When you married, you wanted to join your lives together and build a family. You worked hard to build up your family’s belongings. The last thing you want is for every hard-earned penny of yours to go to a nursing home. Unfortunately, many people require specialized care that they can only get from a long-term care facility.
The Colony Medicaid divorce lawyers have helped many families create estate plans to protect their assets. Call today to work with a seasoned divorce attorney to learn more about this process and how it could help.
As people age, their needs change. Some develop degenerative or life-altering conditions that require specialized care. When one member of a couple has extensive medical needs and can no longer live safely with their spouse, they might need to move to a nursing home, where they can get access to full-time nursing care and assistance with their daily needs.
Nursing homes have medical staff and caregivers who know how to care for people with advanced physical or cognitive conditions. They can provide residents with the assistance they need to lead healthier and more comfortable lives. However, paying for a nursing home is costly. The monthly fees alone can quickly deplete a family’s lifetime of savings.
A trusted Medicaid divorce attorney in The Colony understands how traumatic it can be to consider moving a beloved family member to a nursing home, even when it becomes medically necessary. They could help a family handle the process with the proper care.
Some couples try to look for alternate ways to protect their family assets. Although Medicare is an insurance program set up to help seniors pay for their medical needs, it does not cover the cost of long-term nursing home care, meaning people must find another way to pay for their long-term health needs.
Unlike Medicare, Medicaid will pay for nursing home care. However, Medicaid has strict income eligibility requirements that can be hard for most families to meet. To qualify for Medicaid, families must be below the income and assets eligibility standard, meaning they must essentially live in poverty.
One option that families consider is getting a Medicaid divorce or a divorce that is essentially only valid on paper alone. When they get divorced, each former spouse has their own assets. The spouse not relocating to a nursing home can individually retain most of the couple’s assets. They can keep those assets to provide for themselves and then decide how to distribute them to their family members. The spouse who needs nursing home care can then qualify for Medicaid.
A dedicated lawyer in The Colony could explain how a Medicaid divorce might work.
Getting a grey divorce is not something that many long-term couples want to do. After building their family for so many years, separating can be unpleasant, even if it is just a formality on paper. A dedicated legal team might be able to help with other options that could work better for a family, such as a trust.
The earlier you can meet with The Colony Medicaid divorce lawyers, the better the chance our legal team could help you develop a solution that best protects your assets and your family. Reach out to our law office today to learn more.
Our Law Firm’s approach to your case is based on individual circumstances. Whether it is a simple negotiated settlement, or it requires an aggressive approach, we will protect and defend your best interests.
