Your potential need for long-term care is real. And if you end up needing a nursing home stay or some other form of long-term care, you’re bound to incur significant costs that can quickly erode the wealth that you’ve worked hard to accumulate. As a result, you might be left with little to leave to your loved ones, which can disrupt your vision of the future.
Although that can be incredibly worrisome, you don’t have to let it get to that point. Instead, you can engage in careful nursing home, estate, and Medicaid planning to ensure that you can acquire the care you need while still protecting a significant portion of your estate.
Tips for long-term care planning
There are several ways to protect your assets while still securing the long-term care you need. This can include reducing your assets to ensure that you qualify for Medicaid benefits.
By doing so, the government will pick up the tab for most of your healthcare expenses. Here are some ways to protect your assets while still qualifying for these benefits:
- Gift asset to loved ones in accordance with the IRS’s yearly limitations.
- Use your existing funds to invest in exempt property, such as by remodeling your primary residence.
- Buy a new vehicle that you or your spouse will drive.
- Purchase non-countable assets like home furnishings.
- Pay off debt.
- Buy a burial plot.
- Pay for funeral expenses in advance.
- Purchase an annuity.
- Utilize a trust that shields your estate’s assets.
Develop the estate plan that’s best for you
If you want a comprehensive estate plan, then you have to take potential long-term care needs into account. So, as you ready yourself to create or modify your estate plan, think through your best options for protecting your interests in long-term care while salvaging your assets for the future of your loved ones.
