Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He served at the Pentagon as an army jag. He
graduated from Notre Dame and has two law degrees from
Boston University and Georgetown University. He's been practicing law for
over thirty years. He's your family's personal attorney. It's time
for the David Carrier Show.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, and welcome to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney, and you have found a place
where we talk about a state planning, elder law, real
estate and business law. In other words, if you'd like
not to go broke, give us a show. If you'd
like to be a blessing rather than a curse to
the future generations, if you want them talking about you
(00:41):
is wow, look what grandma and grandpa did. Wasn't that wonderful?
Instead of ooh grandma and Grandpa. Oh, I guess they
could have done something, or maybe they could I don't know. Oh,
just pathetic, poor Uncle Charlie, poor grandma, poor grandpa. I mean,
the fact of the matter is it's not fair. I'm
(01:01):
not saying it's fair, okay, but the fact of the
matter is that you're gonna be judged. It's not nice
being judged, not just by Saint Peter or whoever is
holding court at the Pearly Gates. It ain't gonna be
just them. It's gonna be your family, right, And it
doesn't matter what you did in your life. If you
leave it a mess, it doesn't end It doesn't end well.
(01:24):
And the problem is, you know, when you get to
the second or third generation, there's nobody around to feel
bad about it anymore. Right, I mean, you know what
your parents were like, you know, and you know that
you know, Dad was a war hero and mom did this.
But because they screwed up their estate plan, because that
(01:45):
was a mess, nobody thinks of nobody thinks of their accomplishment.
It's a it's I don't know if it's amazing. I
think it's just a very human sort of thing that
people do. Is you tend you tend to remember the
first thing he heard about somebody in the last thing, right,
first impressions are the last thing that's true, and then
the last thing that you hear about him also true.
(02:08):
And when people pass on, what most people remember is
if there was a mess, that will overshadow everything, just
saying so, just had a caller in the last hour
who was listening to one of my favorite heroes of
the world, David Ramsey thinks he's I think he's a
(02:29):
wonderful guy. He's got a great first name. I have
to admit that. And Dave Ramsey is right, as I
was saying to my call my impression as my opinion,
that he's right and super duper about fifteen excuse me,
about eighty five percent of the time, about eighty five
percent of the time. And if people did what Dave
Ramsey said, I could forgive him the rest, maybe, you know,
(02:52):
in terms of saving your money and doing the righteous
thing and all the rest. I think that's absolutely common sense,
good psychology, good advice, all the rest of it. But
where he the fifteen percent, and this is the fifteen
percent that I know about the fifteen percent. That where
he falls short is when he starts talking about long
(03:15):
term care, estate planning and stuff like that. You know,
I'm sure I had nothing to do with the fact
that he's got a will writing online service or used to.
I haven't listened to the show in a while, but you know,
one of his major advertisers was a company where you
do your will online. So I guess that means that
probate is just no problem and you know, doing trouble
(03:35):
or you don't need to trust. And he had the
usual idea, and this is usual with attorneys as well,
that if you don't have a taxable estate, which now
is at fifteen to thirty million, meaning nobody has a
taxable hardly anybody has a taxable estate. Right, if you
don't have a taxable estate, you don't need a trust. Well,
it is true that if you do have a taxable estate,
(03:59):
Aretha Franklin, I'm looking at you, then you absolutely need
to do trust based planning, you know, to minimize the
taxes unless you want to just pay everything go ahead.
So trust will be useful there. But it's for middle
class people, frankly that trusts are of the most value
because you have the least to lose. Does that make sense. See,
(04:23):
if you're a Retha Franklin had like eighty million dollars
and she you know, burned through millions in taxes that
she could have planned around in attorney fees and fighting
and all the rest of this. Okay, but at the
end of the day, her kids still got more than
you'll ever see. Okay, he's still got millions. Right, but
(04:45):
what if you make a what if you make a
two hundred thousand dollars mistake? What do you make a
three hundred Let me make a half a million dollar mistake?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Right?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, if all you've got is three hundred thousand, you're
wiped out. Aretha just sings another song and she makes it.
Do you see what I'm saying? Right, So, the most
important planning is not really for wealthy people who can
take the hit. Okay, now that doesn't mean they want
to take the hit. And if you've got a million
(05:14):
dollars and you worked for it, you've been doing things
that avoid, you know, the stupid taxes. Dave Ramsey said,
that's my idea. It says, stupid tax the stupid taxes.
You're going to pay for long term care, but you're
not going to get it now. Apparently last week on
a show I don't know, I didn't listen to it,
(05:34):
but my faithful caller Larry said that he was like, ooh,
a guy with a million dollars want to know how
to plan for long term care? And the answer was
just pay for it. Okay, you could just pay for it,
but guess what, you're already paid for it, and he said, oh,
you want to do Medicaid. Oh you don't want to
go to a Medicaid nursing home. Medicaid nursing home terrible, terrible,
(05:56):
Medicaid nursing home terrible. Well, the reality is that practically
there's a couple exceptions. The mass the Masons have a place,
and the American House and the American House in Zealand
don't take Medicaid, but everybody else does. Every other skilled
(06:18):
nursing facility does. And this fluctuates a lot, but an
awful lot of the assisted living facilities now except the
Medicaid as well. Plus there are two, count them, two
at home care programs, so you don't never have to
go to a nursing home anyway that are both Medicaid funded.
(06:38):
So if you qualify for Medicaid, it's not a one
way ticket to a rat trap nursing home where they
you know, they wrap bed bugs in mattresses and plastic
or something. I may make that joke too. It's every
nursing home, Like what nursing home do you want to
go to? It's almost guaranteed that they take Medicaid. Why
(07:03):
because nobody can afford it. Okay, nobody can afford it.
Rich people become poor people very quickly, very quickly. You know,
you think, oh, I got one hundred thousand dollars, I
got two three five, I got half a million dollars,
you know, which you won't spend because if you could
(07:23):
spend it, it's metaphysically impossible for you to accumulate it.
The only way you get money like that, you know,
working people, not talking about the Bill Gates of the world, right,
the only way working people get that is by working,
putting in the overtime, doing the good things, building up
to your four O one K, your IRA, whatever it is, Okay,
(07:45):
that's how you do it, right, and once you got it,
that money is you remember Linus from Peanuts and a
security blanket. That's what the IRA is, and righteously so,
and yes it should be. It's a it's proof positive
that you did the right thing. Okay, So why in
the world do I want to give that up? Why
(08:07):
in the world do I want to impoverish my spouse?
