I am named as my mother's DPOA. We have a joint account with her name and my name and no other designation. Does having a joint account mean that Medicaid will look at my assets etc when determining eligibility? I keep a record of the statements and match the receipts, bills, etc and attach to the statement each month to show that payments out of the account have been for my mother's care. Should I set up the account as a Trust? There is not a lot there and we do want easy access to the funds to cover any emergencies or unexpected expenses
The problem will be IF funds are CO-MINGLED. You are not doing that as all the $ is mom's and used for mom. Whether mom signs the checks or you do, doesn't matter. I would suggest that you get yourself on the account as the POD - pay on death. So you can use whatever is there to pay for funeral & burial stuff and because it's POD, the funds do NOT go into the estate or need to do probate.
For Medicaid, anything that is tied to your mom's SS # (or late hubby's SS # if the retirement is from him) or your mom's name will be viewed as mom's assets &/or income by Medicaid.
I have a joint account with my mother but I only use that for my mother's expenses and only have her retirement money deposited in there.
I keep my finances separate from hers.
I suggest you separate the money if you can prove how much in the account is yours and how much is hers. Later on they might question how much you removed to your account but as long as you have documentation as to how much you personally deposited and which bills you paid for yourself and which bills you paid for your mother then you should be okay. I just complicates things.
Being a caregiver is stressful enough. Separate the accounts now and later on you won't have to worry about dividing up all those receipts and prove deposits.