Thank you for your response. I already knew that RMDs are considered income and that (in NJ) they will have to be directed to a QIT in order to qualify. My question is really about countable assets. I know that an owner's Roth IRA is always counted because there no RMDs (hence not in "pay status". However some states such as New York do not count other IRAs in "pay status". (In NY this seems to depend on the county, so California and Florida may be better examples. But I can not specific information for NJ. I suspect that they do count such IRAs because the one list of states that exempt such IRAs that I found on the web, does not list NJ. But I don't know how complete or old this list is.
I'm not 100% on this, but I think if the IRA is on pay-out status then whatever you get each month is considered income which is required to be included with the rest of their monthly income for their co-pay or "SOC" to the NH for Medicaid compliance. Whatever IRA balance is left!! after death goes to the beneficiary. So if the beneficiary is a grandkid with no tax exposure, fabulous; but if it's the deceased estate, not so good as it becomes within MERP purview. I'd check to see who beneficiary is asap.
You probably want to find out precisely what between the IRA pay out, your SS and any other retirement monthly income is paid, and that you are within whatever your state has as the monthly income ceiling for Medicaid.
If the IRA is not in pay out, then it seems to be best to cash out, take the huge tax hit and do a creative spend-down before the Medicaid application is ever filed.
Really whatever the case, what works or doesn't work or held in review hades is totally dependent on just how your state administers their Medicaid program and how intense of a review is done. IRA is high cotton financial & beyond capability of the initial caseworker so will likely be turned to a higher level of review.
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Thanks for any further info.
You probably want to find out precisely what between the IRA pay out, your SS and any other retirement monthly income is paid, and that you are within whatever your state has as the monthly income ceiling for Medicaid.
If the IRA is not in pay out, then it seems to be best to cash out, take the huge tax hit and do a creative spend-down before the Medicaid application is ever filed.
Really whatever the case, what works or doesn't work or held in review hades is totally dependent on just how your state administers their Medicaid program and how intense of a review is done. IRA is high cotton financial & beyond capability of the initial caseworker so will likely be turned to a higher level of review.