The Listen to Lawrence Letter: Cars and Medicaid Trusts

CLIENT QUESTION:

My question is: Can I add my 2022 Santa Fe PHEV to our existing irrevocable trust?

MY RESPONSE:

First, do not add assets to an already established Medicaid trust. This would create a new 5-year look back and could taint already protected assets if you need Medicaid within the new look back.

Secondly, we do not put cars into our irrevocable trusts. The reasons for this are that 1) a car is exempt anyway; 2) you may have trouble getting insurance on the car; and 3) if you continue to drive the car then Medicaid could argue that you are violating the terms of the trust (did you give it away or not?).

So, don’t worry about the car. By the way, you can put a car into a revocable trust.

And, if anyone you know would like to receive this

Listen to Lawrence Letter, just have them email me at

info@davidowlaw.com and I’ll add them to the list!

As always, please send me your questions. If you are thinking about it, others are probably too, so my answers will no doubt help you and many others.

Let’s stay connected.

Stay safe!