Spousal impoverishment is a concern for married couples when one spouse needs long-term care and applies for Medicaid. If one spouse requires care in a skilled nursing facility and the other remains at home, the spouse at home (the “Community Spouse”) might face significant financial hardships. The cost of long term care in Pennsylvania is soaring, with monthly expenses ranging from $10,000.00 to $15,000.00, or $120,000 – $180,000 on an annual basis. The high cost of nursing homes combined with Medicaid’s strict income and asset requirements risk leaving the Community Spouse with little income ..read more

If you want to make sure that your or your family member’s assets can be protected from a potential future need for long-term nursing care, you or your loved one must sign a “Medicaid Planning Compliant” General Power of Attorney document (“MCPOA”).  The MCPOA will serve to allow you to appoint an Agent who has the necessary authority to enter into proper Medicaid asset protection planning should you become incapacitated or otherwise unable to act for yourself. As an estate planning and elder law attorney with twenty-six (26) years of experience, I have had the opportunity to meet with ma ..read more

How to Navigate the The Non-Legal Side of Elder Law Planning Long Term care planning and management is a labyrinth. It is full of a multitude of complicated moving pieces – care facilities, Medicaid, Medicare, doctor’s appointments, mental health and wellness, asset protection planning, and other legal issues that impact seniors. Our Unruh, Turner, Burke & Frees Elder Law Solutions Ⓡ   team of attorneys and support staff has over 55 years of combined experience in all matters related to estate planning and asset protection, often helping families protect hundreds of thousands of ..read more

Even if you no longer feel like a spring chicken, there are a number of tax benefits available to seniors that may help to increase your nest egg for retirement! We have rounded up a list of some of the best tax benefits available to seniors in 2022. If you aren’t already taking advantage of these great perks, you may want to seriously consider doing so. 401(k) Catch-up Contributions If you are over 50 and have access to a 401(k) plan, you can defer paying income tax on $6,500.00 more than younger workers, or a total of $27,000.00 for 2022. This would amount to approximately $1,500.00 in savin ..read more

Medicaid imposes strict rules on how much money and assets an applicant can have. To qualify for Medicaid, you must fall under the asset limit, which is $2,000 in most states. Even with greater than $2,000 in assets, however, you may be able to get on Medicaid by establishing a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT). When you put your assets in a MAPT, Medicaid will not count the money in the trust toward its resource limit. Using Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts to Transfer Assets After you create a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, you no longer own the assets within it, allowing you to quali ..read more

DO NOT SKIP THIS OPPORTUNITY TO REVIEW YOUR OPTIONS! Medicare serves nearly 63 million beneficiaries in the US, providing critical access to health care services and financial security for the nation’s seniors, people with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease. Medicare open enrollment takes place each fall, and it is the time that Medicare plan enrollees can reevaluate their existing Medicare coverage and make changes if they would like to do so. Open enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7 in 2022. WHAT PLAN CHANGES CAN YOU MAKE DURING THE MEDICARE OPEN ENROLLMENT ..read more

Are You or a Loved One Over 65 and Concerned About The Extremely High (And Rising) Cost of Nursing Home or In Home Elder Care? With Long Term Care Costs at $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 Dollars PER MONTH (Or More) Are You Worried That the Assets You Worked Hard to Build and to Protect Will Be Depleted Rather Than Passed on to a Spouse, Children or Grandchildren? Are you confused about “elder law,” asset protection trusts, Medicaid advance and emergency planning, and the process of trying to protect those assets for your family? If so, we have good news – and can help to stop the confusion and start ..read more

The Medicaid Asset protection Trust (“MAPT”) is a staple component of the elder law planning process for those who want to make sure to protect and preserve family assets. In particular, clients who want to protect their home from the ever-rising cost of long term nursing care will transfer their primary residence (the “Home”) into a MAPT.  The MAPT commonly serves to appoint one of the client’s children or family members to act as the trustee.  Once the Home is transferred to the MAPT, the question of who will be responsible for paying all of the taxes and expenses related to the Ho ..read more

Are you confused and worried about nursing home spending?  You are not alone! When it comes to the topic of long term care costs, there is a lot of inaccurate information floating around that can lead to misunderstanding and sometimes even panic. With the cost of long term care continuing to increase and currently averaging over $10,000.00 a month in Pennsylvania, it is no wonder that this topic causes such anxiety.  Many elderly Pennsylvanians rely on long term care assistance to meet this increasingly expensive obligation.  The primary assistance resource for most is Medicaid ..read more

There are ways to protect your home from being lost to the rising costs of Nursing home care. By: Douglas L. Kaune, Esquire. One of the greatest fears that spurs clients to do Nursing Home and Medicaid qualification planning is that their home will have to be sold and the proceeds will be spent on long term care. Fortunately, there are several planning options available to protect the family home. Some of these planning options require advanced planning, but others utilize exceptions to the general Medicaid qualification rules that many are not aware exist. Check out this recently posted UTBF ..read more