When my ex-wife passed away, she left her estate to our daughter from a Special Needs Trust. Medicaid Estate Recovery Program wants to recover all liquid assets from the inheritance (no home involved). Our divorce decree stated that she owed me a sum of money and contribution to our daughter's college expenses which she never paid. If I make a claim against the estate, would this be paid before Medicaid recovery?
When I applied for Medicaid, I was told the will was null and void. (Later told this was not completely correct) Meaning, that Medicaid had a right to recover before beneficiaries received any inheritance. (Not completely correct, I found out, because there r provisions for disabled children and others who may have lived with a person, but we won't go into that.)
I am a Trustee to my nephews SNT. To get this Trust nephew had to go before a judge with paperwork showing his disability. This was done to protect my late sisters life insurance that nephew was beneficiary of. Social Services suggested this so he could apply for SS and Medicaid.
Just an opinion, but if wife was on Medicaid of any kind, Medicaid should have been reimbursed and money left would go to SNT.
In my opinion, you have a divorce decree. It may not trump Medicaid but it may trump the SNT. Because you have 3 different things going on here, the lawyer who set up the trust maybe able to answer these questions. My nephews was pretty much versed in SS and medicaid law.