You know, apparently the caller had a million dollars, So
let's talk about someone who's got a million bucks, right, well,
at twenty thousand dollars a month. That's a quarter million
dollars a year. That's four years of long term care. Great.
The average, the average, according to NIH, is three years
(08:28):
of skilled care. All right, it's three years of skill care,
and that you made it for. But twenty percent of
folks it's five years or more need skill care. Now
that's not all nursing home care. That's at home care,
et cetera, et cetera. Right, but what about your spouse? Okay,
now we took care of you, what about your spouse? Right? Well,
if you've got a million bucks, you'll qualify for medicaid
(08:51):
when you're down to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Okay,
but if you got a million bucks, right, and think
of what that means to you. And this is true. Look,
think of whatever your savings are. Think of what your
savings mean to you. It's the blood, sweat and tears.
It's the proof that you weren't wasting the overtime. You know.
(09:11):
You look at your neighbor. Yeah he's got a nicer house.
Yeah he's got a bigger car. Yeah he goes on
more vacations. Right, but he got no savings. He's doing
all that on a credit card and he'll laugh off
this foreclosure like the last one in the previous bankruptcy
as well. Okay, that guy qualifies for medicaid immediately, immediately,
(09:32):
No problem you you idiot. You saved your money, right,
you did what you thought was the righteous thing by
hanging on to it. Fool, because now you got to
pay it all. And the idea is this Dave Ramsey
idea which apparently he repeated, which is totally false, completely
and one hundred percent wrong. Right, is that, Oh it's
(09:55):
only the nasty nursing homes that take Medicaid. Oh you're
going to be in a state run facility. Oh it
would be nurse ratchet, you know, and bed bugs and
man be terrible, be terrible. No, every nursing home takes
the medicaid. Everybody takes them. And can you throw up
a couple of examples, counterexamples like the Masons, like the
(10:18):
American House, Right, I got calls from them. It's like
you say, everybody thinks medicaid. We don't. Okay, sorry, you're right,
I was wrong. I apologize for that. But and here's
the other thing. Here's here's how that works in Michigan. Now,
different states are different, right, most states are like Michigan.
But here's how it works in Michigan every year, and
(10:40):
this is why they all take it. This is why
you're not a second class resident or whatever. Number one.
It's seventy eighty percent of folks the government says, you know,
like seventy percent. But oh, I see, we got to
get out. Well, I'll continue this in the next segment.
(11:00):
And if you challenge, you know, if you think, oh,
that's a bunch of baloney, because why call in? Tell
me I'm full of baloney. Go ahead. I guaranteed there's
an explanation that they didn't tell you about. Okay, because
that happens too. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney. Welcome back to
(11:24):
the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.
Give us a call. Why don't just six one six
seven seven four twenty four twenty four. That's sixty one
six seven seven four twenty four twenty four. I promise
that I will talk about the unfortunate, the unfortunate misconceptions
of mythology regarding Medicaid beds, Medicaid long term care facility.
(11:46):
But right now I got somebody who actually did call
that number. Joe, Welcome to the David Carrier Show.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh are you this morning?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Perking and working man? Having a ball? How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah? I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Love to hear it. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Well? Is it called IERMA? Is that the acronym for
Medicare monthly payments and too much income?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I need a little more detail. What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
So my question is, if you earn over the first
step is one hundred and nine grand, your Medicare monthly
premiums go up.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. The more
the more you earn, the higher the Yeah. Everybody thinks
Medicare is one hundred and forty four bucks a month,
but it isn't true. The more you earn, yeah, the
higher you're so you know, it gets it gets way
up there too.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yes, it does. My question is if you sell a
house and you have a one time event. I know
that there is a form you can fill out to
h to not dispute, but to uh, I can't think
of the word. Do they accept that most of the
time that it was a one time event and the
(13:08):
income that year doesn't apply if you sell a house.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well what kind of house would we? All right, it
only applied. It doesn't apply to capital gains. Do No,
it's only your it's only your ordinary income.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Oh I see, and that's that's why I'm calling the expert.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, no, you you be you be fine. Are you
talking about selling your homestead your own house?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, yeah, just to make a switch to another Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, that doesn't count
at all. So then you're probably not even gonna pay
any tax on it. Joe, what what? What are you
selling your house for?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Build a different one?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah? I know, but would you sell this one? Have
you lived in this for two out of the last
five years?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yes? I have.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Way, Well, then you're not gonna pay any tax on
it at all. It won't even get reported to the
I R. S.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I see.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
They don't even give you a ten ninety nine I see.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Okay, how about a property sale?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
By property sale, you mean something that you didn't live.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
In, right, and there will be some profit, not a
huge amount.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But some Okay, Well, then that's it's probably going to
be long term capital game. You know you held it
for more than a year, right, yeah, yeah, so it's
probably going to be probably going to be the long
term capital.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Gain anyway, and then in that case that goes on
my income.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, but it's capital gain. So what if you have
less than If you have less than I think it's
it's less than. It's not fifty thousand, but it's like
forty six or forty seven something like that. If you
have less than that much income as a single person
ninety thousand, ninety six thousand, I think it is as
a married couple, right, then you're not your capital gain
(15:02):
tax rate is zero.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
All right, answers my question. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, you bet you, you bet you. Okay, but yeah,
but they'll take care of that at the title company.
They won't even they'll ask you. There's a form you
fill out you're living here for two of the last
five years. Yes, yes, I did. It was your primary residence,
Yes it was. Okay, we're not even reporting this. They
don't even report it for two you've got but you
(15:29):
got to live there two in the last five years.
Got to be your primary residence. Okay, he's already gone. Okay,
so let's get back to this idea that there are
Medicaid nursing homes and there's Medicaid beds. Okay, the first
is the Medicaid nursing home. Everybody thinks, everybody thinks, even
(15:50):
Dave Ramsey thinks, apparently that there are these nasty nursing
homes that are super cheap and they're terrible and all
the rest of it, and those are the Medicaid nursing homes. Well,
not true in fact the way. Now, there are states Illin,
for example, where Medicaid pays a base rate and that's
(16:13):
how much they pay to anybody for long term care.
So there might be some there might be some truth
in it if we're talking about Illinois. But not even
in Illinois does it work. Because here's the thing. In Michigan,
every single long term care facility, every long term care
facility has I think it's thirteen digits. They have a
(16:36):
federal identifier, right, every facility does. And every facility has
to report on an annual basis what their expenses are.
