Elderly Parent and Govt ability to take home for nursing home

[Nate Rohlf]

  Hello all,

I'm currently in the process of going in on the purchase of a home for my mother in the state of either Iowa or Nebraska.   My brothers and sisters are wanting to purchase a home for our 65 yr/old mother. She has absolutely no money/retirement/assets and will be retiring next year. We plan putting all of us kids as well as our mom on the title. However my mom may be the only one on the loan, maybe another 1-2 of us kids. 

I know that the fed can take her home to pay for the cost of the nursing home care if she doesn't have any money. My question is if all of us children are on the title will the fed govt still be able to confiscate the house if we had to place her in a nursing home? Are there any other ways around this? Thank you in advance.

Nate

[Rob Poulin]

You may have already checked into this ... or maybe have reservations about using one, but in my area, there are companies who specialize in this. Some are lawyers, some are not. They specialize in asset protection, estate plans, etc. for seniors. Specifically, they will help you to protect those assets if/when your parent must go into managed care. Search Elder Law. Here is a couple of examples from my area. Just examples. You would want to find one in your/your mother's area because laws can be different from state to state. 

http://bobyoungberg.bizland.com/index.html

http://the-sb-lawfirm.com/services/revocable-livin...

Many times they give free consultations. 

They can tell you exactly the right steps to take. Elder law is a growing area (baby boomers aging).