Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services Magazine | Page 26

MEDICAID PLANNING
MEDICAID
PLANNING
CAN SAVE YOU THOUSANDS
I
f you are a healthy middle-aged
individual, the last thing on your
mind might be the tremendous cost
of nursing home care. For people no
longer able to care for themselves at
home—and without family members to
intervene—a nursing home may be the best
or only option. But it doesn’t come cheap,
with expenses easily topping one hundred
thousand dollars per year.
To pay for nursing home care, many people
are forced to sacrifice lifelong savings,
spending down money they had planned
to leave for their spouse, children, or other
heirs. A person may only receive Medicaid—
the federal and state government support
program—once personal funds and private
long-term care insurance benefits are
exhausted. Sadly, in the blink of an eye,
families can find themselves falling on
hard times just by taking proper care of
their loved one—a journey that’s stressful
enough in its own right.
There is a solution, however, in the
burgeoning field of Medicaid Planning.
Specialized attorneys—together with
insurance agencies—can develop strategic
plans that preserve a family’s assets while
still providing nursing home care for a
family member. One such plan is the
purchase of a long-term care insurance
policy, which is cheaper to purchase the
younger and healthier you are. The policy
would cover the costs of nursing home care
up to the maximum policy limit, thereby
allowing an individual to keep their assets
while at the same time covering the cost of
care.
Medicaid Planning attorneys can also
help you devise long-term strategies for
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protecting your assets. Under current
regulations, any asset transfer—to your
spouse or children, for example—that has
occurred more than five years ago will not
be considered at the time you apply for
Medicaid. For example, your house can
be protected if you deed it to a relative
more than five years before applying for
Medicaid. Certain income streams—such
as annuities and rental income—could
be considered exempt from your asset
calculation provided they meet certain
actuarial and other considerations. In
general, the more long-term planning
you do, the lower the possibility that your
hard-earned money will be sacrificed to
a nursing home to pay for care. Even if
you failed to plan or a loved one is facing
immediate nursing home admission, some
strategies may be used to save assets. Of
course, these strategies are perfectly legal,
although many attorneys are not familiar
with them.
Whether you are just establishing a career
and family or are well-entrenched in
middle age, it’s never too early to start
thinking about a long-term care plan—
especially if you are already working with
an attorney or insurance agency on another
matter. Both Newby, Lewis, Kaminski
& Jones (www.NLKJ.com) and General
Insurance Services (www.genins.com) have
specialized expertise in long-term care
insurance and Medicaid Planning. Please
feel free to contact us with your questions
or inquire about a private consultation. +
BY: JIM KAMINSKI
MANAGING PARTNER,
NEWBY, LEWIS, KAMINSKI & JONES BY: ANTHONY NOVAK
ASSOCIATE,
NEWBY, LEWIS, KAMINSKI & JONES
Jim Kaminski has a wide range of
experience helping businesses and individual
clients alike. He counsels clients in Medicaid
Planning and transactions related to
Medicaid Planning. He earned the highest
possible Martindale-Hubbell peer review
rating (AV) for legal ability and professional
ethics and has also served on numerous
community boards. Anthony Novak joined the firm in 2014 and
represents a wide range of clients. He is the
Chair of the Lakefront Career Network in
Michigan City, a mentor for Hours for Ours,
and he volunteers as a judge for the La Porte
County Teen Court Program. In 2017, he
was selected as one of NWI Time’s Top 20
Under 40.