MEDICAID

PLANNING


RICHARD H. AGNEW, JR.

Attorney at Law

Protecting you and your family through Estate and Medicaid Planning

When we went to work we were told to work hard, save our money, and pay our taxes. And we did exactly just that. We were able to buy the house and eventually pay off the mortgage. We managed to help our children through college and got them married off. When we retired we had enough money saved along with our employer’s pension plan and Social Security to enjoy the early years of retirement. It seemed as if that what we were told when we were young was true - we had enough money to enjoy retirement.

As the years passed on the cost of maintaining the home became more expensive as our county government increased the property taxes along with the dramatic increase in property values. As the years passed on the cost of maintaining our health also increased. We started to see the doctor more often and his fees seemed to have increased unusually rapid over the past few years. And the prescriptions, how do we pay for them? We were told that the taxes we paid into social security will take care of us as we got older and to a certain extent this was true, except it seems that we still have to pay more and more into the program and it just does not seem to meet the increasing cost of our health care and our state and federal legislators are slow to react to our situation. At first our retirement income was more than adequate; now, I am wondering, "How do I pay the bills?"

As a son or as a daughter it is difficult to watch our parent get older and struggle with the costs of being a "senior citizen." When we were young they took care of us. When we got married and had children of our own they told us that they would help with the cost of putting their grandchildren through college. Like our parents we are working hard, paying the mortgage on our home, and trying to set aside enough money for our children’s education. But as time passes and we look at our parents we begin to consider the burden of having to take care of them, also. How are we going to manage if any one of them were to have to go into a nursing home?

The government tells us not to worry; if a senior citizen has to go into a nursing home and he or she has no money that it will be all right. We the government will pay the nursing home bill. And this true, when your parents are impoverished they will be taken care of by our government. And if this is so, then why is there such a thing as "Medicaid Planning?"

Medicaid Planning is a form of Estate Planning. In Estate Planning we work with our clients to protect their assets from Guardianship, Probate, and for some Estate Taxes. In Medicaid Planning we work with our clients and more often with their children to protect their parents’ "Dream." We all had a dream. We worked hard to raise a family. We worked hard to ensure that we had something to give to our children and even to our grandchildren; that something being an opportunity to have a life better than our own. We had a dream and as we got older that dream began to turn into a nightmare.

The job of a Medicaid Attorney is to turn that nightmare back into a dream. The job of a Medicaid Attorney is to protect a client’s assets from the costs of Nursing Homes and to ensure that there is a legacy to pass onto the children and grandchildren (preserve the dream)(see THE WAVE). Our parents worked hard. They paid their taxes to the government. Now is the time for the government to uphold their obligation to our senior citizens.

The non-legal term for Medicaid Planning is "Pay Back."

If you need some help - call me, Rich Agnew,  703 494-0839 . . . We are in the dream protection business.