Senior Life Care Planning helps clients and their loved ones navigate the maze of legal, care and financial issues associated with dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, or other disabling health issues.
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We see a number of cases, where a financial planner (scammer) sells an annuity to an 80 year old plus veteran with a 20 – year surrender penalty. Consequently, if the veteran has to be placed in a nursing home, the veteran will not qualify for medicaid, causing huge financial repercussions.
“This can be really important not only for older Americans, but also for their kids if they’re trying to deal with mom and dad and how they’re going to pay” for assisted-living and other long-term-care services.
The decision applies to annuities, which are irrevocable and nontransferable. In Lopes v. Starkowski [No. 3:lO-CV-307 (JCH)], the United Stated District Court in Connecticut ruled that the income stream from an unassignable immediate annuity is not an asset for Medicaid eligibility. As precedent, it cites a Third Circuit opinion —James v. Richman [547 F.3d 214 (3 Cir. 2008)]–which held that under the Supplemental Security Income program, “an unassignable annuity’s income stream would be treated as income and not as an asset.” But the new District Court decision went further, by stating that “it would be incongruent with the principles of…