Elder Law Answers
Can I Refuse to Turn Over Pension Payments to My Mother's Nursing Home?
My mother is in a non-profit nursing home and the nursing home wants my stepfather's pension of less than $100, whic...
Read moreDoes My Mom's Nursing Home Get Her Certificates of Deposit?
- September 12th, 2023
Q
My mother has been in a long-term care facility (for dementia) for two months. We cared for her at home as long as we could. The facility recently filed for Medicaid for her and found out she has CDs that we were unaware of (she put me on them as POD).
What should we do now? Should we pay the nursing home out of those CDs, or am I entitled to a portion of them? Obviously she will be denied for Medicaid upon these new findings.
A
You need to pay the funds to the nursing home. Even though you are the beneficiary of the CDS, they belong to your mother and must be spent down. It may be possible, however, to use some of the funds to prepay for your mother’s funeral or to transfer them to a so-called (d)(4)(C) trust.
The latter is only available in some states and depends on timing, because your mother’s care must be fully paid up when the transfer occurs. Prepayment for funeral expenses does not have the same timing restrictions.
Harry S. Margolis practices elder law, estate, and special needs planning in Boston and Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the founder of ElderLawAnswers.com and answers consumer questions about estate planning issues here and at AskHarry.info.
Last Modified: 09/12/2023