Video Summary

Good afternoon.  I’m Tom Mitchell, one of the partners of Waller & Mitchell, and one of the things that I do is practice elder law, and one of the main questions I get fairly frequently about elder law is, “I have a family member who’s going to a nursing home.  How are we going to pay for it?”  And that’s a serious question with nursing home costs running anywhere from $6,000.00 to $8,000.00 a month.

There are some public assistance programs to help pay for the nursing home care of an individual, and that’s the government that we’re talking about so they define indigency a little bit different than you and I do.

For a married couple the spouse who’s staying at home can have approximately $120,000.00 of liquid assets.  The spouse going into the nursing home can only have $2,000.00 of liquid assets.  The spouse going into the nursing home also cannot have monthly income of more than $2,025.00 a month.  If there is more income than that, we have to set up a special trust to capture that income and pay it to the spouse or the nursing home.

Basically what happens is the nursing home spouse’s income is paid first to the spouse staying at home to make sure they’re not impoverished.  Then the nursing home person gets to keep $35.00 for personal expenses – toothpaste, hairbrush – and then the balance of the income is paid to the nursing home.  The rest of the expenses of the nursing home is paid by the state through the Medicaid Program.

So there in a nutshell is how you can help pay for the nursing home care of an individual in your family who may have to go.

Once again, this is Tom Mitchell, one of the lawyers of Waller & Mitchell.  Our telephone number is 727-847-2288.

Summary

I’m Tom Mitchell, a partner with Waller & Mitchell, and I do elder law here.  One of the things that I do is planning for individuals who might have to go into a nursing home and need to ensure that their assets are not completely dissipated.  I frequently am asked, “Is the nursing home going to take my house when I go?”  And the answer is no. 

First, under Florida law there is a provision called the Florida Homestead Provision.  And that’s not the homestead that you have on your real estate taxes, but this is a provision of the Florida Constitution that says your house, the house that you reside in before you went into the nursing home, is your homestead and is exempt from forced sale by your creditors.  Which means that the nursing home cannot force you to sell it in order to pay the bills.  And after your death, if it’s willed to your heirs, your blood relatives, or children for example, it continues to have that exemption from creditors’ claims. 

So whether you’re married or single, you can have the house.  If you’re single, you can only have $2,000.00 in the bank.  That’s all you can have, and all the rest of your assets have to be dissipated, spent on the nursing home in order to pay for your care.  Now, there are some other planning opportunities that I can do for you if you need to have that done, so give me a call if that’s the situation. 

But in a married situation, the spouse who’s staying at home gets to keep additional liquid assets so that they are not impoverished.  Currently the liquid asset amount is about $115,000.00 of liquid assets.  That’s stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and cash in the bank.  This does not include the house or car and does not include the usual household effects: the toaster, blender or the big screen TV. 

So in a nutshell, the nursing home is not going to take your house.  If you have any questions, please call me at Waller & Mitchell.  We’re located at 5332 Main Street in New Port Richey.  My telephone number is 727-847-2288.  Thanks.