My dad just passed away and my mom will be collecting a $30,000 death benefit. Will she have to use it for estate recovery

This policy does have a cash value of $1,100 . I spoke to an eldercare attorney a while back and he said as long as it is not more than $1,600 it would be exempt. I was just wondering if anyone else had the same situation.

vstefans, you are right. I was thinking along the line of an annuity account, instead of term. That is also an important consideration. If it was term life paid by the spouse, it seems the $30K would not be considered in recovery.

Life insurance proceeds USUALLY are not subject to estate recovery, though policies with cash value that are not just for funeral expenses would have been countable assets, and theorectically that could change. I did some Google searches on connecticut estate recovery medicaid life insurance but did not see a definitive answer...elder law attormey would be the best resource to find out for sure.

CT is not a community property state, so a big question is who owned the life insurance policy.