And so there's all these regulations. There's a big hassle
to figure out what does it cost to keep somebody
there right for a month or the Medicaid what they
call the Medicaid reimbursement rate. And you can find out
(16:58):
what this is, you have to do the Freedom of
Information acting. It's been a few years since I've done it.
But what it is is a three year trailing average
of the cost plus profit. Okay, So a nursing facility,
every nursing facility that is keeping good books and they're
doing the system right, is making money, right, is banking profit,
(17:24):
but they don't call it profit because they're nonprofits. So
you call it margin. Right, They're making margin on every
Medicaid client. Every Medicaid resident is not just paid for,
but there's you know, there's extra Okay, not a lot
of extra extra, and that's done every year on an
annual basis for every facility that participates in the Medicaid
(17:50):
and they all, with very few exceptions, participate in the program. Okay.
There was another one that was a family run, was
like three generations. They had six clients, six residents. They
were legally a skilled nursing facility, but they didn't take
it either. So I guess that's three of them out
of thousands. Anyway, long story short is every facility takes
(18:14):
Medicaid because nobody has enough money to pay for it.
That's just that's the reality here Illinois. You know, Michigan
has is a good system. I think it's a really
good system because it's based on what the costs are
at the facility. Right, So you're not asking the facility
to go broke. You're saying, hey, provide the level of
(18:35):
care that you want to provide. Go right ahead, do
it right, and we will pay you what it actually costs,
what it actually costs, plus margin plus profit. Okay, So
this notion that there's there's a Medicaid nursing company, then
you get into the issue. Then people, oh, yeah, but
there's only a few Medicaid beds, just a few Medicaid beds. Yeah,
(18:59):
maybe every nursing home takes Medicaid. There's only a few
people in each facility in those bedbug ridden, nasty janitor closet,
the broom closet, the janitor stall, Medicaid pads. Oh terrible, Well,
not when almost everybody in there is on Medicaid. Right.
The number is, the federal number is like sixty plus,
(19:22):
you know, sixty nine percent or something like this, and
my estimate is eighty percent. I always say eighty percent
because those numbers are kind of old, right, and more
and more people need the long term care. Oh and
that music means I need to get out, so but
I promise you I will finish this in the next segment.
(19:42):
I've been listening to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney, Big Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. I promise now to get through this.
This is such a huge misconception that people have that, Oh,
Medicaid is bad, right, Medicaid is cheap, Medicaid is nasty,
(20:04):
Medicaid is this, and that every nursing home takes Medicaid.
Most of the people in any nursing home you care
to go to are on the Medicaid. Now, there may
be a few of them, as I've said that, there's
a there's a family run one that I know of
that they take like half a dozen people. There's America House,
which is very well established, super duper place. And then
(20:25):
the Mason's also run, a place that doesn't take Medicaid.
You know, you may be able to come up with
a couple more examples, But out of the hundreds and
hundreds of long term care facilities. It's you know, needle
and a haystack. Now, so when they say Medicaid nursing home,
they're talking about practically every nursing home. Every nursing home
(20:49):
takes the Medicaid. They can't and listen, it's it's no
walk in the park to be in a long term
care facil. I'm not saying it is, okay, But the
fact of the matter is Medicaid also pays for what
they call waiver, all right, waiver or my choice, which
is at home care. Right, maybe you don't need to
be in a long term care facility. That's been my
(21:10):
experience that most of my folks who are looking at
long term care right, oh you know this, that and
the other thing, their needs can be met with at
home care. And most of the time that means the
PACE program program of all inclusive care for the elderly.
We love Pace. Paces sixty percent cheaper than putting someone
in a long term care facility. For the government, it's
(21:32):
cheaper you the taxpayer, it's less expensive, and it's what
you actually want. You know, who wants to go to
a long term care facility when you can be at home?
And the way it works is five days a week,
they come out they you know, do personal hygiene, all
the rest of that stuff, right, and take you to
the senior center breakfast, lunch, and a snack and you
(21:55):
come back home. Okay, And maybe, oh, I don't want
my spouse going five days a week. Fine, one day
a week every other week. It's very The goal is
to keep people at home, people who have long term
care needs right right, who need that level of care. Okay,
they could be in a nursing home, but they've got
(22:17):
loved ones who want to keep them at home. They're
safe at home. That's the key, safe at home, right,
So Pace will do that. So this notion that Medicaid
is nasty nursing homes, oh, it's terrible. But then the
so the first question is what nursing homes take it?
Practically all of them, practically all of them, right, take
(22:37):
the Medicaid all right? Boh, but there's only a few
Medicaid beds. There's only oh the you know. The joke,
My joke is that whenever they discover bed bugs in
a nursing home, they wrap the mattress in plastic and
that becomes a Medicaid bed. No, of course not. Caregivers
have no idea who's on Medicaid. New isn't right. It
(22:58):
has nothing to do with your level. Look but but
but it is a semi private room unless you're in
a facility that's like the Oaks, that's one hundred percent
that's one hundred percent private rooms, or a meta lodge
is mostly private rooms. There's there's those out there that
are primarily and Medicaid will pay for that as well.
(23:20):
And you say, oh, but it's got to be a
Medicaid bed and they don't have any Medicaid beds and
so now we can't we can't use the facility. Again,
a myth untrue because every yes, it is true that
they may have designated a small number of beds as
Medicaid beds. That's an inventory control device. It's just a
(23:40):
way to tell you there's no Medicaid beds. Okay, But
if you're in a facility, if you're already in a facility, right, See,
here's the thing. Medicaid doesn't provide the you know, the
technical requirements for a nursing home bed. Medicare Care does that, right, Medicare,
(24:02):
So every Medicare bed is automatically certified as a Medicaid
bed right in terms of payment. So as long as
you've got a Medicaid bed, a bed that meets the
Medicaid requirements, excuse me, stop that reverse it. So, well,
you've got a facility and they are they're all this
(24:24):
way right because it's the minimum if they meet the
Medicare requirements for staffing and ventilation and hygiene and all
those telephone book of regulations that has to do with
long term care facility. Right to qualify for Medicare, right,
if they qualify for Medicare, then Medicaid will pay, will
(24:46):
pay for that bed. Okay. It's not like oh there's
only six of them. Oh we didn't, we missed out.
It's not like that at all. And it's certainly not
like that that. Oh those are the nasty ones, Oh,
the bad one. It doesn't work that way either. But
but but it only does pay. That's true that Medicaid
(25:06):
only pays for semi private room. Okay, why do you
think we're hanging on to your money for the kids?
