asset protection help

[dianep1963]

What is the name of your state? IL
My father has terminal cancer and has only a few months to live. My mother, however is doing very well at 85. Both parents are currenly living with me, and we are talking about selling their house which is about an hour drive from me. We are wanting to protect the house or assets from the house if we sell it in case at some future time she has to go to a nursing facility. It looks like that will be some years away, hopefully, but my dads illness took everyone by suprise and we don't want the house to be sold and the money lost in nursing home costs (just in case). Should we sell house and purchase another in my town which we can all live in together? Should we sell the house and put money from sale into some sort of trust? Please advise. Thank you.

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? IL
My father has terminal cancer and has only a few months to live. My mother, however is doing very well at 85. Both parents are currenly living with me, and we are talking about selling their house which is about an hour drive from me. We are wanting to protect the house or assets from the house if we sell it in case at some future time she has to go to a nursing facility. It looks like that will be some years away, hopefully, but my dads illness took everyone by suprise and we don't want the house to be sold and the money lost in nursing home costs (just in case). Should we sell house and purchase another in my town which we can all live in together? Should we sell the house and put money from sale into some sort of trust? Please advise. Thank you.

What you should do is sit down with a local estate planning specialist, who can review your situation and advise you accordingly. In some cases, you can organize trusts and the like to shield assets from Medicare -- but it needs to be done carefully, there have been changes to Medicare that increase the time for "lookback" to, I believe, 5 years. At 85, a lot can change in 5 years, and you don't want the courts to go after assets you "thought" were taken care of. Sit down with an estate planning attorney -- that's your best bet.