Will vs Medicaid

[brnaptown]

Situation: Elderly aunt and uncle (sister and brother), never married/no kids, have always lived together, neither is in a nursing home, ages are around 90. Uncle has never worked due to epilepsy. Aunt worked, and receives pension and social security, plus has savings of $100k. Aunt does not have a will. Her thought was to leave all assets for her brother.

Question: If my aunt dies first, brother will have to go in a nursing home, which will be covered by Medicaid - so what's the point of my aunt leaving him anything in her will ? The nursing home will burn thru it and then the state (Ohio) will pick up the tab.

(I realize this sounds money-grubbing, but my portion if any would be very small if the estate were divided among all nieces and nephews)

 

[FlyingRon]

Her thoughts matter not if she doesn't have a will. The surviving brother and sisters (presumably there are others or else where did these nieces and nephews come from) and their children. Hence without a will it will be split between the brother and the nieces and nephews (to what proportion depends on the number of all those involved).

It's up to Auntie how she wants to distribute her assets (and if she wants to give it to brother for his care or comfort, that's up to her). However she definitely needs a will to either FULL INCLUDE the brother or FULL EXCLUDE him.

 

[brnaptown]

Will=Yes

Yup, we're going to do a will...just wondered about the idea of excluding her sibling(s). She could leave it all to her 6 nieces and nephews, of which I am one. My Uncle's care isn't going to be different one way or the other. It's weird to think along these lines. Thank you.

 

[mtpockets]

Special needs trust

Your aunt could set up a special needs trust to take care of her brother's personal expenses.

 

[commentator]

That would be the perfect thing for her to do, because that trust would defer some of the money and enable him to receive payment plus receive care from medicaid. But if as it reads, she's going to die first, and we assume that he's going in a nursing home anyhow, and will be going through all the money to pay for his care and then will go on medicaid, so she should just leave the money to you, specifically eliminate the brother from the will and give it all to the other people so the government doesn't get it, shame on you.

This is not a large amount of money at all. She should of course, arrange to pay all her funeral expenses, can also pay his right now, so that even if she goes first and he does end up on a nursing home, he doesn't end up without assets to cover his burial. There may be several things they can take care of now, including spending the money to hire an estate planning attorney to help them. This makes much more sense than letting it go on without a will, with her getting to the point of waiting to see which one of the two is going to predecease the other, surrounded by jockeying neices and nephews.

 

[I'mTheFather]

Yup, we're going to do a will...just wondered about the idea of excluding her sibling(s). She could leave it all to her 6 nieces and nephews, of which I am one. My Uncle's care isn't going to be different one way or the other. It's weird to think along these lines. Thank you.

I find it disturbing that your uncle doesn't have a single relative who would be willing to take him in if his sister predeceases him, but would rather put him in a nursing home for his remaining years.

I am also disturbed that you would prefer to put your uncle in a nursing home as a medicaid patient, rather than use his sister's money to provide a better placement.

I am most disturbed that you're so concerned about your small share that you're trying to change your aunt's wishes with regard to her will.