MAY 2018 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 89
THE BEST GIFT YOU CAN GIVE YOUR CHILDREN
By Ronald A. Fatoullah and Elizabeth Forspan, Esq.
For much of our 30’s and 40’s
most of us focus on building
a family and tending to the
needs of one’s spouse and
children. One’s life becomes
very busy, filled with day to
day responsibilities, managing
family and a job. Time goes
quickly by and you may wake
up one day and find that your
children are grown, or perhaps
they are now married with
children of their own. You have
always placed the needs of
your family first, and now you
are 50, 55, or 60 and you need
to adapt, reinvent yourself and
learn how to take care of your
own needs. It is a part of life;
however, many people have
not prepared for this change
and it can be overwhelming.
Like many others, you may
have procrastinated about
planning, or maybe you just
didn’t want to think about
getting older or potentially
becoming disabled and
needing long-term care. No
one wants to think about
making possible end-of-life
decisions. However, in our
field, it is not uncommon
to hear about an adult child
who has been left to make
funeral plans, deal with
probate, or navigate the myriad
complications of assets and/
or debts that have been left to
them by parents who failed
to plan. No parent would
consciously want to leave their
children in this situation, but
all too often we see parents
who failed to prepare for
the possibility of their own
long-term sickness or end of
life. Their adult children may
now be faced with making
difficult decisions at a time
when they are very emotional,
overwhelmed, and possibly
grieving.
What many people overlook
is the fact that if they require
long term care, either in a
nursing home or in their
own homes, such care is not
covered by Medicare or other
primary health insurance for
more than a short period of
time. For example, Medicare
may cover up to 100 days
of care in a Skilled Nursing
Facility so long as the patient
needs skilled care. However,
if that patient requires care
beyond Medicare’s coverage
limit, then without any longterm
care insurance that
patient may be responsible for
the full cost of his or her care.
Many nursing homes now
charge in excess of $500.00 per
day, and home health aides
can cost between $20 and
$30 per hour. Thus, for many
individuals, Medicaid may
very well be the only option
available to them to cover the
cost of long-term care.
In order to qualify for
Medicaid, an applicant
must prove that he or she is
financially eligible to qualify
(i.e. has very limited assets).
This requires submitting a
detailed application with
a great deal of supporting
documentation to the local
Medicaid agency. The rules
and regulations governing
Medicaid are quite complex,
and often each county’s
department of social services
interprets these rules
differently.
Regardless of where one
resides in New York, there is
a specific process involved in
applying for Medicaid home
care services. There is no
financial look-back period for
this type of Medicaid as long
as one is financially eligible on
the first day of the month the
application is filed. For 2018,
the New York State monthly
income allowance is $862 and
the resource allowance is a
maximum of $15,150. Many
people applying for Medicaid
services are well above these
thresholds (although no one
would consider them “rich”).
There are options available
which will help qualify the
individual for Medicaid.
Nursing home Medicaid
has a five-year lookback of
all financial information
prior to the application. The
applicant can have no more
than $15,150 in allowable
resources; however, all of
the applicant’s income is
required to be turned over to
the nursing home with the
exception of a $50 allowance.
For 2018, if a nursing home
Medicaid applicant has a
spouse in the community, the
community spouse is allowed
to keep $3,090.00 per month
of the combined total income
for spousal support and the
nursing home resident would
turn over any additional
income to the nursing home.
One of the best gifts you
can give your children and
yourself is to be prepared
legally and financially for your
twilight years and the end of
life. There are several steps
you can take to ensure that
your wishes are fulfilled and
that many difficult decisions
are not left to your children
to handle. These include
preparing and purchasing
an irrevocable Funeral Preplan,
appointing a health care
proxy, appointing a power of
attorney, drafting a living will
and last will and testament
and possibly placing property
and/or financial holdings in an
asset preservation trust. There
are significant complexities
in these plans, thus an
experienced attorney should
be consulted.
An individual is not obliged
to retain a lawyer to assist
him or her with applying for
Medicaid. Indeed, applicants
can prepare their own
applications. However, nonlawyer
professionals cannot
give legal advice. Elder law
attorneys will not only assist
their clients by preparing their
Medicaid applications, but will
also advise them on options
to preserve all or a significant
portion of their hard-earned
assets. In addition, an elder
law attorney will often review
his or her clients’ estate plans,
advise them on how to arrange
their affairs so as to avoid any
future claim by Medicaid and
will advise them regarding the
various tax implications.
Ronald A. Fatoullah, Esq. is the founder of Ronald Fatoullah & Associates, a law firm that concentrates in elder law, estate planning, Medicaid planning, guardianships, estate
administration, trusts, wills, and real estate. Elizabeth Forspan, Esq. is the managing attorney of the firm. The law firm can be reached at 516-466-4422, or toll free
at 1-877-ELDER-LAW or 1-877-ESTATES. Mr. Fatoullah is also a partner with Advice Period, a wealth management firm, and he can be reached at 424-256-7273.