Screw the kids, and in about the kids. The idea
is this is this is the way this works. Okay,
So if you do need long term care. Then you
(25:26):
go to whatever facility you want to go to, except
two or three of them. Right, you're not amazing. You
don't have to worry about it. Right, So you go
to whatever facility it is you're gonna go to. Right,
you're qualified for the medicaid, but your life savings are intact. Right,
you haven't spent down to poverty, Okay, Right, what you
(25:50):
built up over the years with your four oh one
K and everything, all the blood, sweat and tears, money
for a rainy day, that's intact. Then then then you say, okay,
I'll take the medicaid. I qualify for Medicaid, I'll take it.
Oh yeah, Well, we got to sell my private room
for you. And you say, well, you know what if
(26:10):
I pay an extra thousand dollars a month, can I
have a private room? Then got a doctor's letter. Sure, hey, Doc,
write me a letter that says I'd be better off
in a private room. No problem. Okay, now you can
get a private room. You gotta pay for it. What
did you expect not to pay for it? Right? The
point is you already paid for one level of care.
(26:34):
You want to upgrade your spouse wants to upgrade you. Okay,
but she didn't stop at one sixty. She could have
stopped spending at one sixty. She didn't stop till it
was almost till the coupver was beer. And what she's
supposed to do for the next ten years terrible. But
because you were thinking about it, because you planned a head,
because you did all the righteous good things right, you
(26:57):
worked and work and work, and you saved the money,
and we did all are things to qualify you for
the medicaid. To qualify you for the medicaid according to
the rules, it is like taxes the government. The government
takes a bunch of money. Maybe they'll give some back.
Maybe you don't have to pay quite so much. Maybe
maybe it's a government program. It ain't the poor box
(27:19):
at church for crying out loud. Okay, we're talking about
money that you've been paying into the government. Do you
want to pay for it again? You're already paying for
a whole bunch of other people who are getting it.
Why shouldn't you, Well, oh, well I don't need it, really,
you don't need it. Well, when you're broke, you need it, yeah,
I guess. Well, wait a second, what did those other
(27:39):
people do versus what you did. You worked, and you saved,
and you did all the righteous things. Good good. You
paid your taxes. Good good. You bought the submarines and
the B two bombers and all the rest of this stuff.
Good good. You paid so that your neighbor who wasn't
as smart as you, who didn't plan ahead, whatever, right,
that they're not broke too great, wonderful. Let's get his deal.
(28:04):
That's all I want. I just want to deal your
neighbor gets. I don't want anything special. Okay, That's all
I want is the base. Just give me what they're
I'll pay for the rest. I want a private room.
I still have my life. Say I can pay for it.
I want my own laundry, I can pay for it. Okay,
I don't want a room. I can pay for it.
(28:26):
Do you see that's the whole idea. This is not
about not paying for long term care. It's not it's
about not paying twice for long term care. It's not
about it's it's about not being a chump.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
When the government says you can deduct like our other caller,
you know, well it's my house. Yeah. Well, the government
says that if you lived in the house for two
of the last five years. You don't have to pay tax.
We won't even report it to I R S. Well,
what if you don't know about that? What if you
go ahead and you pay the tax that you don't owe.
How does that make any sense? Right? Why would did
(29:00):
you pay twice? Why would you pay twice? I don't
get it, especially when you can prove your own quality
of life, your spouse's quality life, and that could be
and for most people, most of my clients, anyway, that
means add home care. That means staying at home means
not going to a nursing home. But if you need it,
if you need it, then PACE will pay for that
(29:20):
as well. That's that one program, which we absolutely love
that one program. But there's other programs too, Right, you
need to know what this is so you don't get chumpified.
I don't get it. How does that get to be
a good idea? And yet Dave Ramsey is not willing
to look deep enough into it to see what he's
(29:41):
talking about. Sorry about that. I love the guy, But
there you go. You're listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier. Your family's personal attorney. Well, come back
to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's
personal attorney. Hope we cleared that up about you know
this pejorative medicals, medigat nursinggo well, a lot of mythology
(30:03):
out there, A lot of things get repeated, and you know,
practice law is an awful lot like that. You see
an awful lot of estate planning that is simply stuff
that's repeated without any examination of what's actually going on,
and it's unfortunate. It's yeah, I guess is the way
most people do most things, right. I mean, we repeat
what we've heard and we think that's I think that's
(30:25):
the way it is. You know, the for for so
many years we uh, we were dealing with kids on houses,
joint tenancies and stuff. Now that's flipped over to lady
bird deeds. You know, still uh solves one problem, creates
other problems, you know, and again without without a real
(30:48):
thoughtful hey, how do we get this done correctly? Instead
it's like our one of our first emails that we did,
you know, how can I get this done easily and
for cheap without legal And it's like you're trying to
do big things you're trying to get. Let me think
about taxes, right, right, your taxes. That's where you're giving
(31:10):
money to the government. Okay, you're sending them money. Is
it easy to fill out your taxes? Do they make
it easy for you to give them money? Do you
think it would be easier to get money out of them? Right?
And that's what medicaid is. Medicaid is. Well, think about
your social security, think about medicare. What's easy about that?
(31:34):
This is worse, a lot worse. You know, when you're
doing the medicaid stuff? Now, is it worth not breaking
your spouse? Is it worth you know, ensuring that your
spouse isn't going to be there, you know, greeting people
at the big box retailer, you know, as they walked
in the door. Is that a good idea? I don't know,
(31:57):
I don't know. Maybe you think that's maybe yeah, Let
let let her say helload of people when they're in
the Christmas season. That'll be that. That's what I want
my wife to be doing, saying a load of people
as they walk in. Sure. Fine, if that's your that's
what you want, Well, that's what you're going to get.
You don't plan ahead, and that's my view of the world. Anyway,
(32:21):
I got one last email here which I don't know
how many people have this as an issue. But can
I hold title to my house as a trust without
listing the trustee's name myself? Or do I have to
put my personal name on I want to hold title
to my house. Is the Smith Family Trust making no
mention of my own name? However, I've been told repeatedly
(32:45):
that the title has to be held by the trustee
something like this, John Smith, trustee for the Smith Family Trust.
Does that mean I have to put my name on title?
I don't want to for various for various reasons. Thank you.
So here's the thing. You can have a you know,
you can call your trust whatever you want to call
your trust. The banks won't take it. They won't They
(33:08):
need to see your name. Then this is not a
legal thing. It's just the way they are. You got
to put your name on there as the as the trustee, right,
excuse me, as the in the title of the trust.
