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A Medicaid applicant’s assets must be under a certain amount to qualify for Medicaid.  Various assets are exempt and do not count toward the asset limit.  It is critical for you to properly identify which assets are counted and which are not.

 

Countable Assets – Typically these are assets that are easily converted to cash. These include cash, bank accounts mutual funds, stocks, bonds, certificates of deposits and real property owned other than one’s primary residence.

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Non-Countable Assets – These assets are not counted toward Medicaid’s asset limit.  Typically, these include one’s primary home since the Medicaid applicant or their spouse lives in it.   Because the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP) may claim the home after death to recoup some of what they spent, the family home must be removed from the estate in order to be protected.  A Lady Bird deed is a possible solution.  When a Lady Bird Deed is executed, the home becomes a “life estate”.  Upon death, the beneficiary of the Lady Bird Deed takes ownership immediately, protecting it from MERP and other creditors.

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Our firm can help identify and look for the possibility of reducing assets and spending down assets in Texas to qualify for Medicaid.