My Mom is in the early/medium stages of dementia. She's doing ok now with a caregiver coming into her home, but I know her care needs will increase in the future, as they did with my Grandma.
We consulted with a lawyer who suggested putting a lot of her money (but not all) in this irrevocable fund - where you can't get to it only in certain circumstances - and when it's been in this fund for 5 years then the government can't get to it and she can go on Medicaid.
Has anyone every regretted doing this?
- like is it a trust being created that’s irrevocable & if so what kind of trust..... like a special needs trust for you or another type of trust? And just who is the trustee and under whose management for the trust?
or
- is it being put into some sort of insurance (touted as a financial instrument) like an annuity- that’s irrevocable & if so irrevocable as to what... like for beneficiaries named, or as to how income paid from it, or like to the surrender terms....
To me (& not to sound all Empress Igloo), to do a real true trust you need real $ like high 6 figures ($ 800,000K) to 1M to do one. Trusts don’t exist in a vacuum, they have costs to exist. To make this work you have to have other things titled to the trust that produces income - like stocks, other investments- so there’s an income stream to support the trust costs - like property placed into trust - and the $ the trust pays to you. Better FAs in my experience don’t even consider trusts unless there’s real $ to start one. Do you have that type of $ or are you more having $75k - $250k in assets?
Would $ moved be Medicaid “eligible” OR Medicaid “compliant”??
Huge, HUGE important difference between these & what it means.
Was this idea presented to you at some sort of sort of informational lunch or dinner by an elder care “advisor” and you’ve gotten contacted about doing “irrevocable” as a follow up??
Nice, but if mom has funds for her own care, isn't that what her money is for?
And laws could change, maybe to seven years, maybe 10 years.