Does a Deed of Trust protect me from Medicaid seizing my Mom's house once she passes?

I live in Massachusetts. I took care of mother at home. I say now Thank God! But, your best bet is to get the best Eldercare lawyer in your are even if it costs you $750-$1,000 per hour and they do cost that much in the northeast and get all your questions answered. The law keep changing and the general public cannot keep up with it. I know even if you pay for your nursing home care and the money runs out. If you own property you the children or spouse etc have to agree for Medicaid to put a lean on your property. To get you parent in a NH if you won't agree to this with Medicaid. This mean the NH is not getting paid. You will be told to take your love one home and care for your love. NH cost $12,000-$15,000 per month. By the time Medicaid pays the NH. The most they will have is $8,000 reimbursement per patient. It would not take long to go through the value of a house. I know there is a state rate. The federal government must be the same for all 50 states. At the end they want the property sold within 9 months.

Your state laws and state management of the Medicaid program will make a difference in just what happens both when they are alive & especially after death. MERP is very much tied into probate so your states stance on estate & death laws will be a huge factor.

Based on the original post, Savannah's parent in TX has a Miller Trust & supposedly a "LadyBird" Deed done. If those were done correctly then:
-the Miller, which is a way to get those with just too much income each month to be under your specific state set monetary ceiling, left-over funds will pass to the state. For some states Miller is a pass through so upon death there is no excess but for other states the excess builds with state as the beneficiary for the excess income.
Whichever is the case, the Miller funds are the state's.
- for the LadyBIrd aka Enhanced Life Estate Deed, it means that the property has been set up to transfer or pass outside of probate. There are just a handful of state that allow for ELED's (TX, MI do). Now it is through probate that MERP - Medicaid Estate Recovery Program is done. In theory, no probate = no MERP.
If it is correct, then whomever legal Savannah & her mom saw knew what to do to make things work entirely legally to have the state pay & to the families best advantage to inherit the house.

If Savannah's mom's ELED was done correctly, whomever is named in the ELED gets the house and the state's Medicaid / MERP cannot do a thing about it. But they kinda have to let the state know so that the state can send a release statement from MERP. It is important to get this so that if in the future and you need to sell the property, or get a loan using it as collateral, you can show clean & clear title with no state of TX MERP claim.

How MERP is done depends on state law. As Kathleen said, for Mass the children or spouse have to agree for MERP & you have 9 months to sell a property. For TX, you do not have to sign off to agree to MERP, it is an "acknowledgement of MERP" which by applying for Medicaid means you accept whatever & however Medicaid & MERP runs and if you sell the house, it sells when it sells whether the day after it goes on the market or takes up to the full 4 years allowed for probate.
All states have exclusions or exemptions to MERP and also have to allow for appeals.

The key is either doing planning before a NH or carefully documenting all whatevers to file MERP exemptions or exclusions (property costs, caregiver exemption, heir low income exemptions, etc.) after they die. All this done within the short time-frame required by your state. For most family they are still bereaving and just cannot do what is required to use the exemptions or exclusions to their best advantage or be able to present in probate court as they need to so they need a good attorney to represent them.

7 years ago my father made a revocable trust. I am his primary trustee. At that time the lawyer told me to take the money out of his name. The names on his savings and checking acct. were both are names. I didn't do anything with the money, it stayed in a regular savings acct. , with both are names. As time went by I finally took the money out of his acct. 6 months ago and put in my name. Now he is facing possibly nursing home placement. Will Medicaid look at the financial records, or will the revocable trust dated 7 years ago suffice and not take his money?

imsaknco1: The date you took your father's name off the account is the date of the gift. The five-year lookback period starts on that date. So if your father applies for Medicaid within the next 4 1/2 years, then that transfer will count against him as a gift to you, and result in a disqualification (penalty) period.

The revocable trust is irrelevant in this case, since the money is not in the trust.

how would I word a tust to prevent Medicaid from collecting my rental property if I want my children to inherit when I die

Jericho, you need a lawyer NOW, because there are many kinds of Trusts. It's just not a simple process. And if you don't follow his advice,(like imsaknco) nothing is protected.

jericho, do not attempt to put together a Trust on your own... one misplaced or let out word could ruin the whole thing.