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Do you have any personal experience with Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts (MAPTs)?
To those unfamiliar, MAPTs are irrevocable trusts designed to preserve family’s assets while maximizing an applicant’s chances of qualifying for Medicaid.
Would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Hey Bogdan, great subject.
I know they are irrevocable trusts, and that here in Ohio there is a five year look-back, and they must be created five years before you need LTC. The irrevocable part kind of scares me. Of course, you can’t put IRAs into a trust without first taking a full distribution. (Most of our non-real estate assets are traditional IRAs). Still, if the kids needed our legacy, I would consider the trust, but since they have more money than we do, I’m concerned about that aspect.
We did that for my mother-in-law’s condo. She wanted to leave it to our daughter to pay for college, and the estate lawyer set up an MAPT for her.
We’re now past the five-year lookback period, and MIL’s SS payment is more than the Medicaid income limit, so it was probably a moot point. Still, it was nice to know that things were done correctly for estate planning, etc.