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Mom is 62 and dad is 66. Their house, car and bank accounts are in mom's name as well as dad's. If dad suffers a second stroke that causes him to go into a nursing home, will mom loose all her money and assets due to the cost of the nursing home? What can mom do to protect herself and her assets?

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Jones - oh my your folks are young! Most actuarial tables would have them loving another 20 years....l assume that since they are young they may not have done any real definitive legal or planning for LTC.

They need to speak with an elder law atty., I'd suggest you steer them to one that is NAELA certified as your mom - since she is healthy - is likely to outlive dad and mom needs to have pretty knowledgeable legal to come up with the best options for both her & dad. Mom would be considered the "community spouse" if dad need care in a facility paid for by Medicaid. The rules & regs for community spouse are way way more complicated than for a widow or widower who needs a NH and is looking for Medicaid. To me the whole mice maze that is Medicare & Medicaid and LTC is totally do-able by the child that s the DPOA & MPOA for the solo parent. A butt rash to work through but do-able. However for CS predicament, IMHO you need NAELA arty who works with your folks & whomever of the kids will be the DPOA. A NAELA atty & not a insurance agent or financial advisor - really if they need a FA the atty will have ones they work with that know the nuances of Medicaid & Medicare.

Please keep this as your mantra, "Mom as a CS does NOT herself need to become impoverished for your dad to qualify for Medicaid". For widows / widowers they do need to be "at need" for medicaid, so they basically need to spend down to be impoverished. The process is document heavy but can becdne by a son or daughter if they have been involved on their parents life, getting a mom or dad to spend down to qualify is a math project. But this is NOT the case for your mom. She is going to need every penny & safeguard her home & plan on her own secure retirement and care decades from now. What she can keep that works will be linked to just how Medicaid is administered for their state and just what can be done is not a DIY project. Also mom is going to be more focused on dads day to day issues so that alone is overwhelming.

Most of what is googled for medicaid is written for individual medicaid applications, it's good info but a CS situation is quite different. So don't accept what you read or find to be accurate per se.

You may want to read some prior CS Q&A's on this site. Also one of the experts on this site, Gabriel Heiser, has a great book "how to protect.....Medicaid secrets" that is a most excellent overview on the whole process. Good luck & do what you can to keep mom & yourself from becoming overwhelmed.
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NO, even the heartless Medicaid will separate/divide the assets. They do not want to impoverish the wife or make her homeless.
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