Asset Protection

Asset protection planning is typically part of our Medicaid planning services. We explain methods by which you can legally preserve your assets and still qualify for Medicaid, the government program that pays nursing home costs for people who cannot afford to pay the bill themselves.

The Medicaid program requires individuals with assets to spend their own money on nursing home care. If the government discovers you have given money away to your children or others in the past five years in order to qualify for Medicaid, you will have to pay the nursing home bills yourself. This “look back” period is expected to become even longer in the future.

Protecting the Family Estate

Many clients want to ensure that the assets they pass down to their children or grandchildren do not go to a spouse in a divorce or go to pay off creditors in a bankruptcy. With proper asset protection planning, you can preserve your legacy for the beneficiaries you choose. Through the use of a trust or an LLC, we can ensure that these assets do not disappear due to divorce, bankruptcy or lawsuits.

The Medicaid Trust

A Medicaid trust is one alternative that will allow you to preserve your assets and still qualify for Medicaid. Once you place funds in the trust, you cannot get them back. You can, however, receive the interest or dividend income the principal generates through investment.

We also help business owners with asset protection. Our business law attorneys will form an LLC to protect business owners from losing their personal assets in the event of a business-related lawsuit.

We also form LLCs for the owners of rental real estate to protect these assets from creditors.

In certain circumstances, we recommend protecting your assets through the use of a more complicated estate planning tool, such as an Alaska or offshore trust.

To discuss your need for asset protection, please contact our law firm. From three locations, we provide asset protection services to clients throughout northeast Ohio.