So you do have to have you know, the John
Smith Family Trust right. A lot of banks will require that,
even though there's no they require it for their own purposes. Okay,
(33:32):
But the question here is with the house. So what
if you, uh, you know, instead of instead of John Smith,
what if we had John Doe trustee of the Widows
and Orphans Fund Trust. Because you can name your trust
whatever you want, right and hold the trust that way,
(33:53):
hold the property that way. And you say, oh, but
now I'm going to lose my principal residence exemption. I'm
going to lose all the tax benefits and whatnot. And
I say, well, not necessarily not if you're the primary beneficiary.
And the trust spells out that you're the beneficiary. And
you say, yeah, but now I got John Doe as
my trustee, and I want them, you know, I want
(34:14):
to be the boss of my stuff. Okay, So when
you record the d you're recording it to John Doe,
trustee of the let's call it the Smith Family Trust.
Can you do that? Absolutely, you can do that. You've
got to name the trustee though, Okay, you have to
name the trust d because otherwise it doesn't work. Which
(34:34):
is different, of course than like a limited liability company
or a corporation, where you don't have to say in
the deed who the president of the corporation is. A
trust is different than those entities legally.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
This is this is why we have lawyers, right, because
they do different things in different ways. All right. This
is why you have plumbers and electricians and auto mechanics
and automatic trains mission repairment. This is why when you
get things, when things get complex, HVAC people, right, when
things get complex, you need somebody who understands the ins
(35:10):
and outs. And we don't have time to figure out
all the ins and outs of everything, all right. You
know there are people who specialize in hot tubs. There
are why because not everybody wants to be a specialist
in hot tubs. It's kind of a narrow specialty. But
there you are. I mean, that's how it works. Think
(35:30):
about your doctors. Gosh, you get a doctor for each fingernail,
don't you something like that? Anyway, The point is that
this stuff can get complex. You really do need to
know what you're talking about. But when it comes to
titling it right, just title, just have a John Doe
trust the you know. But but the thing is, it's
your it's your house, right, so it have to be
(35:51):
John Smith Deeds to John Doe, Trustee of the Mystery
Name Family Trust, which you could do. Okay, you can
call it that, you can call it the mystery in trust,
whatever you want. There's nothing illegal about it. And then
what you do, like as soon as you make that transfer,
(36:15):
the John Doe resigns as trustee and appoints you as trustee.
Right and so now, right now you're owning the property. Again,
you're in control, not John Doe. So you're in control
of your stuff. We haven't recorded your name on a
deed yet, okay, although we did record your name because
you have to be the grand tour you have to
(36:36):
be the one who gives the property. And then you
can file for your principal residence exemption. What have you
right and proved to the local governing authority, you know,
your township or city or whoever it is that's taxing
you local taxing authority who you are, and that you're
entitled to the principal residence exemption or whatever other exemptions
(36:57):
you may be qualified for. Right, So, is there a
way to do this? Yeah, you could, Yeah, you could
do it that way. It's hard to see how that
would be a value. You know, you're not really hiding anything,
but you know, if you wanted to, if you wanted
to most things. There's ways to there is ways to
(37:19):
do things. Let's see, my sister put her name on
my CD and my will not take her name off
my CD. I did authorize it. My CD had my name.
Then my sister scratched out then put her name. Well,
(37:43):
if you authorized it, if you gave it to her,
I mean, did you see? Then then you get into
what did you say, yeah, you can put my name
on it. Did you do that so that she could
spend it on you? You know, if you became incapacitated
or something. See, this is sort of a do it
yourself estate planning. That doesn't you know that has unforeseen consequences.
(38:06):
What are the unforeseen consequences? Well, that your sister wouldn't
give you your money back? How unforeseen is that? All right? Really,
you're trusting on your sister give your money back. Well,
maybe she won't, or maybe she won't. Apparently now she won't.
That's that's not what we call good planning. Let's see
if we can get one more one more of these
(38:27):
emails real quick here? Uh, what if my spouses will
is out of date and conflicts with our twenty five
year old pre nup Murray, what will happen my husband dies,
his will isn't specific enough and conflicts with our prenup
from two thousand. Tourney once told me that prenup Trump's
(38:47):
a will. Not sure about that? Oh, there we go,
So I guess we're done. Sorry, we'll get to that
one next week. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier inviting you to go to the website
Davidcarrier Law dot com. The AI keeps getting better, answers
your questions and gives you suggestions and what have you.
But it's not legal advice. Let's not make that mistake.
(39:10):
Not legal advice. Go to the website Davidcarrier Law dot com.
Sign up for a free three secrets works out. Love
to see you there. I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
You've been listening to the David Carrier Show. A lively
discussion addressing your questions and concerns, but not legal advice.
There is a big difference. So when making decisions that
affect your family, your property, or yourself, the best advice
is to seek good advice specific to your unique needs.
If you missed any of today's show, or would like
additional information about the law offices of David Carrier, please
(39:46):
visit Davidcarrier law dot com.
He served at the Pentagon as an army jag. He
graduated from Notre Dame and has two law degrees from
Boston University and Georgetown University. He's been practicing law for
over thirty years. He's your family's personal attorney. It's time
for the David Carrier Show.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, and welcome to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney, and you have found a place
where we talk about a state planning, elder law, real
estate and business law. In other words, if you'd like
not to go broke, give us a show. If you'd
like to be a blessing rather than a curse to
the future generations, if you want them talking about you
(00:41):
is wow, look what grandma and grandpa did. Wasn't that wonderful?
Instead of ooh grandma and Grandpa. Oh, I guess they
could have done something, or maybe they could I don't know. Oh,
just pathetic, poor Uncle Charlie, poor grandma, poor grandpa. I mean,
the fact of the matter is it's not fair. I'm
(01:01):
not saying it's fair, okay, but the fact of the
matter is that you're gonna be judged. It's not nice
being judged, not just by Saint Peter or whoever is
holding court at the Pearly Gates. It ain't gonna be
just them. It's gonna be your family, right, And it
doesn't matter what you did in your life. If you
leave it a mess, it doesn't end It doesn't end well.
(01:24):
And the problem is, you know, when you get to
the second or third generation, there's nobody around to feel
bad about it anymore. Right, I mean, you know what
your parents were like, you know, and you know that
you know, Dad was a war hero and mom did this.
But because they screwed up their estate plan, because that
(01:45):
was a mess, nobody thinks of nobody thinks of their accomplishment.
