My father has parkinson's. His parents passed away and left an estate that he is a part of. It was in real estate but the property was all sold and my father received the funds from the sales. It was several hundred thousand dollars. I am overseeing his care and finances. He doesn't have any other assets.....only this money he received recently from the estate. It is several hundred thousand dollars but it goes fast. Is there any way at all to protect it, given that he received it so late in his life.....? Thank you very much. Umpire 87
The lawyer in me suggested that if your mother is alive, it might be possible to put the inheritance into a joint account, and then apply to partition his assets. That way half of it might last longer than the need for care. Or pass it on now, and see if he outlives the look-back period on gifts.
Thats a real different situation to be in, as he needs to have some of this money so that he can easily draw from it for next 3-5 years but can have some invested but also have it set up to lessen taxes / liabilities for his estate for when he dies (and goes to you). Imho He needs an estate planning attorney who also has a financial advisor they work with. It’ll be a team project.
Important! if he hasn't actually gotten the $ yet, I’d contact the Executor or the CPA firm or probate attorney that’s handling the asset distribution to see if they can wait a bit to do this. Asap on this. Why? Well the new estate attorney for your dad may want the $ to go into a Trust. It would be a nice clean move paperwork wise to have it go directly from Estate to Trust. Waiting to do a distribution happens, or doing distribution in segments happens, it’s not an uncommon. So ask. But you & dad will need to get on finding an attorney asap.
Fwiw if you’re hoping that he can be eligible for LTC Medicaid, unless he’s in NY or CA that is not at all likely imho. Only those two have removed the rather draconian asset limits
Would like to know more about LTC Medicaid. Dad does live in CA so maybe the asset limit might be favorable to him.
This money should be used for his care not to "protect" for his kids to inherit. I know it doesn't seem fair but Medicaid comes out of taxes.