Louisiana Usufruct and Long Term Care (Nursing Home) Medicaid

Описание: We get lots of questions about whether people who own the usufruct can qualify for Long Term Care Medicaid benefits.

So I'm sharing information today with you from the Medicaid Eligibility Manual regarding usufruct and Medicaid.

When someone who owns a usufruct is in a nursing home and attempting to qualify for Medicaid, the first thing you want to determine is whether their usufruct is over a consumable or a nonconsumable.

If the person owns a usufruct of a consumable, such as money, certificates of deposit, promissory notes, bank accounts, etc., then the entire amount of the asset's value is a Countable Resource. So, if Dad died leaving Mom the usufruct of a bank account that had $200,000 in it when Dad died, then the entire amount is considered a resource of Mom. Some people mistakenly believe that since there are naked owners (typically, the children), that Mom does not have to consume these assets in the nursing home.

If the usufructuary owns the usufruct of a nonconsumable item, such as land, houses, shares of stock, etc., then the value of the usufructuary's usufruct must be determined by a Medicaid table that factors in the usufructuary's age. So, for example, if Dad died and left Mom the usufruct of a piece of land worth $100,000, and Mom is 80 at the time of her Medicaid application, then the table indicates that Mom's usufruct is worth 43.659% of the asset. So, by Mom owning the usufruct of a piece of land worth $100,000, she has a Countable Resource valued at $43,659. This is a problem for Mom. Perhaps she will need to sell her usufruct for this amount and then consume all of that money before successfully qualifying for Medicaid.

The problem here is that there is little that can be done at the last minute to solve this problem. But there's lots that can be done if you act early (ideally, at least five years before entering the nursing home.

Find this helpful, go LIke our law firm's facebook page at Rabalais Estate Planning, LLC, and discover lots more.