Medicaid Annuities - Affordable Long-Term-Care Insurance?

Ending up in a nursing home is a frightening thought. What worries most people is the fact that all of their assets will go to the nursing home rather than their loved ones. Long-term care insurance is one answer. Unfortunately, not only is this type of insurance coverage very expensive, but many times there are many exclusions and other limitations.

Several years ago, a very smart insurance company came up with a hybrid type of long-term care policy called the “medicaid annuity”. Usually the “medicaid annuity” provides for extensive nursing home coverage for a limited time period, say 3 ½ years. The time period covered by the policy is usually enough time for the insured to jettison all of his or her assets to the loved ones so that the person qualifies for medicaid. This type of gifting is usually called a “spend-down”. As long as enough time as past between the jettison of the assets and the medicaid qualification, the transfer cannot be attacked.

Due to the budget crisis most states are facing, it is likely that this funding technique will be attacked. For example several states will attack a financial plan (scheme?) involving “medicaid annuities” unless the policy was purchased more than 5 years before the medicaid application. If you want to take advantage of the “medicaid annuity”, you should probably start looking into the various policies now. Also, before making any decision, you should consult with an attorney experienced in this area.

We wanted to establish a bit of extra income. There was a good recommendation about ImmediateAnnuities.com on CNN. We also liked that we could see excellent reviews about them on Google. They were very thorough from our first inquiry to when we decided to buy our annuity from Mass Mutual. They always answered our questions promptly and followed up with the insurance company, too. We have been receiving our monthly payments since last November and couldn’t be happier. What more can we say?

Keith and Samantha Isley

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