My client is over the age of 64 - What do I need to know?

We posted twice in 2012 about being able to utilize a Pooled Special Needs Trust (SNT) in Florida for individuals ranging from newborns to centenarians. 

Don't panic, we are not posting to tell you that something has changed; clients who are over the age of 64 are still able to utilize a Pooled SNT for Medicaid purposes. However, we need to also ask the question - are they receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits?

Lately we have received an influx of inquiries regarding individuals over age 64 who are looking to maintain their SSI income, as well as their Medicaid benefits.

Unfortunately, Social Security penalizes individuals over age 64 who are receiving SSI if they fund a Pooled Trust.  The penalty is one month for every $710 put into the Pooled Trust, up to a maximum of 3 years.

In many cases this is not an acceptable penalty and other strategies for sheltering the assets need to be explored, however, there are circumstances when it still makes sense to fund a Pooled Trust even though there will be a penalty.

Often times the individual over age 64 is receiving a combination of Social Security Retirement and SSI. In these cases only, the SSI is affected by the transfer of assets to the Pooled Trust, but not the Social Security Retirement Income and Medicare medical insurance is not affected. The individual can place the assets in the pooled trust, forgo the SSI payment and then “convert” the Medicaid insurance they were receiving through SSI to the state dual eligible program, Qualified Medicare Beneficiary or QMB. They then continue to receive the benefits that the SSI derived Medicaid was providing. This is a benefit for the individual, who would otherwise lose both the SSI and Medicaid for being over the asset limit, and then have to pay Medicare premiums and copays. By using the pooled trust the individual can keep the Medicaid and also benefit from of the funds in the pooled trust.

Please feel free to contact our office with any questions.

Steve Hitchcock
Florida Bar Certified Elder Law attorney

Co-Trustee, Guardian Trust

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

(d)(4)(A) vs. (d)(4)(C) - The Great Debate

Image
We are seeing a lot of attorneys drafting d4A Special Needs Trusts for disabled beneficiaries under age 65 when they should use a Pooled Trust.  We administer both individual and our pooled SNT, so it doesn't really matter to us.  I will propose a thought that there is never a good reason to draft an individual SNT over our Pooled Trust.  The traditional arguments for drafting a stand alone (d)(4)(A) SNT over a pooled trust include:  1) I want to be the trustee (or name a family member), 2) I want the trustee to pay back the Medicaid lien and then the rest go to designated beneficiaries and 3) I want to invest the funds, or have my investment person handle the investments.  I will take each of these points in turn.  Individuals do not know how to administer trusts in general, let alone SNT's.  The federal law and policy is constantly changing, particularly for beneficiaries receiving S upplemental S ecurity I ncome, or SSI.  It is extremely difficult to keep up with these
Read more

2019 Social Security and Medicaid Income and Asset Limits

Happy New Year! We wanted to keep you updated with the 2019 eligibility figures for Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  The resource limit for a single person stays the same ($2,000) for SSI and long term care Medicaid programs. For a spouse at home of a person qualifying for long term care Medicaid (often referred to as the "community spouse"), the resource limit has increased to $126,420.  The income limit (maximum Federal benefit rate) for SSI is now $771 per month which then makes the Medicaid income limit $2,313 (always 3 times the SSI limit).  Medicare Part B monthly premiums have increased. According to  www.medicare.gov , the standard Part B premium amount will be $135.50 per month. However, most people will pay less. The monthly personal needs allowance for people on Medicaid in a nursing home remains at $130.  Finally, the home equity exclusion for Medicaid eligibility went up to $585,000.  For a chart of these figures click  here .
Read more
Image
Congratulations to Co-Trustee Kole Long on becoming Board Certified in Elder Law. Kole joins only 113 other Florida lawyers to hold this distinction. Board Certification recognizes attorneys’ special knowledge, skills and proficiency in various areas of law and professionalism and ethics in practice. Approximately 7% of all Florida lawyers are Board Certified in any specialty. In addition to serving as Co-Trustee for Guardian Trust, Kole is a practicing attorney with Special Needs Lawyers, PA which is the only law firm with 4 Florida Bar Board Certified Elder Law Attorneys. Help us to congratulate Kole for achieving this commendable honor!
Read more