Ohio Medicaid Asset Planning: A Practical Toolkit

Agenda / Content Covered

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1. Qualifying for Medicaid: Eligibility Criteria
   9:00 - 10:00, Bryan C. Palmer
   1. Top Misconceptions on What Medicaid and Medicare Cover
   2. Who Actually Needs Medicaid?
   3. Quality of Care and Patient Protections Concerns
   4. Is it Too Late to Plan for Medicaid Once You're in the Nursing Home?
   5. Medicaid Criteria
      1. Medical Eligibility
      2. Resource Eligibility
      3. Income Eligibility
      4. The Lookback Rule
      5. The Gifting Rule
   6. Transfer Eligibility
   7. Myths About Medicaid Estate Recovery
2. Planning Ahead: Gifts, Exempt Purchases and Asset Transfers
   10:15 - 11:00, Bryan C. Palmer
   1. Purchasing Excluded Assets
   2. Converting to Excluded Assets
   3. Prepaying for Services, Expenses, Taxes
   4. What Counts as a Gift for Purposes of Medicaid Planning?
   5. Qualifying Asset Transfers
   6. Transferring Real Property Without Jeopardizing Medicaid Eligibility
   7. Private Annuities and Promissory Notes
   8. Treatment of IRAs and Retirement Accounts
3. Medicaid Qualifying Income Trusts
   12:00 - 1:00, Ashley Sorgen
   1. When to Use Income-Only Trusts
   2. Can Self-Settled Trusts Harm Medicaid Eligibility?
   3. Taxation of Medicaid Qualifying Trusts
   4. Drafting Key Trust Provisions (With a Review of a Sample Trust)
   5. Are IOTs Subject to Medicaid Estate Recovery?
   6. Funding the Trust
4. Special Needs Trusts: Protecting Benefits While Providing for Beneficiary Expenses
   1:00 - 2:00, Ashley Sorgen
   1. SNTs vs. ABLE Accounts: Estate Recovery and Other Considerations
   2. First-Party vs. Third-Party SNTs: Which One to Use?
   3. Which Assets to Use for Funding the Trust
   4. Choosing the Right Trustee
   5. Drafting Key SNT Provisions (With Sample Trust Language)
5. Ensuring Spousal Protections
   2:00 - 2:30, Gregory S. French
   1. Maximizing Monthly Maintenance Need Allowance for Community Spouse
   2. Community Spouse Resource Allowance and CSRA Appeal
   3. Using Homestead Exceptions
   4. Obtaining Hardship Waivers
   5. Is Divorce a Prudent Option?
6. Asset Transfers in Crisis Planning
   2:45 - 3:30, Gregory S. French
   1. Using Asset Purchases and Asset Conversions from Countable to Excluded
   2. Asset Transfers and the Reverse Half-Loaf Method
   3. Crafting Caregiver Agreements Between Parent and Child
   4. Residence Transfer Options
   5. Calculating and Contesting the Penalty Period
   6. Dealing with Partial Months of Ineligibility
   7. What to Do with Unexpected Cash Inflows
7. Maintaining an Ethical Practice
   3:30 - 4:30, Robert G. Hyland
   1. Who is the Client?
   2. Avoiding Conflicts of Interest When Representing Couples
   3. Setting Reasonable Attorney Fees
   4. Guarding Confidentiality
   5. Verifying Client Capacity
   6. Dealing with Third Parties: Who's Present and Talking in Meetings with Clients?
   7. Scope of Representation
   8. Client with a Disability: What are Your Duties?

GREGORY S. FRENCH is certified as an elder law attorney by the Ohio State Bar Association and the National Elder Law Foundation. He also is accredited by the VA to handle veterans' claims. Mr. French is a fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and a member of NAELA's Council of Advanced Practitioners. He is a past president of NAELA and was the chair of NAELA's Professionalism and Ethics Committee for 12 years when it developed the first and second editions of the Aspirational Standards for the Practice of Elder Law and Special Needs Law with Commentaries. Mr. French helped found and was the chair of the OSBA's Elder Law Committee and is a member of its Council of Delegates. He founded the Cincinnati Bar Association's Elder Law Committee and served as its chair for four years.

ROBERT G. HYLAND is an attorney with the Cincinnati law firm of Buechner Haffer Meyers & Koenig Co., LPA, where his practice areas include estate planning and administration, small business, taxation and real estate transactions, and litigation in those areas. He is a frequent lecturer on estate planning and administration topics for the bar and other community organizations. Mr. Hyland is a member of the Cincinnati Bar Association (member, Trust, Wills and Estate Planning Committee, Labor and Employment Law Committee, and Taxation Committee), the American Bar Association (member, Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section) and the Ohio State Bar Association (member of the section of Council of Labor and Employment Law). He earned his A.B. degree from Hamilton College and his J.D. degree from the University of Cincinnati.

BRYAN C. PALMER is an attorney at the law firm of Williams Allen Casey LPA, in Independence, Ohio. Mr. Palmer concentrates his practice in the area of estate planning, probate and real estate transactions. He received his J.D. degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and received his B.A. degrees, cum laude, from The Ohio State University. Mr. Palmer is a member of the Estate Planning Council of Cleveland, the Ohio State Bar Association, and the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.

ASHLEY SORGEN is an attorney with Marie Mirro Edmonds Co Lpa. Ms. Sorgen practices in the areas of estate planning, elder law, revocable living trusts, special needs planning, and long-term care preparedness. She is a member of Medina County Bar Association, the Medina County Estate Planning Council, the Ohio Forum of Estate Planning Attorneys, and the Ohio State Bar Association (Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law Section). Mr. Sorgen received her B.A. degree from The Ohio State University, J.D. degree from Ohio Northern University-Claude W. Pettit College of Law and earned her LL.M. degree in estate planning and elder law from Western New England University School.