Dad Will Move Into a Nursing Home, and His Kids Will List His House for $450,000. While He Intends to Return, the Home Stays Exempt. Once It Sells, Medicaid Will Count the ...

Résumé détaillé

The kids just want to stop mowing an empty lawn and paying utilities on Dad's vacant house. But one signature at the title company can change how Medicaid sees everything he owns, and the cleanup gets expensive fast.

A Nov. 4 Wall Street Journal story followed a New Orleans couple selling a converted warehouse, the kind of sale that closes one chapter so the next one gets simpler. Now picture a subtler version that lawyers who work with seniors see all the time. Dad moves into long-term care, and his kids list his $450,000 house so nobody has to mow the lawn or pay utilities on an empty building.

The catch is Medicaid's home exclusion, the rule that can leave a principal residence out when Medicaid counts an applicant's assets. For a widower living alone, the house can stay excluded while Dad owns it and intends to return. Once it sells, the proceeds can become countable cash unless a replacement-home exception applies.

Medicaid is the joint federal and state program that covers nursing home care once someone runs low on income and assets. The federal health insurance for people 65 and older, Medicare, covers skilled nursing care only for a limited time. Medicaid can cover long-term nursing home care once Dad meets the program's medical and financial requirements, which is why the treatment of his house matters so much.

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Supplemental Security Income (SSI) rules provide a useful baseline for how a home is treated. They generally exclude a principal residence while the owner continues to meet the home-exclusion rules. If the owner moves out without the intent to return, though, the home becomes a countable resource. If a spouse or dependent relative still lives there, leaving for long-term care doesn't break the exclusion.

For a widower living alone, intent matters. A signed statement can support Dad's intent to return, but listing the house for sale can raise an obvious question about…

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Début de l'article, extrait de Yahoo Finance. Pour lire la suite, ouvrez l'article chez le média.