Under Oklahoma law, you cannot give away your assets for free or for less than fair market value within five years of applying for Medicaid. If you need assistance to pay for your long-term care or nursing home expenses and apply for Medicaid, you must not have transferred any assets for less than fair market value in the preceding 60 months or five years.
How Can Someone Initiate Medicaid Planning In Oklahoma?
Medicaid planning is important to keep on the horizon. Obviously, you don’t want to wait until an event or a medical event is upon you because of that five-year lookback period. There is no right age, but based on different health challenges that people face, I encourage people even as young as 50 years old to just consider it, to have the conversation, to start preparing, even if it’s just a conversation with their spouse. Medicaid planning is the best way to protect the estate you’ve spent your life building from various challenges that face it.
Does My Spouse Have To Lose Everything Too If I Am Going To A Nursing Home?
It depends on the type of the assets, but in general, a spouse will lose a significant portion of the marital assets when their partner requires long-term care. Under Medicaid law, a healthy spouse may be required to spend down a significant portion of their own estate assets, including the assets of their ill spouse.
What Estate Planning Tools Are Useful When It Comes To Medicaid Planning In Oklahoma?
The irrevocable trust is the most important tool for estate planning. It can also be referred to as a special needs trust, which is a type of trust intended to ensure someone does not get kicked off any government benefits if they’ve received property. Those two trusts function exactly the same way in that the beneficiary cannot make decisions in regard to the actual ownership of trust property. The beneficiary is just a beneficiary. For the irrevocable trust, that requires the grantor or, in the case of a married couple, both husband and wife to transfer their home into the name of the trust and then appoint a separate individual (who could be a child or sibling) to serve as trustee of their irrevocable trust. Whoever is serving as that trustee has absolute authority over the assets of the trust, so they should be somebody the grantors know will honor their wishes.
What Are The Biggest Mistakes That People Make When It Comes To Medicaid Planning?
The biggest mistake that people can make when it comes to Medicaid planning is simply waiting too late to get it done, especially when they know that something is coming on the horizon. Everybody likes to think that they have more time than they do, and they don’t want to face the fear of the unknown. However, if you do wait too long to do your Medicaid planning, you may be forced to sell off a significant portion of your estate.
For more information on Setting Up a Medicaid Plan in Oklahoma, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (405) 455-3599 today.
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