Can anyone get in a nursing home?

The rich never seem to worry about divesting their funds; never feel guilty about distribution of their dough. Maybe that's why we are not rich; squabbling over the moral way to hide a measly couple of hundred thousand bucks, keeping the high moral road. Ridiculous.
 

Pepper said:
The rich never seem to worry about divesting their funds; never feel guilty about distribution of their dough. Maybe that's why we are not rich; squabbling over the moral way to hide a measly couple of hundred thousand bucks, keeping the high moral road. Ridiculous.
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I've never known anyone to whom a "couple of hundred thousand bucks" was considered "measly".... ;)
 
officerripley said:
I understand that, but transferring your assets is not illegal. If you do it more than 5 years prior to applying for Medicaid, there's really nothing anyone can do.

There's no law that says you have to tell your children that you opened bank accounts in their names and put a large sums of money in them.

As I said before.... if you do that more than five years before applying for Medicaid, there's nothing they can do. The rule is... any assets transferred to the ownership of another, five years or more prior to applying for Medicaid, are untouchable.

If on the other hand, you knew that you were going to be applying for Medicaid in a short period of time, then attempted to hide your assets and deny that you had ever owned them, that could be construed as attempting to defraud.
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Would this be wise to transfer all your assets to offspring before spending your 99 days of medicare nursing home care?
 
Jim W. said:
If a person has half a million socked away, that's certainly getting up into the territory where I would not support them divesting those assets (or all of them anyway) to protect them from Medicaid. But if someone had 100k or 150k saved and wanted to protect say 2/3 of it so their kids/grandkids could benefit, I have no problem with it.

Again.... for-profit nursing homes charge huge amounts of money while cutting every corner they can and deliver substandard care. That's not fair either.

My mom paid $50,000 for her six months of self-pay before she passed away.

She got the same level of care as the Medicaid residents.
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"But if someone had 100k or 150k saved and wanted to protect say 2/3 of it so their kids/grandkids could benefit, I have no problem with it."

Well I have to say I disagree, IMO spend your money on your needs, not hand it off to your kids so they can buy something fancy , etc. Let them make their own ........ like you did.

Put it in your will for them, if it's there ? then it's there........if not ? Oh well.

But hiding it , moving it, then asking tax payers for theirs ? No!
 
Buckeye said:
{sigh} It isn't about a "moral high horse". It's about expecting the other tax payers to take care of you when you have the means to take care of yourself.
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The über wealthy legally get out of paying their fair share of taxes due to the capital gains loopholes in the tax code. If one wanted to, one could pay an attorney to LEGALLY avoid being exempted from Medicaid through setting up a trust.

The only difference in what I was talking about, was anticipating when one doesn't have too many more years left before likely having to enter a nursing home, and LEGALLY transferring their assets more than 5 years prior to applying for Medicaid.

If it's OK for billionaires to use every legal means at their disposal to avoid paying taxes, then why would it not be OK for a person of more modest means to use every means at their disposal to minimize their financial burden for nursing home care?

As long as it is done legally, there is no shame in it AFAIC.
 
rgp said:
"But if someone had 100k or 150k saved and wanted to protect say 2/3 of it so their kids/grandkids could benefit, I have no problem with it."

Well I have to say I disagree, IMO spend your money on your needs, not hand it off to your kids so they can buy something fancy , etc. Let them make their own ........ like you did.

Put it in your will for them, if it's there ? then it's there........if not ? Oh well.

But hiding it , moving it, then asking tax payers for theirs ? No!
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A lot of people leave money to their kids so the grandkids can go to college and not start out life drowning in student loan debt, etc.

There is nothing wrong with trying to make the lives of your children and grandchildren a little better as long as it is done within the law. And the law says 5 years. Any asset transfers done 5 years or more prior to applying for Medicaid are not countable.

Simple as that.

But hey, it's a free country so you do with your money what you feel is right.
 
Jim W. said:
A lot of people leave money to their kids so the grandkids can go to college and not start out life drowning in student loan debt, etc.

There is nothing wrong with trying to make the lives of your children and grandchildren a little better as long as it is done within the law. And the law says 5 years. Any asset transfers done 5 years or more prior to applying for Medicaid are not countable.

Simple as that.

But hey, it's a free country so you do with your money what you feel is right.
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If only it were so... The government takes my money to pay for your nursing home expenses. And that ain't right.
 
PamfromTx said:
Being that I was the daughter who lived quite a ways from where my mother was living; I had no say when my sisters decided to place Mom in a nursing home. @terry123 , you made a point by saying that one has to find a decent nursing home that takes Medicaid. The nursing home where Mom was placed is the ONLY home there and it is a horrible place. Nothing decent about it. I reported them to the State three times ... to no avail. Many incidents happened to my mom while there.

I am thankful that she is no longer suffering.

But, they sure did take her pitiful pension check. I hope I die before going into a nursing home.
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officerripley said:
No law about that maybe but most banks have a policy that the person you're either adding to an existing account or setting up an account solely for have to go into the bank in person:

https://www.wellsfargo.com/help/online-banking/profile-faqs/#:~:text=To add an owner or,will update your signature card. (Click on the 3rd plus sign down if need be.)

So as to not bog down this reply with oodles of links but BofA and Citibank are the same; it appears that Chase bank may be the only large bank that doesn't require the presence at a branch of the one being added.
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I don't know of any bank in the States that would not require a signature on file for the owner of a bank account.
 
Jim W. said:
You could probably put bank accounts in your kids' names without telling them about it. Have all the monthly bank statements and 1099 IRS forms sent to your house and pay any taxes on owed on the interest.
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Maybe I'm missing something here, but why would anyone open a bank account in their kids' names without telling them about it? Why not just give them a gift of the money here and now, if you're that worried about your family losing it to a nursing home?

Not that I'm recommending that. I agree with those who have said it is sneaky and immoral, even if not illegal. But at least you're not sneaking the money into a special account that you are using as a kind of tax shelter, you're just giving your children a gift.
 
Sunny said:
Maybe I'm missing something here, but why would anyone open a bank account in their kids' names without telling them about it? Why not just give them a gift of the money here and now, if you're that worried about your family losing it to a nursing home?

Not that I'm recommending that. I agree with those who have said it is sneaky and immoral, even if not illegal. But at least you're not sneaking the money into a special account that you are using as a kind of tax shelter, you're just giving your children a gift.
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Another poster was talking about divesting assets by putting them in the kids' names, but added that it would depend on whether or not you could trust your kids not withdraw the money and waste it junk.

I replied by saying maybe you could put it in their names without them knowing about it.

Again... I see nothing sneaky or immoral about it since it can be done LEGALLY by going to a lawyer and setting up a trust fund that is not countable assets by Medicaid.

All you'd really in effect, be doing in the scenario I posed, is denying some lawyer a hefty fee.

And who has ever felt bad about denying a lawyer money?
 
I wonder, if you open a bank account in your kid's name without the "kid" knowing about it, wouldn't they be obligated to pay taxes on that money? But if they didn't know about the account, how would that work?

That whole idea sounds like a can of worms to me.
 
Sunny said:
I wonder, if you open a bank account in your kid's name without the "kid" knowing about it, wouldn't they be obligated to pay taxes on that money? But if they didn't know about the account, how would that work?

That whole idea sounds like a can of worms to me.
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If you have all the documentation sent to your house, you can pay the taxes on it.

My mom put my name on a CD and we both got 1099 (IRS interest) statements. I claimed the interest on my taxes and they were fine with it.

I even called the IRS Customer Service line and made sure first.
 
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