“Bonnie Kraham: What you can and can’t do with a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust,” by Bonnie Kraham, Times Herald-Record

“Following is what you may and may not do with the amazing MAPT. Although the MAPT is an irrevocable trust, you may revoke irrevocable trusts in New York if all the parties, usually the parents and adult children, consent in writing. You may also amend the MAPT, such as changing beneficiaries. … You may save money from nursing home costs even if the assets have not been in the MAPT for five years. For single applicants for Medicaid in a nursing home you may save about half of the assets headed to the nursing home with the ‘gift and loan strategy.’ For married couples, when one spouse applies for Medicaid in a nursing home, the spouse at home may keep the house and between $74,820 and $126,420 in other assets. If the couple owns more assets than allowed, we have the New York law of ‘spousal refusal’ that allows the spouse at home to keep the extra assets and ‘refuse’ to pay the nursing home.”

 

 

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

This is New York, but Medicaid planners market the MAPT all across the country. If you support the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, this is what you’re trying to change. We advocate public policy to target scarce public resources to those in need while incentivizing those who now take out MAPT’s to pay for their own care.