It's a it's I don't know if it's amazing. I
think it's just a very human sort of thing that
people do. Is you tend you tend to remember the
first thing he heard about somebody in the last thing, right,
first impressions are the last thing that's true, and then
the last thing that you hear about him also true.
(02:08):
And when people pass on, what most people remember is
if there was a mess, that will overshadow everything, just
saying so, just had a caller in the last hour
who was listening to one of my favorite heroes of
the world, David Ramsey thinks he's I think he's a
(02:29):
wonderful guy. He's got a great first name. I have
to admit that. And Dave Ramsey is right, as I
was saying to my call my impression as my opinion,
that he's right and super duper about fifteen excuse me,
about eighty five percent of the time, about eighty five
percent of the time. And if people did what Dave
Ramsey said, I could forgive him the rest, maybe, you know,
(02:52):
in terms of saving your money and doing the righteous
thing and all the rest. I think that's absolutely common sense,
good psychology, good advice, all the rest of it. But
where he the fifteen percent, and this is the fifteen
percent that I know about the fifteen percent. That where
he falls short is when he starts talking about long
(03:15):
term care, estate planning and stuff like that. You know,
I'm sure I had nothing to do with the fact
that he's got a will writing online service or used to.
I haven't listened to the show in a while, but you know,
one of his major advertisers was a company where you
do your will online. So I guess that means that
probate is just no problem and you know, doing trouble
(03:35):
or you don't need to trust. And he had the
usual idea, and this is usual with attorneys as well,
that if you don't have a taxable estate, which now
is at fifteen to thirty million, meaning nobody has a
taxable hardly anybody has a taxable estate. Right, if you
don't have a taxable estate, you don't need a trust. Well,
it is true that if you do have a taxable estate,
(03:59):
Aretha Franklin, I'm looking at you, then you absolutely need
to do trust based planning, you know, to minimize the
taxes unless you want to just pay everything go ahead.
So trust will be useful there. But it's for middle
class people, frankly that trusts are of the most value
because you have the least to lose. Does that make sense. See,
(04:23):
if you're a Retha Franklin had like eighty million dollars
and she you know, burned through millions in taxes that
she could have planned around in attorney fees and fighting
and all the rest of this. Okay, but at the
end of the day, her kids still got more than
you'll ever see. Okay, he's still got millions. Right, but
(04:45):
what if you make a what if you make a
two hundred thousand dollars mistake? What do you make a
three hundred Let me make a half a million dollar mistake?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Right?
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Well, if all you've got is three hundred thousand, you're
wiped out. Aretha just sings another song and she makes it.
Do you see what I'm saying? Right, So, the most
important planning is not really for wealthy people who can
take the hit. Okay, now that doesn't mean they want
to take the hit. And if you've got a million
(05:14):
dollars and you worked for it, you've been doing things
that avoid, you know, the stupid taxes. Dave Ramsey said,
that's my idea. It says, stupid tax the stupid taxes.
You're going to pay for long term care, but you're
not going to get it now. Apparently last week on
a show I don't know, I didn't listen to it,
(05:34):
but my faithful caller Larry said that he was like, ooh,
a guy with a million dollars want to know how
to plan for long term care? And the answer was
just pay for it. Okay, you could just pay for it,
but guess what, you're already paid for it, and he said, oh,
you want to do Medicaid. Oh you don't want to
go to a Medicaid nursing home. Medicaid nursing home terrible, terrible,
(05:56):
Medicaid nursing home terrible. Well, the reality is that practically
there's a couple exceptions. The mass the Masons have a place,
and the American House and the American House in Zealand
don't take Medicaid, but everybody else does. Every other skilled
(06:18):
nursing facility does. And this fluctuates a lot, but an
awful lot of the assisted living facilities now except the
Medicaid as well. Plus there are two, count them, two
at home care programs, so you don't never have to
go to a nursing home anyway that are both Medicaid funded.
(06:38):
So if you qualify for Medicaid, it's not a one
way ticket to a rat trap nursing home where they
you know, they wrap bed bugs in mattresses and plastic
or something. I may make that joke too. It's every
nursing home, Like what nursing home do you want to
go to? It's almost guaranteed that they take Medicaid. Why
(07:03):
because nobody can afford it. Okay, nobody can afford it.
Rich people become poor people very quickly, very quickly. You know,
you think, oh, I got one hundred thousand dollars, I
got two three five, I got half a million dollars,
you know, which you won't spend because if you could
(07:23):
spend it, it's metaphysically impossible for you to accumulate it.
The only way you get money like that, you know,
working people, not talking about the Bill Gates of the world, right,
the only way working people get that is by working,
putting in the overtime, doing the good things, building up
to your four O one K, your IRA, whatever it is, Okay,
(07:45):
that's how you do it, right, and once you got it,
that money is you remember Linus from Peanuts and a
security blanket. That's what the IRA is, and righteously so,
and yes it should be. It's a it's proof positive
that you did the right thing. Okay, So why in
the world do I want to give that up? Why
(08:07):
in the world do I want to impoverish my spouse?
You know, apparently the caller had a million dollars, So
let's talk about someone who's got a million bucks, right, well,
at twenty thousand dollars a month. That's a quarter million
dollars a year. That's four years of long term care. Great.
The average, the average, according to NIH, is three years
(08:28):
of skilled care. All right, it's three years of skill care,
and that you made it for. But twenty percent of
folks it's five years or more need skill care. Now
that's not all nursing home care. That's at home care,
et cetera, et cetera. Right, but what about your spouse? Okay,
now we took care of you, what about your spouse? Right? Well,
if you've got a million bucks, you'll qualify for medicaid
(08:51):
when you're down to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars. Okay,
but if you got a million bucks, right, and think
of what that means to you. And this is true. Look,
think of whatever your savings are. Think of what your
savings mean to you. It's the blood, sweat and tears.
It's the proof that you weren't wasting the overtime. You know.
(09:11):
You look at your neighbor. Yeah he's got a nicer house.
Yeah he's got a bigger car. Yeah he goes on
more vacations. Right, but he got no savings. He's doing
all that on a credit card and he'll laugh off
this foreclosure like the last one in the previous bankruptcy
as well. Okay, that guy qualifies for medicaid immediately, immediately,
(09:32):
No problem you you idiot. You saved your money, right,
you did what you thought was the righteous thing by
hanging on to it. Fool, because now you got to
pay it all. And the idea is this Dave Ramsey
idea which apparently he repeated, which is totally false, completely
and one hundred percent wrong. Right, is that, Oh it's
(09:55):
only the nasty nursing homes that take Medicaid. Oh you're
going to be in a state run facility. Oh it
would be nurse ratchet, you know, and bed bugs and
man be terrible, be terrible. No, every nursing home takes
the medicaid. Everybody takes them. And can you throw up
a couple of examples, counterexamples like the Masons, like the
(10:18):
American House, Right, I got calls from them. It's like
you say, everybody thinks medicaid. We don't. Okay, sorry, you're right,
I was wrong. I apologize for that. But and here's
the other thing. Here's here's how that works in Michigan. Now,
different states are different, right, most states are like Michigan.
