We’ve been suggesting for years that every advisor who gives advice to clients age 60 and over who has less than 1 million dollars must learn Medicaid planning.
Why? Because there will be 80 million American’s will be over 65 by 2040; 75% will require LTC during their lifetime (50% for a minimum of one year and 20% over five years); The average monthly private pay cost for nursing home care is over $5,000 a month.
Why else? Because if you don’t you run the risk of a lawsuit and you will most certainly not be able to give the best advice to such clients.
Qualifying for Medicaid
Do you know that, in order to qualify for Medicaid, single individuals have to spend their “countable” assets down to $2,000 in most states? Money in CDs, money market accounts, IRAs, 401(k) plans, land, stocks/bond, etc, are considered countable resources and MUST be spent down before qualifying for Medicaid.
Do you know the many exempted expenditures clients can spend money on to benefit themselves or their heirs and still qualify for Medicaid?
Do you know the Medicaid recovery rules, what the government will go after for repayment of benefits provided, and how to position client’s assets so they are not subject to recovery? The look back period for gifts made to avoid having to spend that money on nursing home care and to try and qualify for Medicaid is now 60 months (5-years); but oftentimes these gifting rules can be used to your client’s advantage.
The are planning techniques advisors can learn to help protect a client’s money from Medicaid spend down rules and unfortunately, most advisors are not familiar with them. What’s worse, most adivsors give the wrong or bad advice. Nothing you provide advice on will have as high a liability than the failure to give proper long-term care Medicaid advice, because the penalties could be high and could cause a client to lose all of their money.
Most advisors don’t know the answers to these basic questions which is why we believe so strongly in trying to educate advisors on this subject matter.
The bottom line is that most Americans DO NOT properly plan for the inevitable long term care expenses that await them. Unfortunately, there are very few advisors that know anything about helping clients protect their asset from Medicaid spend down and recovery. We offer two leading-edge products that can help you learn this material even if you’ve never had any exposure to it.
The first tool is the Medicaid Planning Guidebook. This seminal work authored by leading Medicaid Planning expert Michael Anthony, JD, is the most authoritative textbook on the subject in print. It clearly explains the Medicaid Planning process from start to finish and provides numerous real-life examples. Each chapter is full of practice tips to give you an insider’s perspective in the Medicaid planning and application process.
The second tool is the Medicaid Planning Course. This course is taught by the author of the Guidebook and goes through the guidebook in 17 1-hour sessions. Not only does it help explain the material in laymen’s terms, but it provides anecdotes and practical advice for understanding the material and developing successful Medicaid Planning cases.
The book and course have gotten rave reviews from Certified Medicaid Planners™ across the country. By learning Medicaid planning, you will make sure you positioned to give the best advice to your senior clients and be positioned to grow your business substantially (because few advisors know this subject and you’ll have very little competition).
