How to protect your wealth from the cost of a nursing home

The Olsen on Law Radio Show has been on the air for 40 years. From our radio show, we have videos of real people asking real legal questions. We help people to avoid probate and do their estate planing including wills, living trusts and powers of attorney. We also help people get free in-home care for seniors and help people protect their wealth from the cost of a nursing home. We are the Olsen Law Group in Orlando and we assist clients throughout the State of Florida.
Attorney Tom Olsen: Robert, when I'm talking to the public and I'm talking to my workshops and I'm talking to clients and I always say words like this, that, "Hey, if you're--" this is for listeners of the radio show now, "If you're out there talking to your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and you hear these words, 'Oh, mom is going into a nursing home. That nursing home costs $12,000 a month. Everything she's ever worked for going to be down the drain, nothing we can do about it.'"
I want to tell people, no, that is not the case. Here at the Olson Law Group, we have all the tools we need to protect mom or dads or married couples' assets from the cost of a nursing home, whether it's their home or vacation home. Tell listeners about that, Robert.
Attorney Robert Hidock: I always joke with people, "Oh, I've got too much money." I'm like, "Well, I can probably make you in the asset limit within about five minutes, because all the tools that we have can do it." Yesterday, I had a referral from a financial planning group, and they told me, "There's no way you're going to get him qualified because they already did a buy-in at a facility." The way it turned out, there's a tool that we can use, a spousal refusal, which is a spend down of assets, but it's a spend down from spouse to spouse. The mom can go on Medicaid while the dad keeps every single penny he has.
I love that part of it. Almost every case is different, and you just have to think of the way of protecting the right asset. There is no case that is too hard, too complicated, no dollar amount too high, no income limit too high. It's just getting in front of them and figuring that plan out.
Tom: All I really have is a couple of qualifiers for that. Number one, we're talking about Florida Law. Medicaid is a combination of both state and federal law. What's true here in Florida is not necessarily true in other states. We're talking about Florida Law. Then, number two, the only qualifier is that to do this, you must have a good, durable power of attorney for financial affairs. If we, under those two situations, we got you covered, we can take care of this for anybody here in the state of Florida.
Folks, again, as you're out there in the community talking friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and you hear the word somebody's going to a nursing home, $12,000 a month, everything they've worked for down the drain, nothing we can do, please let them know Olson Law Group, we have all the tools we need to protect their life savings from the cost of a nursing home. Let's go a step further. Also, tools we need to get them free in-home care to keep them out of a nursing home, Robert, right? That's what people want to do. They want to stay home as long as they can.
Robert: Yes. Tom, no one is jumping up and down saying they want to go to a skilled nursing facility. It's always, "I want to stay home as long as I can." This will certainly allow them to stay home longer.
Tom: All right.