Nursing homes don't take the assets of people who move into them. However, nursing care can be expensive and paying for the costs may require you to spend your income. However, nursing care can be costly and paying for the costs may require you to spend your income, take advantage of your savings and even liquidate your assets. The simple answer is that there is no simple answer.
It depends on how you finance your retirement care, whether or not it's a primary residence, and whether someone is still living in the home or not.
The five-year rule is a retrospective regulation that applies to Medicaid applicants, not to people entering a nursing home.
When applying for Medicaid, there is a question on the application that asks if any assets have been transferred in the past five years. If so, this could result in ineligibility for Medicaid for a specific period of time, ranging from more than five years to less than five years. Therefore, it is possible to transfer assets before entering a nursing home, even if it's within the five-year period prior to applying for Medicaid.These modern policies are designed to cover the costs associated with in-home care, adult foster care, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes, allowing people to receive the help they need while remaining in their preferred environment. However, in most cases, clients waiting to request assistance in a nursing home have already lost some of the options that would have been available if they had sought counseling earlier. This process is known as asset recovery and can result in the loss of many assets that would have been passed on to future generations, including family housing. Available assets include IRAs, 401 (k), pension funds, bonds, vehicles, investment properties and second homes. However, certain annuities that meet Medicaid requirements and that are purchased after entering a nursing home as part of a comprehensive asset protection plan can continue to be effective planning tools.
If you want to ensure that your loved ones receive part of your legacy, you can donate money or assets to them before they go to a nursing home. The idea that the government or a nursing home seizes assets is just one of several misconceptions about paying for long-term care. Nobody “takes the patient's assets; the nursing home simply requires payment for its services if the patient intends to reside in the nursing home. This means that a person's income and assets must first be used to pay for care before they can apply for public assistance.
Even if both spouses are in a nursing home or if a single person is in a nursing home, it's still possible to protect a significant portion of the assets. We assist clients at all stages of the planning and treatment process for long-term care and other problems related to the final stage of life. A planning question that many seniors have when considering moving to a retirement home or assisted living community is whether they should sell the properties they own, including their primary residences, vacation homes, or investment properties. Generally speaking, in the United States, it is illegal to use public assistance to pay for long-term care until all of the private remedies of the person in need of care have been exhausted.
