Video Summary
Good afternoon. My name is Tom Mitchell. I’m a partner at the law firm of Waller & Mitchell. We’re located at 5332 Main Street in Downtown New Port Richey, Florida. I specialize in elder law. That is: I deal with wills and trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare surrogates, living wills, will and trust administration, public benefits qualifications, guardianship, and asset protection for seniors.
Hey there, 50 and 60-year-olds. How are your 70 to 90-year-old parents doing? Are you concerned that they’ll have enough money to live to the end of their lifetime and have quality of life? Are they concerned that they’ll have enough money to live to the end of their life and have something left to give to their children and grandchildren? If so, you need to consult with Waller & Mitchell. We can help you with this.
The average cost for a nursing home in the State of Florida, in the West Pasco area, is about $6,500.00 a month. If one of your family members – your parent, mother or father – is looking at the prospect of going into a nursing home in the near future, there are several things that we can do to help them get qualified at an earlier time, and to help preserve funds for the senior generation to pass to the junior generation.
One of the techniques that we use in this circumstance is called a “caregiver trust.” It’s specifically referred to in the Florida statutes, and it allows the spouse who is living at home – the well spouse, as we refer to it – to set up a trust for the benefit of the spouse who’s living in the nursing home, which we call the “institutionalized spouse.”
If that trust that’s set up by the well spouse contains at least 30 percent of the assets that are owned by the husband and wife team, then the money can be in the trust, and the nursing home spouse is not disqualified from receiving public benefits.
So if you’d like to look into something like this, please contact Waller & Mitchell at 727-847-2288, and I can help you.