid net worth can protect themselves and still qualify for Medicaid benefits. The whole point of Medicaid pre-planning is to structure your assets in such a way that you can exclude them from the calculations involved in determining Medicaid eligibility so you can preserve those assets for yourself, your spouse, and your further heirs.
There is a wide range of ways to modify your portfolio to qualify for Medicaid. But there are strict rules about how and, critically, when you can transfer your assets. You can’t just transfer or give them away without value, and you can’t move assets on Thursday and apply for Medicaid on Friday. If you do so, you could lose your Medicaid eligibility.
