Please forgive my ignorance, as I do not know much about this. What are the benefits of doing this. As my parents are getting older, they have decided to want to do this as they think if they need to go into a nursing home, the home will take their house if it is in their name. I understand as I will take care of them for as long as I can, sometimes that always can not be done. We live in PA and I believe that it needs to be out of their names for X amount of years. Is it worth doing this? What are the pros and cons if any? If it isn't put in my name and they do go into a nursing home, what happens to the house? Is it sold? What happens if it is not in my name for the amount of years that are required? I don't want to see that happen, as it has been in this family for over 100 years.
Any answers much appreciated. Thank you!
And more and more people are finding ways to get around that and Medicaid is a huge expense for the government. It is a deeply rooted issue that we can't fix without reforming the system in many ways, so it is what it is, at least for now.
Having said that, BEFORE you do ANYTHING at all...anything! first speak to an eldercare lawyer or estate planner. The laws are complicated and from what you've said you all are thinking about doing...there are NO benefits at all...more like penalties and potential problems you can't get out of but would just have to deal with.
Many people do what is called 'kitchen table estate planning' and try to second guess the laws on their own, going on second-hand information that is rarely accurate.
There are Federal mandates about Medicaid block grants that all states must comply with, to get the grant. And then each state then makes more laws to fit the program it has designed to be funded by that Federal grant. So talk to an attorney before you do anything else. And not just a regular attorney but one who specializes in these things.