My mom isnt exactly well to do-but she does have money. She is 83 and in good health for a woman of her age. Lately she is talking about giving each of her grown children $5000 each. As she says she dont want to end up giiving all her money to a nursing home if and when she would need to go to one. We live in Illinois and I tried explaining to her the pay down effect regarding assets and that if she should need to go into the nursing home within a 5 year period that money would be considered an accountable asset.
So my question is this-is there an allowable amount she could give that would not be counted in her assets?
Well you do what you can from afar. You know if she wants too, she should go ahead and gift out the $ now and not just the 5K each. If she has 100K (or whatever is burning a hole in her bank account), then do 50K dated 2012 and 50K dated Jan, 2013 and do it evenly and then just move on and hope nothing happens till 2019 when she is 88. Good luck & keep a sense of humor, you'll need it.lol.