A lot of folks, even later in life, will receive an inheritance from a lost uncle, a grandparent, another family member. We see that more than you would think, and unfortunately, some of those folks are in need of long-term care or are in a nursing home.
If you receive an inheritance, and you’re in that situation and working or on Medicaid, the value of that inheritance is exposed to the spend down. I’ll have a lot of situations where folks will say, “Well, no, I received it from my mom. My husband’s sick. It was never his asset. Is it exposed?” And the answer, unfortunately, is yes, if he is in a medical emergency.
We’ll talk about inheritance. We’re kind of becoming a second-generation practice. So we’ve done some planning for mom and dad, and we’re starting to do planning for son and daughter. And we’re starting to mold the plans where mom’s assets go to the daughter in a way that it will not be affected, and that’s usually a trust-to-trust transfer.
So if you work with an advisor that you have a good relationship with, felt did a good job for your parents, they should work with your plan in conjunction with your parents’ plan, and we can keep that inheritance away from Medicaid spend down. If not, and it goes to you as an individual, all bets are off.