Top Medicaid & Estate Planning Attorney Kelly Shovelin Highlights Need To Protect Savings From Nursing Home Fees – Wilmington, NC

Legal Insights podcast featured guest leading estate planning attorney Kelly Shovelin, founder of Four Pillars Law Firm, PLLC, revealed ways that people can protect their money and homes from nursing home fees in Wilmington, NC. For more information please visit www.fourpillarslawfirm.com

Wilmington, NC, United States – April 26, 2020 /MM-REB/ —

In a recent episode of the Legal Insight podcast, leading estate planning attorney Kelly Shovelin, founder of Four Pillars Law Firm, PLLC, explains ways that people can protect their money and homes from nursing home fees in Wilmington, NC.

For more information please visit Legal Insights Podcast

When asked for a comment, Shovelin said, “Studies show that at least 80% of the population is going to need some type of long-term care at some point in their future – this is true whether it’s due to Alzheimer’s, a stroke, or some other kind of debilitating illness. People need to think about and plan for the fact that they’ll need long-term care in the future.”

According to Shovelin, many Americans are concerned whether or not they can be eligible for Medicaid while continuing to hold onto their homes and countable assets.

“Essentially, what I tell people is that their home is normally exempt during their lifetime. In applying for government benefits, the government isn’t going to look at the value of your home while determining your qualification.”

When asked if people can leave their homes for their children after benefiting from Medicaid, Shovelin replied by saying, “The value of your home isn’t counted during your lifetime, so you are allowed to retain it even while receiving government benefits. However, the state will essentially keep a tab of the amount of money they payout for your cost of care during a lifetime. They’ll put a claim against your estate asking for their money back or for the sale of the house to recoup the money they spent.”

However, according to Shovelin, there are ways around this in order to protect someone’s home.

“What we can do is recommend creating a specific type of trust for your home to protect it. Even after going into a nursing home for some time, there are still things that can be done to protect the value of the home – as long as you do that proper planning as immediately as possible.”

While the government does not look at the value of a home to determine Medicaid eligibility, Shovelin pointed out that they do take countable assets into consideration.

When asked to elaborate, she said, “When you apply the government looks at the cash value of the money you have in the bank, retirement accounts, annuities, and life insurance. So if you were to cash all these things in, then that amount is how much you could privately pay for long-term care,” she said.

She was quick to add that in addition to homes, countable assets can also be shielded through early and proper estate planning.

“This can be done by potentially structuring a trust of some sort and moving those assets into it. As long as you’re healthy or not needing long-term care for the next five years, whatever you place into that protective trust is not available and not countable when you apply for benefits later on down the road,” she said.

“If you’re even contemplating or having any type of conversation with your family members about the potential need for long-term care in the future, my recommendation is that you meet with a qualified estate planning and elder law attorney who can review the situation and try to put a game plan together.”

Source: http://RecommendedExperts.biz

Contact Info:
Name: Kelly Shovelin
Email: Send Email
Organization: Four Pillars Law Firm
Address: 2202 Wrightsville Avenue, Suite 213 Wilmington, NC 28403
Phone: (910) 762-1577
Website: https://www.fourpillarslawfirm.com

Source: MM-REB

Release ID: 88954700