Currently splitting in-home care with a family member who is becoming impossible to work with and threatening my father's well being to get their way. We don't have money to pay out of pocket but his pension is too much to qualify for assistance. I need a step by step plan. In the eldercare community it seems as though no one offers actual advice and they just want to email information to you. I am not going to stake my father's well being on my ability to learn all about long term elder care programs in few weeks. I need someone with legal and eldercare expertise who can look over my father's finances and design a path to get from point A to a care facility that insures his assets are dealt with the best way. I have found some attorneys but they appear to be focused on upper class income levels. A couple of good sources offering bits of useful advice do not work with people in my area. Please chime in with advice, personal experience and recommendations. FYI I have POA for finance and health, authorization to access bank funds, manage his finances, I am executor of the will, named as DNR agent, etc.
Pooled trusts are being done in certains parts of the US & seem like a good option to consider for those states. Miller, I think, can be drawn up in all states.
Miller Trust is done all the time for those with just too much monthly income to qualify for Medicaid &needing a NH. If his income is a qualified guaranteed pension, he can get a Miller done. It is not a DIY project, he needs an experienced eider law atty to set it up to be compliant & flexible for your states Medicaid.
How it works is roughly like this.....say Mom gets 1k of dads retirement, 800 SS& 1k from her own retirement. 2,800 a mo income. But your states Medicaid income limit is 2,200 a mo. Mom is 600 over the limit no matter what. What miller does is that it becomes the payee for all the income & then "pays" mom 2,200 and the 600 stays in the trust. Voila! Problem solves. Now the excess is either paid to the facility or goes into a fund owned by the state. Neither the elder or family ever get the excess. The income has to meet guaranteed & eligible standards for a Miller to work but most incomes do.