Has anyone read an article in AARP about a woman who divorced her husband after 39 years of marriage due to the financial consequences of Alzehimers? A friend called me last night and told me about it. Don't get the magazine. Comments would be welcome.
I am cleaning up for the "guy's day", which is at my house, so I can't look it up right now. If anyone can find it, please post the link on the boards. In the meantime, there is a large discussion on these boards about divorcing to save assets. http://thealzheimerspouse.com/vanillaforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=1252&page=1
To anyone who is considering this, please read what Jane wrote about it in the discussion. Divorce is not necessary.
I called my friend and she said the article is in the Feb/Mar issue. It has a picture of Michael Douglas on the cover. The writer of the article was listed as being from Massachutes. I wonder if different areas of the country get a different magazine. We are in Tn.
Long time ago, it was suggested that I simply divorce my husband to keep any assets intact. (what assets, beyond my real estate??) He wouldn't have agreed on that at the time, anyway. Seems like spending him down to qualify him for Medicaid has been just like a divorce, except I got to keep my home, property, machines and vehicles.
I have the magazine and read the article. About 20 years ago one of my aunts and uncles had to do the same thing just to make enough money to make do each month. I would have hoped that things would have changed by now but apparently they are not changing for the better.
Its also hard for me to figure out what we should do. We're in the 'middle' don't qualify..this has been discussed on various other threads as well. BUT there are possible advantages to staying married to take advantage of the 'spousal impoverishment' allowance..Its mind boggling and hopefully JANE, bless her, can clear this up.
I have another question..of what BENEFIT is it to have a 'Miller Trust' or a Qualified Income Trust..if the FACILITY is a private pay facility? The assisted living places I've seen don't do medicaid. Thats another wrinkle for us right now.
Also, under what circumstances would the DIVORCE be the better option?? Things to ponder on these winter days..but the private pay facility suggested the Miller Trust and it just didn't seem to make sense if they didn't participate in medicaid..
I am working with an attorney on Medicaid planning as we speak. Basically there are two options - spend down the assets or divorce. He is putting together a proposal that will have pros/cons of each so I will share when I get it! I am only 44 so I hate to say at this point I am kind of leaning the divorce route... although my DH would still live with me. One of the interesting things that attorney said was that if we WERE divorced by DH could pay me a monthly fee for his care if he lived at home. If we're married he can't. Go figure - the laws are totally screwed up.
Shannon, I can't help but be amused at some of the things an Attorney will suggest just to get your business. Pay you a monthly fee to take care of your husband if you are divorced but he cannot if you are married, think about it, if you are married and taking care of him all of his money and all of your money are both of yours, you can use what you need and want to. This just does not make sense at all. What money would you have access to in order to help pay for his care if you were divorced that you do not already have by being married. Answer that question for me.
The only circumstance that it would make sense to divorce would be if you and your husband agree to divorce, he is not yet incompetent so that he can make that decision and the assets were divided according to the divorce laws of your State, you cannot just divorce your husband if he is incompetent and take all of the assets, his interest has to be protected also. Then if you do divorce you better make sure it is 12 months or longer before you apply for Medicaid or else you will be in another situation in which you will have to account for the assets. Once you divorce anything whatsoever your husband gives to you will be counted as a gift in the look back period. If your husband pays you a monthly fee to take care of him, it will be income to you and you will have to report it as such. Divorce in my book is not the answer at all.
The Attorney should give you the pros of staying married and doing the spend down and he should advise you that in most states part of that spend down can be in an Annuity for you the spouse at home, this is in addition to the resource allowance they will allow the spouse at home and also in addition to the monthly amount they allow you as a spouse from your husbands income if he is placed. You do not say what State you live in but you should check with your Attorney on this. I hope the Attorney is vested in Medicaid law and is and elder law specialist.
Don't be confused by the spend down, it can be spent down in a way that in most cases you keep all the assets anyway. Don't jump into a Divorce.
Please do share with us the pros and cons of what your Attorney tells you. It will help all of us, and help us all to learn.
Judy, No, a Miller trust will not help you with a facility which does not accept Medicaid. The Miller Trust is just a trust you set up in order to meet the income guidelines under Medicaid long term care.
In Tennessee, this information can be found in easily read documentation on the web site for THCA, Tn Health Care Association. Click on "paying for it" under the consumer tag. Explains the spend down, medicaid qualifications, look back pd, Miller Trust, and last but not least, the Estate Recovery. A spouse may keep 1/2 the total assests up to 109,560 dollars, home furnishings car. It gets complicated but bottom line is, everything has to be counted. When the surving spouse dies, anything left will be counted and can be seized up to the amount the state deems owed to the system. We had a taste of the estate recovery when my mother in law died. Not pleasant. The family was not informed and at that time, the state was not taking advantage of this law. That started, the year she died, even tho it had long been on the books. Keep in mind this is for medicaid patients only. If you're loaded, you will be private pay. At a rate of 3000 and that may exceed 6,000 Dollars a month, it would not take long for me to be medicaid eligible. We need to prepare and be knowledgeable about the laws in our perspective states.
Check on your states health care association web site and see if this information is available. This is the only site I found for simple, easy to understand information.
My DH is in a private pay (secured) Assisted Living in MS. Different states have different laws. In Tn, state law prohibits the locking of exit doors in assisted living facilities. Even ones that require a code, such is the case where he is, but with FTD, there is no way, he can learn and apply the code to unlock the door from the inside or outside.
Thank you all.. Jane, thats exactly what I thought. I've read my eyes out trying to figure out some of these things. It just didn't make sense. Really appreciate the information.
Jan1945 Your experience with estate recovery is most likely that your mother in law had medicaid or else had not gotten the home out of your father-in-laws name before he died. If it was in her name alone and she did not need medicaid then there would have been no estate recovery, there is no estate recovery in Tennessee UNLESS the property is in the Nursing Home patients name at their death.
as you say, it DOES get complicated and sometimes when you read these explanations on line they explain what can happen but do not go into detail as to what happens when proper steps are taken before hand. Also, the laws continue to change so what is so at one time in life is not something you can count on later.
A spouse can save all assets if the proper steps are taken and they work with a qualified elder law attorney and what they save will not be subject to Medicaid recovery at a later time unless they themselves have to apply for Medicaid. The spousal Annunity will have to name Medicaid as the beneficiary but even that will not go to Medicaid if the spouse has drawn it all out in their lifetime.
So you see, these explanations that we read on line are a help but not something that you can take to the bank, in other words there are too many steps that they leave out and a person just reading on line does not get to see the whole picture. I have not read the article you refer to and I am sure it is very good at explaining the general guidelines but it is not the whole picture.
I am in the situation that lawyer is referring to. If I divorced my spouse, I could stay home, take care of him and Medicaid would pay me 10.00 per hour for my "services". They also will pay this to any child, stranger, in-law, parent, etc. Just not the spouse. I still work outside our home and have 2 caregivers come to help him and they are paid the 10.00 per hour from Medecaid.
Sheltifan, Medicaid paying you to care for your husband is under different rules than what Shannon is referring to. Shannon is referring to her husband paying her if she divorced him, not Medicaid paying her. For Medicaid to pay a caregiver the person has to already have been approved for home medicaid. This is quite different than Long term care.