Can my father not have a joint account with my mother where his checks are deposited and a trust fund at the NH?

This is what I read

"In most states the Community Spouse may only protect 50 percent of the total countable assets of both spouses, up to $115,920. In other words, all countable assets—no matter whether titled in the husband’s name, wife’s name, or jointly—are totaled up and then divided by two.

The Community Spouse is then permitted to keep one-half of the total, up to $115,920. The other half—minus the $2,000 exemption allowed the nursing home spouse—must be “spent down” or otherwise disposed of, or converted to something that is non-countable."

I think this means that a bank account in the nursing home spouses name needs to be set up with just the 2k or under you spent down to. The other spouse has their own account with their half of the assets they were allowed. I set the NH up as Moms payee with SS and her pension. So her acct only showed the 2k or under. Don't forget, Dads PNA (Personal Needs Acct) goes against this 2K so make sure you spend it. That could be clothes, shoes, favorite candy, hair cuts, anything personally for him.

My suggestion would be to take dad's name off of the joint account, just to be safe. Medicaid may take the position that whatever is in the joint account belongs to dad.

cynpen, I am moving your question back toward the front of the forums. Hopefully a caregiver who is familiar with this can answer your question.

I’m assuming that they are both getting their SS into this 1 bank account and you as DPOA or mom as his wife is paying the copay each mo to the NH, my answer is based on this...... I’d suggest you leave the current account as it is but under 1k in it with dad and mom and you as a signatory & POD on it. It ONLY gets dads SS and you continue to write a check for his copay to the NH from this account. It will build by whatever his state has for the personal needs allowance each month & why you have it at 1k base so there’s room to add onto the 1k. The trust fund at the NH you put money into from his bank account as needed for barber shop, etc.

BUT mom goes and opens up a new account with you as a co-owner & signatory on it and POD to you. This account gets her SS and move over any other $ she has into it? By doing this it keeps her income and assets separate from dads. So if and when Medicaid does a renewal of his Medicaid and asks for months of his banking statements there’s clearly no crossover of her income/assets and his. Medicaid allows for the community spouse (your mom is the CS) to have exempt assets. (For my moms renewal, Medicaid asked for mom’s last 4 mos of bank statements  from date of renewal letter). Only your dad has to be “ at need” financially for Medicaid as he’s the only one on Medicaid. Most states have CS nonexempt assets maximum at about $120k plus their home & a car (both have to be under a set value). But she can’t have the $ commingling so that it can be viewed as dads. Separate bank accounts does this.