This is a guest post by Dagmar M. Pollex, J.D, an estate planning attorney based in Quincy, MA.  

The topic of protecting one’s savings from the cost of a long-term care situation is a key retirement planning issue for Baby Boomers approaching retirement and those already in retirement.  Additionally it is a major concern for those with aging parents as well.

Today, the risk of losing your life savings to a long term care illness looms as the largest threat to your future security. That’s why one of the biggest questions and concerns many people have about their lifetime financial security is what would happen if they suffer a long term disabling illness, such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s.

The reason for this concern is clear. The cost of long term care varies according to where you live. Last year private room nursing home rates jumped 3.8 percent to a nationwide average of $90,520. In some parts of the country like Massachusetts and New York, the average cost is $120,000.00 to $150,000.00 a year – and increasing rapidly.

Long-Term Care Insurance

Medicare does not cover this cost so without long term care insurance, it wouldn’t take long for most families to lose all of their hard-earned life savings. If you are in your 60’s and in reasonably good health, it’s a wise idea to consult with a long term care insurance specialist. A long term care advisor can show you a variety of options tailored to your budget. But what if you can’t get long term care insurance because of a medical condition? What if your income and savings, especially after retirement, just won’t be enough to afford complete coverage?

First of all, don’t assume you need to purchase lifetime coverage. Even three to five years of coverage has provided important value to many of my clients.  To fill in the gap if insurance is not enough or if it’s just not obtainable, there is an increasingly popular asset planning technique for middle-class families today. With people living much longer these days comes the growing concern that some of the later years will eat up a lifetime of savings.

If you can’t get long term care insurance or can’t afford it or even if you have just a few years of coverage, this type of planning can protect assets from the worst case scenario of needing long term nursing home care for a substantial period of time.

Using a Trust

Planning ahead by using an irrevocable trust to preserve some of your assets helps you avoid the devastating loss of your life savings to a catastrophic illness. This type of trust which I call a Long Term Care Asset Protection Trust is also sometimes called a Medicaid Trust or an Income Only Irrevocable Trust.

The use of this kind of planning has increased in the last few years, especially since changes federal Medicaid law enacted in 2006 eliminated last minute planning opportunities. As a result, people who want preserve assets now need to plan before the need for care arises.

Many people have heard about this kind of planning but want to know more about how it works, when it should be used and the practical differences between an irrevocable asset protection trust and a revocable trust.

The Long Term Care Asset Protection Trust is a legal planning tool that is designed to protect some or all of your assets in case there is a need for an extended period of long term care in the future.

As the name implies, these trusts are irrevocable and require you to give up a certain degree of control over the assets transferred to the trust.  In exchange for protecting your assets from the astronomical cost of nursing home care, Long Term Care Asset Protection Trusts have some conditions attached to the use of the assets in the trust.

Under the terms of these trusts, the transferor (“grantor”) can receive all of the income produced by the assets in the trust for the grantor’s lifetime.  So by using a Long Term Care Asset Protection Trust, you can still reserve some control and retain some interest in the transferred assets – advantages that are not available when transfers are made outright to individuals.

You receive the income from the trust assets, but not the principal.  If you transfer your home to the trust, you can continue to live there.

Because Long Term Care Asset Protection Trusts are irrevocable, the grantor cannot revoke the trust and reacquire the assets; therefore, the assets are protected for long term care Medicaid eligibility purposes.

Long Term Care Asset Protection Trusts can be written to provide income tax advantages, and to allow the grantor some flexibility to change his or her beneficiaries. The trusts can also be drafted to allow the trust assets to obtain a “step-up” in value so your beneficiaries will not have to pay additional capital gains tax.

Dagmar is an estate planning attorney based in Quincy, MA.  Follow her on Twitter. 

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