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Does anyone have any experience with having their home and some assets placed into a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT)? Attorney spoke about doing it to protect house and assets from Medicaid so want to see if anyone has any insight into doing this. Would love to hear from people that have done this and if it’s a good idea. Thanks!

Prayers sent.
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Reply to Llamalover47
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Reply to Mamacrow
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Having BEEN an advocate for trusts, I now would NOT do one.
Too much emphasis is on tax consequence, IMO.
Our "kids" were excruciatingly cruel to my wife when we were married.
Rude, inconsiderate, and cruel.
So, wife and I decided to skip ..them..and give to grandchildren who were babies at the time.
Then wife died.
The trust, being irrevocable, then prevented me from access to assets over half the combined total.
When wife died, the trust ...FROZE.
I could (and can) diminish HALF of it.
Time passed, the "kids" grew up, the grandkids on the other hand have reversed the whole thing and now specialize in babies before marriage!

IOW.... flexibility in passing on assets is WAY MORE IMPORTANT than tax implications.

In my opinion and EXPERIENCE !!!
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Reply to Pyrite
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CPA here. All of these various trusts are vehicles to avoid taxes and in some cases hide assets from Medicaid. All sounds good, right? Just be aware that there are many downsides to any vehicle for which tax evasion or government Medicaid avoidance is the goal and the person who will suffer from not understanding the details IS YOU. Believe me, the IRS has figured out all the schemes.

Trusts are extremely complex documents and very few people understand what they are committing to, they just know that they are determined to make other people pay for their care!

We have our own parents to pay for, we do not want to pay for yours. Spend your money for the care you need. Your kids can earn their own money, just as you did.

Buyer beware.
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Reply to LakeErie
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Is MAPT a generic term to describe an irrevocable trust or is it a trust with special wording? I had never heard the term before.

In 2019, our elder care/estate attorney set up a regular irrevocable trust with our sons as trustees to protect our funds until such a time it is needed to take care of us. Our sons have a lot more investment experience (one is a CPA) and are both very trustworthy. Yes, a benefit of the trust is protection should we need VA (3 year look back) or Medicaid LTC.

The main benefit we wanted was protection from ourselves, especially after one of us dies. We are far from wealthy but wanted to protect what we have... not to leave to our sons unless there is something left! At any time, we can hold them accountable for how they manage the funds. It is called planning for your unknown future needs while you are living as well as making it a lot easier at the time of our deaths.

Fortunately my parents had a irrevocable trust when he remarried six months after my mother died. He only had a couple acres with a mobile home and very little savings but it was way more than she brought to the marriage. He believed in being the provider so set it up to give her lifetime rights to live there in the event of his death. It didn't take long for things to get rocky and he left but still allowed her to stay in the home. She decided she wanted to sell everything. My sister and my father went to discuss things with her and brought the documents to show her my sister was the only one who could sell it. She wouldn't even let them in the house, demanded they get off the property and called the sheriff to remove them. The sheriff looked at the documents and said they had every right to be there. They finally divorced... without him losing the little bit he and my mother had worked for during their 47 year marriage.

Our sons have the ability to use the funds for whatever we need and have already pulled some out in one instance. Fortunately, we haven't had to use VA or Medicaid LTC benefits yet but my husband's needs for caregivers is increasing. Hopefully if SNF is in our future, we can choose our own place with private pay first then apply and transfer to a Medicaid bed when it is appropriate.
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Reply to KPWCSC
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Way to Misery is correct. This is essentially giving away your assets before you die. AND it is irrevocable. You have ZERO control of your own assets the instant they are placed in this trust. It protects these assets for your heirs, but what if YOU need them for your own care? Nope. You are out of luck. YOU go on Medicaid and sub-standard care until you can manage to die. You MAY get to keep some of the earnings of assets in the trust if this is written into the document.

I loathe these tricky trusts. They rob you of everything you worked so hard to earn and give it over to your heirs who worked NOT AT ALL for the funds. And just when you need good solid are in ALF or Memory Care you are "broke". Because, hey! It's being protected for your kids.

Just be certain you fully understand that if you make one of these trusts EVERYTHNG YOU HAVE that is put into it is no longer yours, and you have ZERO to say about it. In fact NO ONE has any say about it until they can push you into the ground. It's all neatly tied up in bright ribbons for the kids when they can finally bid you a fond adieu.

Be CERTAIN you fully understand all of this if you do this.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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Pegshere, I wouldn't do that unless you have millions side aside to pay for Assisted Living or Memory Care later down the road.


The cost was an eye opener for me when my Dad hired 3-shifts of caregivers to help him with daily living (the man was brilliant but couldn't make himself a cheese sandwich). Dad was in his 90's. It was costing him $20k per month, thus $240k per year. Then there were all those other every day expenses that can add up. Yikes, Depends are expensive.


Plus, it just isn't fair to have us taxpayers pay for your Medicaid room/board/health care when you have the funds to pay for this out-of-pocket.


Hubby and I are ridiculously fugal to a point of being eccentric. We plan to use our savings (which are in a Revocable Trust, easy to get to) to give us the best care we can find instead of handing it over to family who would probably just blow through the money like no tomorrow.
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Reply to freqflyer
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They are irrevocable, is my understanding. Wayto misery summed it up pretty nicely!

You better be quite healthy and not at all likely to need a facility till 2029 to be totally past a 5 yr lookback. So look at your health history and factor in your age as to how close you are to average death in the US for your demographic to see if your risk is low.

Personally I am of the firm belief that unless you have mid to high six figures to place into any type of Trust, doing a Trust is ludicrous. That Trust needs its own source of funding that is too owned by the Trust to pay for whatever costs of the home and any other costs of the Trust (like legal fees, CPA, etc). Trust needs something it owns to have $ to spend and replenish outlays. Like there are investments in the Trusts name that have a financial advisor. Unfortunately often what folks tend to do is place home & maybe a weekend home or land into the Trust all by themselves and the use their own SS income to pay property costs (taxes, insurance, maintenance, whatever). Then when they file for LTC Medicaid, as it requires them to do a copay or Share of Cost paid to the NH, there is zero $ to pay on anything. The Trust endpoint beneficiaries don’t have to cough up the $…. they can but do not have to. Trust defunds. It does happen and you see it often at property tax delinquency sales.
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Reply to igloo572
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liz1906 Jul 30, 2024
So accurate. In Massachusetts homeowners who are elderly and in need of freeing up some cash can request a homeowner's tax deferral. Sometimes for many years. However, if the property is placed in an "irrevocable trust" the town may or will deny a tax deferral. The reason: the homeowner no longer owns the house even if they are living in it. In MA deeds are published at the registry of Deeds. I think there needs to be a lot of research before establishing a trust document.
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Did the lawyer explain to you that once you do that , you will not ever have access to those assets ? You relinquish ownership and control . It can not be reversed , revoked , or any , amendments or changes made .

You should be fully informed before making that decision. Including whether or not your state will pay for assisted living . You can do more research online .

Where I live ( my state ), Medicaid does not pay for assisted living or memory care in assisted living. I would need the ability to access my funds to pay for that for myself and/ or my husband . Medicaid in my state will pay for SNF ( skilled nursing facility ) , however you will not be admitted unless you qualify medically .

In other words , if I’m not in bad enough shape medically to be in SNF nursing home ,
but I need assisted living , I’d better make sure I have access to my assets to pay for it.

I’ve known many who jumped at the chance to “ protect their home and assets from Medicaid “ without fully understanding that they will not be able to use that money for themselves should they desire to .
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Reply to waytomisery
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