I should have stated in my previous question that my mom deeded the house over to me back in 2008. According to the paperwork, she sold me the house for $1 then retained a life estate interest for herself so she would have the right to live in the house as long as she needed it. The lawyer said because she created the life estate prior to 2017, all I should need is her death certificate to put the house in my name and Medicaid Estate Recovery shouldn't be able to force the sale.
About all they can get is the $2,000 left in her checking account and her car which might be worth maybe $1,000 if even that. To cover our bases the lawyer wants to request an undue hardship based on the fact that I was taking care of my mom and had no income for several months. Also I don't have another permanent address and if I was forced to sell the house I would be homeless. The lawyer does want to make it look like the car is worth as little as possible, which would make it easier to sell if I have to sell it. If Medicaid were to determine the car is worth $2,500, nobody on the face of this earth would give me that much. The shop said with it's current problems, I shouldn't put the value in at more than $850 which is the low end for trade-in value. The lawyer did say there is no way to save what's left the the checking account, I will have to hand over the $100 cash she had in her purse and sell the car even if it's only worth junk value, because that's all they can get.
Nobody seems to know what I'm talking about when I say Life Estate, so it has me wondering if there are different kinds of Life Estates.
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My Mom was told by the IRS 10 years before her death that she did not need to file tax returns anymore because most of her income was SS. I did not file for Probate and was told by my tax lady that I didn't need to after Moms death because she had no income other than SS which was only about 18k a year. The most I would get back was $300 with Mom claiming herself and it would cost me almost that much to pay her to do taxes.
MERP never asked me for my tax return. A lean was put on her house and satisfied when I sold it.
I said this is my last reply to you, that 2k in Moms account does not go back to Medicaid. Its her asset they allowed and it goes to her estate.
As I said on your last post, I wouldn't worry about this until ur contacted by Medicaid.
Beffort you deal with MERP, you need to do the final tax return.
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Do you have the paperwork from the lawyer who created the plan for your mom? Do you have access to THAT lawyer?
Is there a reason you are jumping on this Medicaid thing before they ask for anything? You have to settle mom's taxes first, right?
Basically Dad has full use of the property as long as he pays the property taxes, insurance and does repairs and maintenance. When Dad dies the property goes to my brother and I in equal shares. We are looking at dissolving the trust as Dad not longer has the capacity to do the three things he is responsible for.