But here's how it works in Michigan every year, and
(10:40):
this is why they all take it. This is why
you're not a second class resident or whatever. Number one.
It's seventy eighty percent of folks the government says, you know,
like seventy percent. But oh, I see, we got to
get out. Well, I'll continue this in the next segment.
(11:00):
And if you challenge, you know, if you think, oh,
that's a bunch of baloney, because why call in? Tell
me I'm full of baloney. Go ahead. I guaranteed there's
an explanation that they didn't tell you about. Okay, because
that happens too. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney. Welcome back to
(11:24):
the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.
Give us a call. Why don't just six one six
seven seven four twenty four twenty four. That's sixty one
six seven seven four twenty four twenty four. I promise
that I will talk about the unfortunate, the unfortunate misconceptions
of mythology regarding Medicaid beds, Medicaid long term care facility.
(11:46):
But right now I got somebody who actually did call
that number. Joe, Welcome to the David Carrier Show.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh are you this morning?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Perking and working man? Having a ball? How are you doing?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah? I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Love to hear it. How can I help?
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Well? Is it called IERMA? Is that the acronym for
Medicare monthly payments and too much income?
Speaker 2 (12:16):
I need a little more detail. What are you talking about?
Speaker 3 (12:19):
So my question is, if you earn over the first
step is one hundred and nine grand, your Medicare monthly
premiums go up.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. The more
the more you earn, the higher the Yeah. Everybody thinks
Medicare is one hundred and forty four bucks a month,
but it isn't true. The more you earn, yeah, the
higher you're so you know, it gets it gets way
up there too.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
Yes, it does. My question is if you sell a
house and you have a one time event. I know
that there is a form you can fill out to
h to not dispute, but to uh, I can't think
of the word. Do they accept that most of the
time that it was a one time event and the
(13:08):
income that year doesn't apply if you sell a house.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Well what kind of house would we? All right, it
only applied. It doesn't apply to capital gains. Do No,
it's only your it's only your ordinary income.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Oh I see, and that's that's why I'm calling the expert.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
Yeah, no, you you be you be fine. Are you
talking about selling your homestead your own house?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, yeah, just to make a switch to another Oh.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, that doesn't count
at all. So then you're probably not even gonna pay
any tax on it. Joe, what what? What are you
selling your house for?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Build a different one?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Yeah? I know, but would you sell this one? Have
you lived in this for two out of the last
five years?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yes? I have.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
Way, Well, then you're not gonna pay any tax on
it at all. It won't even get reported to the
I R. S.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I see.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
They don't even give you a ten ninety nine I see.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Okay, how about a property sale?
Speaker 2 (14:10):
By property sale, you mean something that you didn't live.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
In, right, and there will be some profit, not a
huge amount.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
But some Okay, Well, then that's it's probably going to
be long term capital game. You know you held it
for more than a year, right, yeah, yeah, so it's
probably going to be probably going to be the long
term capital.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Gain anyway, and then in that case that goes on
my income.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, but it's capital gain. So what if you have
less than If you have less than I think it's
it's less than. It's not fifty thousand, but it's like
forty six or forty seven something like that. If you
have less than that much income as a single person
ninety thousand, ninety six thousand, I think it is as
a married couple, right, then you're not your capital gain
(15:02):
tax rate is zero.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
All right, answers my question. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah, you bet you, you bet you. Okay, but yeah,
but they'll take care of that at the title company.
They won't even they'll ask you. There's a form you
fill out you're living here for two of the last
five years. Yes, yes, I did. It was your primary residence,
Yes it was. Okay, we're not even reporting this. They
don't even report it for two you've got but you
(15:29):
got to live there two in the last five years.
Got to be your primary residence. Okay, he's already gone. Okay,
so let's get back to this idea that there are
Medicaid nursing homes and there's Medicaid beds. Okay, the first
is the Medicaid nursing home. Everybody thinks, everybody thinks, even
(15:50):
Dave Ramsey thinks, apparently that there are these nasty nursing
homes that are super cheap and they're terrible and all
the rest of it, and those are the Medicaid nursing homes. Well,
not true in fact the way. Now, there are states Illin,
for example, where Medicaid pays a base rate and that's
(16:13):
how much they pay to anybody for long term care.
So there might be some there might be some truth
in it if we're talking about Illinois. But not even
in Illinois does it work. Because here's the thing. In Michigan,
every single long term care facility, every long term care
facility has I think it's thirteen digits. They have a
(16:36):
federal identifier, right, every facility does. And every facility has
to report on an annual basis what their expenses are.
And so there's all these regulations. There's a big hassle
to figure out what does it cost to keep somebody
there right for a month or the Medicaid what they
call the Medicaid reimbursement rate. And you can find out
(16:58):
what this is, you have to do the Freedom of
Information acting. It's been a few years since I've done it.
But what it is is a three year trailing average
of the cost plus profit. Okay, So a nursing facility,
every nursing facility that is keeping good books and they're
doing the system right, is making money, right, is banking profit,
(17:24):
but they don't call it profit because they're nonprofits. So
you call it margin. Right, They're making margin on every
Medicaid client. Every Medicaid resident is not just paid for,
but there's you know, there's extra Okay, not a lot
of extra extra, and that's done every year on an
annual basis for every facility that participates in the Medicaid
(17:50):
and they all, with very few exceptions, participate in the program. Okay.
There was another one that was a family run, was
like three generations. They had six clients, six residents. They
were legally a skilled nursing facility, but they didn't take
it either. So I guess that's three of them out
of thousands. Anyway, long story short is every facility takes
(18:14):
Medicaid because nobody has enough money to pay for it.
