Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts: How They Work

The costs of long-term care are significant. Assisted living arrangements and nursing homes can quickly drain your life savings. With careful planning, however, you can avoid spending your resources and potentially leave more to your loved ones.

In Virginia, a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust can help families prepare for the high costs of assisted living or nursing home care without exhausting a lifetime of savings. 

At A.R. Pike Law Firm, we guide individuals and families across Virginia through estate planning, Medicaid planning, and elder law. With years of combined experience, our attorneys provide compassionate and comprehensive legal support tailored to each client’s unique circumstances.

Whether you need help drafting a will, planning for retirement, or preparing for future healthcare needs, we can help you design a clear and effective strategy.

What Is a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust?

A trust is an account or legal structure that holds property. A trustee manages it on behalf of beneficiaries under rules you create for the trust. Trusts can serve many purposes, such as managing property during your lifetime or controlling how and when heirs receive an inheritance. 

With strict asset and income limits, many wonder, Does a trust protect your assets from Medicaid? It can if you structure the trust correctly and transfer property into it soon enough. 

A Medicaid trust must be irrevocable, meaning you cannot change or cancel it after you create and fund it. Because it is irrevocable, once you transfer assets into the trust, the government no longer considers them yours for purposes of the Medicaid program’s asset limits.

As a result, a Medicaid asset protection trust (MPAT) can enable people to qualify for Medicaid long-term care benefits without spending down their assets. 

How Do Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts Work?

A MAPT must have specific characteristics to help you qualify for Medicaid. Understanding why means understanding what makes someone eligible for Medicaid long-term care coverage.

Medicaid Limits 

To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care coverage in Virginia, you can only:

• As a single applicant, have up to $2,000 in countable assets and no more than $2,901 per month in income;

• As a married applicant where only one spouse applies, have up to $2,000, while the non-applicant spouse may keep up to $157,920; or

• As a married applicant where both spouses apply, have combined assets up to $4,000 and a joint income up to $5,802 per month.

Countable assets include most property you own, such as bank accounts and stocks. However, Medicaid does not count the following: 

• Your primary residence, up to Virginia’s equity limit of $730,000 if you or your spouse lives there or you intend to return there;

• One vehicle of reasonable value;

• Household goods and personal belongings like clothing, furniture, and appliances;

• Prepaid burial plots and burial funds; and

• Retirement accounts from which you currently receive payments.

Medicaid also excludes assets held in a properly structured irrevocable Medicaid trust.

The Medicaid Look-Back Period in Virginia

Medicaid includes a look-back period to ensure people do not transfer their assets away just to be eligible for coverage. In Virginia, Medicaid reviews all transfers of assets made within the past 60 months. 

If you transferred assets away in those five years without receiving fair market value for them, Medicaid applies a penalty based on the amount you transferred away. That penalty prevents you from being eligible for Medicaid coverage for a set period, regardless of your financial needs when you apply.

Medicaid Protection Trust Terms

Because of the Medicaid lookback period, you typically need to transfer assets into your MAPT at least five years before you need coverage. To ensure the government does not consider assets in the trust yours, an MAPT must:

• Be irrevocable;

• Having someone other than the Medicaid applicant serve as a  trustee, such as an adult child, another trusted relative, or a professional like a bank or attorney;

• Prevent you from accessing the assets placed in the trust (the trust’s principal); and

• Restrict your control so you cannot withdraw assets or manage them directly.

In a typical MAPT, the trust can make payments out of income produced by the assets within the trust, such as interest or dividends, to supplement your other income sources. 

Take the Next Step with A.R. Pike Law

If you are concerned about the potential of excessive long-term care costs, the experienced attorneys at A.R. Pike Law Firm are here to help. Our team has guided countless clients through estate planning, long-term care strategies, and Medicaid applications.

Contact A.R. Pike Law today to schedule a consultation and learn more.