| INHERITANCE AND MEDICAID PLANNING
CLIENT QUESTION:
If I inherit money, can it be immediately passed to my heirs without being received by my wife or me? Please answer this with Medicaid planning in mind. Thanks.
MY RESPONSE:
Assuming you are not on Medicaid right now, receiving an inheritance simply adds to your estate. If you receive it and then transfer it to your family, there will be a new five-year look back on the transfer. This is true even if you disclaim it.
What do I mean by “disclaim it?” The law says that you can not be forced to accept an inheritance. Instead, you can disclaim it, that is you can say I don’t want it and it should pass to the next named beneficiary (in your case, probably your children). This technique will defeat your creditors, but not Medicaid. Medicaid will claim it is as if you received it and then gave it away, triggering a five-year look back.
Therefore, if you inherit money, you will be stuck with it, even if you try to find some way to get rid of it.
The best plan is to talk to whoever might give you money and make sure they don’t. |
