A question about Medicaid and probate, but not the usual question.
My mom is likely going to have to go into long term, Medicaid funded care within the next year. Her income and assets are well under the limit. Her home was transferred to a daughter (with her retaining life estate) well outside of the look back period.
However, when her husband died in 2019, he did not have a will and as his spouse, she inherited the entire estate, which included two motorcycles. Although he didn’t have a will, he expressed clearly to family that he wanted one of the motorcycles to be gifted to his niece. As my mom agreed with this, the probate lawyer said we could gift it to her directly from the estate to speed up the process. This was done and my mom never actually had the title to said motorcycle in her name, all paperwork was done by the estate executor.
My question is: Since all my dad's assets were inherited by mom upon his death, does Medicaid go into the weeds of my dad’s estate probate process when considering if my mom has transferred any assets below market value? Or would the fact that the transfer was made by my dad’s estate, mean that it doesn’t count against her?
We are in New York.
(The home is now being used for her residence as well as another disabled person and the daughter is taking care of them both.)
As for the motorcycle, it was transferred legally according to the rules in NY- everything was properly done by the executor, no trust needed to be established (except the estate which had an EIN and all that).
this was just a question to see if anyone had experience with it, obviously no one here does, but are quite willing to dish out judgement and abuse, as is usual on this forum. Yes, we will consult an elder planning lawyer.
The reasons for transferring over assets prior to death are often just creative ways to avoid certain things. Yet for whatever people rarely think about how they will fund their own care. Instead they fall back on Medicaid. Medicaid should 100% be used for people that have nothing, not those that creatively have nothing. Just because it is legal does not mean it is right or ethical.
Off my soap box I go.
To transfer ownership, you will need to obtain a title change form from your DMV and complete it, naming the trustee (as trustee of your trust) as new owner."
Source: https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/transferring-assets-into-a-living-trust-can-you-do-it-yourself#
We recently created a trust and I believe the motorcycles would have had to be part of the trust (title transfer, paperwork). Not sure the distribution was executed properly or legally -- so it's question for an actual attorney for NYS, not an anonymous global forum of non-professionals with no accountability if you get the wrong answer.
Also...why not sell some of her assets to pay for her care instead of using Medicaid?
"It's a waste, they will sooner or later end up on Medicaid why not sooner rather then later."
As stated they transferred the home well past the the look like period. They knew exactly what they were doing. Shame stuff like this is considered legal and above water when it comes to elder care.
Unfortunately, with those parents who fail to discuss such matters in advance, and leave everything disorganized, too much falls on their children to have to pick up the pieces for them.