Manhasset Elder Law Attorney

Elder Law & Medicaid Planning Lawyers Serving Manhasset

Manhasset is a lovely hamlet located on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County. It is an unincorporated village in the Town of North Hempstead. As of the 2010 census, 8,080 people reside in the town covering 2.38 square miles.

Manhasset is home to North Shore Community Hospital and boasts several beautiful and high end shopping experiences such as the Americana Manhasset open air shopping center. It has easy accessibility, with access to major highways and convenient Long Island Railroad station with a less than 40 minute trip to Penn Station in New York City.

Manhasset is the home to numerous private schools while also serving its residents with an excellent public school education.

In 2005, a Wall Street Journal article rated Manhasset as the best town in the New York metropolitan area to raise a family. It has also been rated by Niche in 2021 as the #3 best place to retire in New York.

One issue that retiring Manhasset residents face is the high cost of long term care.

By having appropriate planning in place, Manhasset residents can help their families prepare for the financial toll of long term care costs, the emotional toll of dealing with a loved ones’ illness or decline and protect assets for future generations.

Long-term care such as home health aides, assisted living, or nursing home care, can be very expensive. On Long Island, the estimated annual cost of round the clock care at home or nursing home care can exceed $150,000 a year. It is common that people pay for this exorbitant expense by spending down their hard-earned money until they run out, at which point they need to seek government funding, such as Medicaid, to continue to pay for their high cost of care.

Informed Manhasset residents know that with proper advance planning, they would not have to first spend down their assets to access Medicaid benefits to pay for their care. With proper planning, they can preserve their assets AND access Medicaid benefits to pay the high costs of home health care, assisted living costs, and nursing home costs.

There are strict asset and income rules when it comes to eligibility for Medicaid, and specifically for long term care benefits. While Medicaid is a federal program, it is administered independently in each state and the rules vary by state. In New York, a Medicaid recipient can have no more than $15,900 in “countable” assets, which generally includes the things you can convert to cash to pay for your care, such as money in the bank, investment accounts, and vacation homes. Medicaid does not count some of your assets, such as your personal residence that the Medicaid recipient is residing in (that is below the home equity Medicaid limit, in 2021 in NY the limit is $906,000), retirement accounts that are in payout status, one automobile, as well as some other assets. There are also specific income rules.

In order to qualify for care, a person’s assets would either have to first be spent down, or the person would need to utilize another planning strategy to avoid spending down his or her assets.

However, in order to protect assets, generally (with some exceptions) you can’t transfer assets within five years of needing a nursing home. If you have transferred assets within five years of applying for Medicaid, Medicaid may impose a penalty period during time which you cannot receive benefits and will have to come up with private payment for the nursing home. Therefore, Manhasset residents may seek the assistance of the attorneys at Esther Schwartz Zelmanovitz, PLLC to plan well in advance so that when the time comes, they will be eligible for Medicaid, and also have their assets protected and preserved.

How can you protect your assets while still accessing Medicaid long term care benefits?

There are several techniques used to protect assets. The most common strategy is setting up an irrevocable trust that would allow you to shelter your assets while still receiving any income generated. If you do choose to receive income, it will be budgeted for Medicaid purposes, so often people choose not to receive income from their Medicaid asset protection trust.

Do I have to fund the trust with all my assets?

Absolutely not. You can fund your trust with only some assets, gaining peace of mind that you have preserved a legacy in the event you need future long term care, while still leaving out of trust a comfortable amount of assets for your use and enjoyment while not on Medicaid benefits. Just understand that whatever you leave out of trust may need to be spent down if you need care in the future.

Even if you or your family have not done advance planning, there still may be some planning options to preserve assets and ensure that you or your loved ones are getting the care they need. Advance planning is best, but even in the eleventh hour it is worth seeking the advice of a knowledgeable elder law attorney to review all of your options.

Call us today to begin the process of planning for your long term care needs.