Before nursing home takes over dad's SS, can I use remainder of money for trust fund for his burial?

I am a Geriatric Social Worker and work as a Pre-planning Advisor for Dignity Memorial in California. I have also worked with an Elder Law Attorney and each state has it's own laws. If you are lookooking for an Elder Law Attorney, check out www.naela.org to find one or call your local Office on Aging or senior center to get some local and reputable referrals. As advisors, we are here to help guide you without obligation to choose our service, so please contact someone in Family Services at your local Dignity Memorial provider. If you plan on or have already purchased a cemetery plot or cremation niche, please make sure all costs such as "Opening & Closing" and "Outer Burial Container/Vault" has been paid for.

An advantage of purchasing services and plots before the time of need i.e Pre-arranging" is that you are locking in today's costs. For example, I am working with an 80 year old woman who purchased her space in 1978 and the complete cost for her space was $983 which covered her space, vault, opening & closing, flower vase, marker, marker installation. Her family will only be responsible for taxes at the time of need for her vault and flower vase. She, the 80 year old client, laughingly said she should have paid for her funeral as well which at the time her husband passed was just over $900 which included his casket. The same funeral is costing her just over $7,200 today!

Another benefit to Pre-arrange is the POSSIBILTY of financing. Again, I don't know your state's laws or the funeral home you are going to choose but it is worth looking into for your family and yourself and loved ones.

Hope this helps and wishing your loved one health. How fortunate your Dad has such a loving and thoughtful daughter.

In Texas my elder care lawyer recommended we buy a car with my aunt's money. It would have to be in her name but that would be a quick way in addition to funeral expenses. Just so happens I didn't because I had a nice car already; but that might be an option for some of you. Of course check with a lawyer first.

The whole elder care price gouging disgusts me. I guess I was naive but I thought medicare was a benefit you pay into your whole life and that you don't then have to pay premiums to be on it. My father has been paying 1200./yr with so many various co-pays that they were nickel and diming him to death out of what was left of his 1300/month ss payment. I have no problems with the nursing home taking his check in exchange for nursing care but I did set up his room and he actually has remaining utility bills that I cannot afford to pay. I am going to somehow work out a way to pay them out of his remaining moneys which is very little. The whole thing is daunting I tell you.

work with an attorney to do it right. I presume different states have different rules. When I sold my mom's condo, she was allowed to pay for dental care, funeral expenses and something else. Whatever remained from the condo proceeds belonged to the state but there was nothing left. The attorney I worked with spoke to medi - cal directly to get the rules on this.

I just went through this because I had to my mother in the nursing home to. They got her social security but wasn't getting her pension yet so they billed me $1500. Bill. So I went in and talk to them and told them the last pension check had to go towards the dr. bills that I had left and for what she needed for supplys to go in her room. So they said I still had to pay it because medicade and ss was paying most of it. So I had $2000.00 set a side for her burial for later and I had to use that to pay them off and they are getting the pension now. So now I have to go to the funeral home and make arrangements for them to take out so much a month from moms payment. They said they have a lot of patients that have to do this. So that is another option. You can work it out with the funeral home. Don't know if you found this out yet but thought I would put it out there. Good Luck!!!

When I sought answers for the same question, I went to a elder law attorney who told me that medicaid allows for a certain amount to go into a savings account dedicated as a burial fund and the account cannot be touched until it's needed. For my state, the maximum amount that could be in the account was $10k, so she suggested I (POA) put $9k+ in the account to allow for earned interest.

Yes do it we just went through it the cost for a simple funeral was10,000 and mom already had paid for the plot that would have been another 10,000 for the land it's very expensive do it now before theirs no money

Everyone is advising you correctly as we went through this 8 years ago. There are stipulations and the funeral director can advise you. One thing I havent heard anyone mention, is when prepaying the funeral be sure to get a GUARANTEED trust with the amount. We did not know about this and my father in-law took a big hit on his money due to mismanagement by the funeral home trust association of Il. Please check into this. Our lack of knowledge, an many others in Il, has been a nightmare. The Chicago Tribune several years ago did a HUGE story on this sham to families. Our funeral home pleaded ignorance when we asked them and said they were blindsided too. We lost thousands and when the time comes, we will be helping out to insure that his last wishes are met.

Yes it does have to be in a trust. And I am not having a grave site. We are going to scatter the ashes at his request! So that is another added cost plus a grave marker. All extra costs! Dying is very expensive these days.

Yes you are allowed to pay for the funeral. In fact, I am sure that they want you to use that last money to prepay for the funeral. But have you checked the price. I just did this for my brother-in-law and the cost for a simple cremation was over $6000. Be sure to check with the funeral home. My friend just prepaid for her mom's regular funeral and it was $14,000. Knowing my friend, she probably went whole hog on the funeral for her mom.

Yes your allowed to do a prepaid funeral for your parent. Contact the funeral place that will be handling it and they will put it in a trust for you. That's how it has to be done for it to be legal. I did that for my mom and I also prepaid for the opening of the grave.

From what I know, you are allowed to use monies already received, up to a certain amount, every state is different, for funeral expenses. The funeral home can do this for you. They put it in an irrevocable trust. You should really consult with an elder care attorney. I did when this happened to us. Dad is NH, spent down his money for Medicaid eligibility and boy, is he going to have one humdinger of a funeral!! Sorry, you have to laugh sometimes!!

Good luck!

-SS

Why not go ahead and prepay his cremation, burial, and funeral? No one could say it is fraud if it is for his final expenses but you better act now.