November 2016

Interested In Blowing Up Your Annuity Sales AND Helping Your Clients?The Most Important Change In Medicaid Rules For Financial Advisors In A Decade.

In recent months, the Texas Long-term Care Medicaid made an enormous change to the rules.

✤ This change has the potential to explode your annuity sales.

Imagine telling a client that you can help them get the care they need all while saving 100% of their IRA assets in the process

✤The need for long-term care is exploding as our population ages.

✤Long-term care expenses can exceed $60,000.00 annually for one individual.

✤This not only impacts the economic security of the family, but reverberates around that family.

✤If you, as a financial advisor, manage an IRA for a client who needs long-term care, you watch as the account slowly dissolves into nothing…

✤It is not just the family’s bottom line being affected, but yours as well.

Spending Those Precious IRA Assets Was, In Most Cases, Unnecessary.

✤Only around 7% of the population that needs long-term care actually has long-term care insurance.

Spending Those Precious IRA Assets Was, In Most Cases, Unnecessary.

✤Few can privately pay $5,000.00 to $7,500.00 per month without taking a significant hit to their retirement assets.

Spending Those Precious IRA Assets Was, In Most Cases, Unnecessary.

✤That leaves qualifying for Medicaid.

Long-term Care Medicaid is the only government program available to pay for nursing home costs.

The most important change in Medicaid rules for financial advisors in a decade

Medicaid

✤ Medicaid determines eligibility for an individual by dividing their assets into:

countable resources and

non-countable resources.

✤The non-countable resources have no effect on eligibility

Getting someone qualified for Medicaid is a matter of either:

✤spending the countable resources

✤ transferring them in one of the Medicaid permitted ways

✤converting the resources from countable to non-countable.

So Why Does This Matter To A Financial Advisor?

✤ The home is a non-countable asset✤ IRAs, however, are generally

countable

It No Longer Has To Be This Way

Due to a recent change in Texas Medicaid Policy:

IRAs and other qualified accounts may be treated as either

✤ countable

OR

✤ non-countable

…simply because of the investment structure!

Retirement Related Annuitiesare NOT a countable asset for Medicaid eligibility

Take for example✤ A married couple with:

a home, car and $300,000.00 IRA

need only have you purchase a $200,000.00 qualified annuity

✤ the spouse in the facility can qualify for Medicaid

✤ while the retirement assets are preserved for the spouse at home

“There Is No Better Result Than When Everybody

Wins.”

Lining up assets so that a person qualifies for Medicaid is legal surgery and the consequences of doing it wrong can be just as catastrophic. Not to mention that any non-attorney who advises a person on Medicaid commits a Class A misdemeanor subject to jail and fines. The Elder Law attorneys of Ross & Shoalmire, LLP have been advising clients on long-term care asset protection and estate planning for years. We assist clients across Texas and Arkansas with Medicaid, Veteran Benefits, Wills and Trusts daily and have a dedicated team of elder law attorneys and Medicaid/VA case workers that can help guide you and your client on the right path to protecting your client’s resources and preserving your book of business. Initial consultations are always free of charge. Financial advisors can use us as a resource at any time for answers to questions and guidance.