Mother has to go into home but has $20K cash but is unable to spend it herself.
I have POA. Home financial department says I need to "spend down" her liquid assets to less than $2000.
No approved purchase options look good to me and I'm afraid to execute any, given I'm POA and not prime owner.
Looking for ideas.
Upgrading/Buying a car looks legit but not sure it does when the POA takes the action. She'll never drive again.
Home appliance purchases appear legit but she'll never need a washer dryer again.
Home improvements/repairs appear legit but she has no house or land.
If I got a trust for her the State will just claw that back after she dies.
Not sure it's not better to just pay for her daily for a few months and burn the cash that way and be done with it.
Any other children with POAs been in this situation and have any guidance to offer?
Certain services like cremation may be pre-paid.
A bidet toilet seat to wash her rear after using the bathroom. A lot easier than self wiping if she has or may have mobility issues. (Besides, it’s kind of fun.)
A Sara lift may be useful. It’s used to transfer a person with limited mobility between a bed and chair. (Hoyer lifts are usually paid via insurance so it may not be worth it.) Even if she doesn’t need it now she may later.
A large iPad. Computers may become too complicated and phones may be too small.
Clothes. I’m not talking about nice clothes. I mean stuff for around the home. Sweat pants, t-shirts, no-laces shoes. That kind of thing.
“Your best served by using the money to pay for things that will not be covered by Medicaid. Remember she will have only $ 30 - $ 60 a month in personal money to use once on Medicaid there will be no other money for her to access.
here's my suggestions:
A. if she has a home & you want to keep it - prepay utilities, property taxes,insurance, even do prepaid maintenance contracts for the yard, AC, etc. Poof $$$ all gone.
B. if she doesn't have a funeral & burial policy done - this will easily be more that $4K so another good spend down. The critical thing is to have the policy as
non-transferable and no cash value. NCV is a key when dealing with Medicaid.
C. if she doesn't have life insurance and is still young enough to buy it - a $ 1K or
$ 1,500 TERM life policy. This must be POD (paid on death) only with NCV and no ability to be transferred, the beneficiary ideally should be whomever is the executor of her estate. This would then be $$ the executor/family could use for her final/burial expenses. Again NCV is critical for anything you get for her.
Life insurance is sticky in that whole policies have a cash value (you don't want that). The CV amount of the policy MUST be under whatever is the Medicaid ceiling for insurance policies - for Texas it is $ 1,500. If not, you have to cash out the whole life policy before Medicaid will pay. For term policies, it's also important if mom is still kinda young enough to outlive her term policy to the point that it produces a dividend. That dividend is "income" for Medicaid so you need for the
dividend to either be: 1) required to be put back into the policy with no cash distribution OR 2) of such a low amount that it is under the state's ceiling. My experience is that insurance agents hate writing these as they make no real $$ on these type of policies. AARP seem to have the best & easy to set in place ones.
D. legal stuff - If she doesn't have a will, DPOA, MPOA and "guardianship in case of incapacity" done, then go see an elder care attorney to have this drawn up.
This maybe will cost $ 500 - 750 and well worth it.
E. if you have all of the above already done - dental work for mom. Get whatever done ASAP. 1 crown, cleaning and xrays & gum work and poof! 4k gone.
F. New glasses, hearing aid and a good premium walker (like a Hugo) are also good items to buy as Medicaid reinburseable's on those items are cheap and ugly.
G. New easy to put on and hot water washable clothing.
Remember to keep all the receipts and business cards, in case there is a glitch when her application is reviewed. Good luck!”
She wants her body to go to science so there might not be any cremation expenses. No funeral so nothing to buy there.
She's already in a home so will have to ask about dental and hearing aids.
Soooooooo much I don't know yet. :-(
My Mom also had about 20K. I started her application in April, placed her May 1st. She paid May and June privately. June I confirmed with the caseworker that Mom was spent down and they had all info needed. Her Medicaid started July 1st.
Mom had an insurance policy with cash value that I had to cash in. Medicaid allows for a prepaid funeral up to a certain amt. If no insurance than part of the 20k can be used as for a prepaid funeral.
I would not buy a car. It will become an albatross around ur neck. Because if sold, it has to be at market value.
You cannot set up a trust now. Thats hiding money in Medicaids eyes. Use the 20k for caregivers. But I found that by placing Mom for those 2 months on private pay, things went so much easier.
Dental work?
Hearing aids?
glasses. .and get more than 1 pair they seem to go missing a lot.
Does she use a walker? A new walker
Is she using a wheelchair? A better one.
Being private pay for a time might not be a bad idea as well.
Is there anything that she will need for her room? A better bed? Alternating pressure mattress? Her own shower wheelchair?
I'd still like to hear responses from folks in the same situation that I'm in as a PoA and if they did "spend down", what strategies and tactics they used.
Igloo lives in Louisiana.
She was POA. Her mom was in NH on Medicaid but In Texas. She knows the rules for La and Texas.
Cwillies mom was in NH. So was JoAnns.
The thing is after your moms money is gone, it is gone. Anything that she might need in the future will be whatever you can provide for her or her personal need allowance will cover or what you purchased with her money before she needed it and it was spent down.
P.S.
I have an aunt and uncle who are donating their bodies to science. uncle is donating his to the university he “always wanted to go to”. 🤔
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