The trust that Mary sets up could be either revocable or irrevocable. The type of trust that Mary would set up would depend on a number of different circumstances, both personal and financial. An irrevocable trust would afford asset protection with respect to problems the other children may have over the years, including divorces, lawsuits, debt problems and irresponsible behavior. A revocable trust will not offer those protections, but is easier to maintain and administer over the years. Counseling with the family will help determine which way to go here. (more…)
Filed under: Colorado Medicaid, Colorado Trusts by Richard Hughes
2 Comments »
As I mentioned in my previous blog, giving assets away to a trust that you set up for yourself is probably not the way to go in today’s strict Medicaid world. It’s this type of “self-settled” trust that the Medicaid folks are coming down on hard. Instead, give assets away to your children as a group or to your most trusted child and have that child or your children hold the money for your future needs. (more…)
Filed under: Colorado Medicaid, Colorado Trusts by Richard Hughes
No Comments »
As a follow up to my first post, I want to elaborate a bit on what I believe is Medicaid’s position with regard to the use of irrevocable income-only trusts by those folks seeking to protect their assets from nursing homes and Medicaid Estate Recovery in the event of a nursing home stay.
Medicaid allows for the use of income-only irrevocable trusts as a way to shelter assets and as an alternative to outright gifts of assets to children. Therefore, many Coloradans have transferred assets to these trusts with the expectation that the assets transferred would not be considered as available resources when they later apply for Medicaid assistance when a nursing home becomes necessary. Over the last couple of years, however, Medicaid has been much tougher in their review of these trusts before Medicaid is granted to an applicant. Medicaid is now saying that any irrevocable trust that confers any kind of a benefit to the Trustmaker will fail with the result that the assets in the trust will be considered available resources. This will result in the denial of Medicaid benefits because they will be considered “over resourced.” (more…)
Filed under: Colorado Medicaid, Colorado Trusts by Richard Hughes
1 Comment »
My law firm just won an important case in front of Judge C. Jean Stewert in the Denver Probate Court, but the State Medicaid bureaucrats are saying that they don’t care what the court ruled. They’re going to do what they want when it comes to the treatment of irrevocable income-only trusts and an applicant’s attempt to qualify for Medicaid. The case is complicated even to those well-versed in Medicaid law, so I won’t go into the details of the case now but will post the Court documents shortly so you can dig into the details if you choose. The main thrust of this post is to express my frustration with the Medicaid bureaucracy and publicly expose the arrogance they are now exhibiting with regard to their disregard of Court orders. They believe they are above the law and can ignore court orders that attempt to protect our poorer citizens. If you have an interest in seeing how these bureaucrats work the system, stay tuned. More later.
Filed under: Colorado Medicaid, Colorado Trusts by Richard Hughes
No Comments »