What are your care plan options?
Whether you can’t qualify for long term care insurance because of health issues or just doesn’t fit your budget, doesn’t mean you have no options. If you fall into this category, coming up with a plan to protect most or all of your assets will benefit you and your loved ones if you should need assistance with a long term care need.
If you have too many assets/income to qualify for assistance, but you don’t have enough money to pay the long term care bill, you should work with a professional to craft a plan. The alternative would be to spend everything until you qualify for medicaid, which in most states usually means you can only have about $2,000 in assets and keep about $60/mo of income (for an individual – married couples can usually keep a little more assets and income). This forces you to sacrifice the majority or all of your assets/income may leave your spouse and any dependents destitute. You may also lose the freedom to choose where you’d like to receive your care, and possibly the type.
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Asset protection planning
“Protect your money from nursing home spend down”
- Asset protection planning will generally help you prepare if you should need to go into a nursing home and, depending on the state, can help you qualify for some assistance with an assisted living community voucher or personal care home.
- Usually this involves utilizing trusts and sometimes other legal documents that have provisions within them that can help shelter assets after a lookback period if prepared properly.
- Even if you have long term care insurance, it doesn’t dismiss the fact that you still need a sound estate plan. Long term care insurance can give you more control on where, how, level of care you get, but a proper estate plan will make sure your hard-earned assets you protected will pass properly to your heirs.