How Can I Protect My Assets from Nursing Home Costs?

Your medical condition may get serious enough that you require round-the-clock healthcare and assistance with daily activities. And so, entering a nursing home facility may become necessary. Your one concern with this, though, is that your saved assets may rapidly deplete, and that you may be left with nothing to include in your estate plan for your desired beneficiaries. With these considerations in mind, please follow along to find out how to protect your assets from the cost of your nursing home care and how one of the proficient Putnam County assets preservation attorneys at the Law Office of Andres D. Gil, PLLC, can help you come up with a plan.

How much will my nursing home care cost me?

Before you enroll as a nursing home facility resident, you should be well educated on its expenses. For New York State northern metropolitan counties, including Putnam County, the average nursing home rate in 2024 was estimated at $466 per day, which means $169,980 annually.

The cost may be lower or higher, given the specific facility, but still, this is a considerable number to consider. This is because this rate may only consider the cost of your room and board, nursing care, and personal care assistance. But this may not take into account your other medical expenses that may arise throughout the year, such as your emergency hospital visits, routine appointments with your treating physician, prescription medications and handicap-assistive devices, and much more.

How can I protect my assets from my nursing home costs?

Considering these anticipated expenses, you must be proactive in taking measures to protect your assets. For one, you may opt into long-term care insurance. With this insurance type, you may pay monthly premiums so that a portion of your nursing home care expenses and other medical expenses can be covered.

Or, more popularly, you may establish a Medicaid asset protection trust. This is a type of irrevocable trust in which you transfer your ownership rights of certain assets. By doing so, you may reduce your countable assets and susbequently qualify for the Medicaid program.

An important element to this, though, is that this transfer should happen more than five years before you submit a Medicaid application. This is because of the look-back period, in which an evaluator may investigate any transfers, gifts, or sales you made in the past five years. Otherwise, your eligibility may be deferred for a certain amount of time, based on the amount of transferred assets compared to the calculated average cost of a nursing home stay.

Another tactic to reduce your countable assets is paying a Medicaid Compliant Annuity, a type of single premium immediate annuity that essentially converts your assets into a stream of income. Similarly, these annuities are irrevocable. But dissimilar an irrevocable trust, you must name the state Medicaid agency as the designated beneficiary. This is in addition to making fixed and equal payments over a term that is equal to or less than your Medicaid life expectancy.

We understand just how overwhelming all of this can be for you. So, if you have any remaining questions, please consult with a talented Putnam County Medicaid planning attorney. The team at the Law Office of Andres D. Gil, PLLC, is willing and able to provide you with legal assistance in any capacity.