Florida estate planning laws, selling a home and avoiding medicaid lien

Thanks for your question. My heart goes out to you and your family on your mother’s situation. Since I am an attorney, I cannot ethically give you specific legal advice on your situation, since you are not my client, but I can only provide you with general information that you may find helpful. The best advice that I can recommend to you is to contact a local Elder Care attorney that is familiar with the state Medicaid laws.

Generally speaking, since Medicaid is a state program that is considered to be a public assistance program, a recipient of benefits are required to deplete their assets to pay for their care prior to receiving state paid benefits. In addition, if the recipient owns a house, they are not required to sell the home (to raise money for care) but the state will seek recovery of the value of the assets upon the recipient’s death. In transferring of assets prior to five years of receipt of public benefits may cause the state to seek recovery for the just value. In general, a true life estate is considered to be a beneficially ownership (not a legal ownership) and is extinguished with the death of your mother and would not be considered to be a “probate” asset, so there would be no recovery.

At this point, I would strongly recommend that you and your brother review the deed with licensed Florida attorney that works in the area of Elder Care. There are many issues that can’t be fleshed out in this public discussion board, such as the exact type of deed that was issued, the timing of the issuance of the deed, and the current value of the life estate of your mother (based upon her life’s expectancy) that you should discuss with your attorney.

Best of luck to you and your family.
Shawn C. Newman, Esq.
Attorney At Law
1881 NE 26th Street, Suite 212E
Wilton Manors, FL 33305
(877) 552-9385

Thanks for question- She can not sell home without signature of you and your brother and the home is exempt from medicaid calculation. If she sells home with your consent -the cash she receives could be used against her qualifying without medicaid planning assistance.