What They Say About Us
Ensure your intended beneficiaries receive the wealth you’ve worked hard to earn — not the state or a nursing facility.
For many older adults, long-term care is a foreseeable event. So, it’s essential to think ahead to protect the assets you intend to leave to your loved ones by considering nursing home and in-home care costs.
Even New Yorkers with substantial income or savings often rely on Medicaid to fund their long-term care — but there is a catch. You must meet the state’s specific monthly income threshold, and your total assets must be below a certain level. Ettinger Law Firm shows you how to qualify by reducing income and assets levels.
If you’re worried about losing your home or life savings to qualify for Medicaid long-term care benefits, the elder law professionals at Ettinger Law Firm can help you create a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT), well as numerous other strategies.
A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is a special irrevocable trust designed to help older adults protect their life savings and assets from being spent down to qualify for Medicaid benefits. Property, investments and other assets are transferred to a MAPT, where you name a trustee, who manages them for your benefit. The trustee cannot be you or your spouse, but many of our clients choose their adult children. You then live off any income from sources outside the trust, such as Social Security and pensions. You can also receive any revenue generated from assets in the trust, such as investment income. Everything in the trust is no longer considered countable for Medicaid eligibility after a set “look-back” period — five years in New York for facility care. there is currently no look-back, however, for home care. While the primary benefit of a MAPT is to enable you to qualify for Medicaid coverage while preserving your estate for your future beneficiaries, this legal arrangement has numerous other advantages:
Ensure your intended beneficiaries receive the wealth you’ve worked hard to earn — not the state or a nursing facility.
You can continue living in your home even if it is placed in the trust.
MAPT assets are not subject to Medicaid estate recovery, which requires states to recover costs for long-term care services after your passing.
Properly structured MAPTs may potentially provide significant tax advantages.
Ettinger Law Firm’s MAPT is the most flexible in the industry, allowing you to keep full control.
Our experienced team is here to guide you through every step of the MAPT process, including:
If you are exploring Medicaid eligibility and asset protection, it’s important to seek advice from a trusted law firm that understands the intricacies of Medicaid and New York estate planning. Ettinger Law Firm is a state’s leader in elder law with over five thousand Medicaid applications filed. For over 35 years, our attorneys have limited our practice to this area of the law, honing our skills to educate our clients, answer their questions, and guide them toward an estate planning option that’s right for their family.
If you think a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is right for you, now is the time to meet with the elder law professionals at Ettinger Law Firm. This type of trust must be created in advance to avoid the Medicaid “look-back” period.
Reach out today for expert assistance in planning your MAPT.
