Funeral Trusts

Money put in a funeral trust can be excluded under the special rules that allow a patient to pre-pay for his or her funeral (and his or her spouse’s) before qualifying for Medicaid.  Funeral trusts allow for family to maintain the maximum choices available while using money which would otherwise have to be spent on nursing home care.

A funeral trust is considered a protected asset, one that most people neglect to invest in before the need for long-term care arises.  Even if you’re already spending down your assets in the nursing home, you can still purchase the funeral trust as one of the ways to help spend down countable assets.

One of the common reasons often cited by the consumer for not buying a pre-paid funeral is that they don’t feel like committing to one company or one funeral home.  They need something that’s flexible.

The funeral trust offers the flexibility they need while at the same time providing the protection they need from the Medicaid spend down.  The choices can be made at the leisure of the person and not dictated by the urgency of the circumstances.  Or you can leave the choices up to your loved ones to do what’s best.  But all the while, you’ll know that it’s covered and can’t be touched or spent down if you need care.

Because of the certainty of death, a funeral trust makes sense in almost every Medicaid planning situation.

Call us or email us to see if funeral trust is right for you!