 |
|
|
|
Success Story: Spousal Example John Abernathy, a World War II veteran, was recently admitted to a nursing home. Emotionally, this was a very difficult time for his wife Doris, and their children. In addition, financial pressures were mounting because of the high cost of John’s care. Doris was worried that she might not have enough money to live on, that her life savings would be used up and that there wouldn’t be anything left to pass on to the children. Here are the specifics of their situation:
Initially, the Abernathy’s countable assets exceeded the spousal asset limit by $52,280. We implemented the following strategies to help them to preserve the excess assets: Burial Accounts were set up for both of them - $2500 each for a total of $5,000. Medicaid did not count these burial accounts as assets. Since they still had excess assets of $47,280, they still needed to restructure assets to get below the $92,660 maximum. To do this, CD’s were cashed in and a $48,000 Medicaid Friendly Annuity was purchased. We made Doris’ the owner of the annuity so interest income from the annuity would go to Doris, not the nursing home. Doris is the annuitant and owner, and their children are beneficiaries. Since Doris owns the annuity, there is no “gifting” of assets, thus Medicaid’s “three-year look back” period does not apply to assets placed into the annuity. In a few years, Doris will receive almost all the $48,000 back in the form of a balloon payment. In addition, Doris was allowed to receive a portion of John’s income as “spousal diversion” to allow her meet her monthly expenses. Thus, the Abernathy's were able to accomplish the following:
Needless to say the Abernathy’s were very pleased with the end results. Best of all, Doris is sleeping well these days. |
|
|
How
long will |
Contact:
Bill Ruffing, Medicaid Information Resource |