That's just that's the reality here Illinois. You know, Michigan
has is a good system. I think it's a really
good system because it's based on what the costs are
at the facility. Right, So you're not asking the facility
to go broke. You're saying, hey, provide the level of
(18:35):
care that you want to provide. Go right ahead, do
it right, and we will pay you what it actually costs,
what it actually costs, plus margin plus profit. Okay, So
this notion that there's there's a Medicaid nursing company, then
you get into the issue. Then people, oh, yeah, but
there's only a few Medicaid beds, just a few Medicaid beds. Yeah,
(18:59):
maybe every nursing home takes Medicaid. There's only a few
people in each facility in those bedbug ridden, nasty janitor closet,
the broom closet, the janitor stall, Medicaid pads. Oh terrible, Well,
not when almost everybody in there is on Medicaid. Right.
The number is, the federal number is like sixty plus,
(19:22):
you know, sixty nine percent or something like this, and
my estimate is eighty percent. I always say eighty percent
because those numbers are kind of old, right, and more
and more people need the long term care. Oh and
that music means I need to get out, so but
I promise you I will finish this in the next segment.
(19:42):
I've been listening to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney, Big Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier,
your family's personal attorney. I promise now to get through this.
This is such a huge misconception that people have that, Oh,
Medicaid is bad, right, Medicaid is cheap, Medicaid is nasty,
(20:04):
Medicaid is this, and that every nursing home takes Medicaid.
Most of the people in any nursing home you care
to go to are on the Medicaid. Now, there may
be a few of them, as I've said that, there's
a there's a family run one that I know of
that they take like half a dozen people. There's America House,
which is very well established, super duper place. And then
(20:25):
the Mason's also run, a place that doesn't take Medicaid.
You know, you may be able to come up with
a couple more examples, But out of the hundreds and
hundreds of long term care facilities. It's you know, needle
and a haystack. Now, so when they say Medicaid nursing home,
they're talking about practically every nursing home. Every nursing home
(20:49):
takes the Medicaid. They can't and listen, it's it's no
walk in the park to be in a long term
care facil. I'm not saying it is, okay, But the
fact of the matter is Medicaid also pays for what
they call waiver, all right, waiver or my choice, which
is at home care. Right, maybe you don't need to
be in a long term care facility. That's been my
(21:10):
experience that most of my folks who are looking at
long term care right, oh you know this, that and
the other thing, their needs can be met with at
home care. And most of the time that means the
PACE program program of all inclusive care for the elderly.
We love Pace. Paces sixty percent cheaper than putting someone
in a long term care facility. For the government, it's
(21:32):
cheaper you the taxpayer, it's less expensive, and it's what
you actually want. You know, who wants to go to
a long term care facility when you can be at home?
And the way it works is five days a week,
they come out they you know, do personal hygiene, all
the rest of that stuff, right, and take you to
the senior center breakfast, lunch, and a snack and you
(21:55):
come back home. Okay, And maybe, oh, I don't want
my spouse going five days a week. Fine, one day
a week every other week. It's very The goal is
to keep people at home, people who have long term
care needs right right, who need that level of care. Okay,
they could be in a nursing home, but they've got
(22:17):
loved ones who want to keep them at home. They're
safe at home. That's the key, safe at home, right,
So Pace will do that. So this notion that Medicaid
is nasty nursing homes, oh, it's terrible. But then the
so the first question is what nursing homes take it?
Practically all of them, practically all of them, right, take
(22:37):
the Medicaid all right? Boh, but there's only a few
Medicaid beds. There's only oh the you know. The joke,
My joke is that whenever they discover bed bugs in
a nursing home, they wrap the mattress in plastic and
that becomes a Medicaid bed. No, of course not. Caregivers
have no idea who's on Medicaid. New isn't right. It
(22:58):
has nothing to do with your level. Look but but
but it is a semi private room unless you're in
a facility that's like the Oaks, that's one hundred percent
that's one hundred percent private rooms, or a meta lodge
is mostly private rooms. There's there's those out there that
are primarily and Medicaid will pay for that as well.
(23:20):
And you say, oh, but it's got to be a
Medicaid bed and they don't have any Medicaid beds and
so now we can't we can't use the facility. Again,
a myth untrue because every yes, it is true that
they may have designated a small number of beds as
Medicaid beds. That's an inventory control device. It's just a
(23:40):
way to tell you there's no Medicaid beds. Okay, But
if you're in a facility, if you're already in a facility, right, See,
here's the thing. Medicaid doesn't provide the you know, the
technical requirements for a nursing home bed. Medicare Care does that, right, Medicare,
(24:02):
So every Medicare bed is automatically certified as a Medicaid
bed right in terms of payment. So as long as
you've got a Medicaid bed, a bed that meets the
Medicaid requirements, excuse me, stop that reverse it. So, well,
you've got a facility and they are they're all this
(24:24):
way right because it's the minimum if they meet the
Medicare requirements for staffing and ventilation and hygiene and all
those telephone book of regulations that has to do with
long term care facility. Right to qualify for Medicare, right,
if they qualify for Medicare, then Medicaid will pay, will
(24:46):
pay for that bed. Okay. It's not like oh there's
only six of them. Oh we didn't, we missed out.
It's not like that at all. And it's certainly not
like that that. Oh those are the nasty ones, Oh,
the bad one. It doesn't work that way either. But
but but it only does pay. That's true that Medicaid
(25:06):
only pays for semi private room. Okay, why do you
think we're hanging on to your money for the kids?
Screw the kids, and in about the kids. The idea
is this is this is the way this works. Okay,
So if you do need long term care. Then you
(25:26):
go to whatever facility you want to go to, except
two or three of them. Right, you're not amazing. You
don't have to worry about it. Right, So you go
to whatever facility it is you're gonna go to. Right,
you're qualified for the medicaid, but your life savings are intact. Right,
you haven't spent down to poverty, Okay, Right, what you
(25:50):
built up over the years with your four oh one
K and everything, all the blood, sweat and tears, money
for a rainy day, that's intact. Then then then you say, okay,
I'll take the medicaid. I qualify for Medicaid, I'll take it.
Oh yeah, Well, we got to sell my private room
for you. And you say, well, you know what if
(26:10):
I pay an extra thousand dollars a month, can I
have a private room? Then got a doctor's letter. Sure, hey, Doc,
write me a letter that says I'd be better off
in a private room. No problem. Okay, now you can
get a private room. You gotta pay for it. What
did you expect not to pay for it? Right? The
point is you already paid for one level of care.
(26:34):
You want to upgrade your spouse wants to upgrade you. Okay,
but she didn't stop at one sixty. She could have
stopped spending at one sixty. She didn't stop till it
was almost till the coupver was beer. And what she's
supposed to do for the next ten years terrible. But
because you were thinking about it, because you planned a head,
because you did all the righteous good things right, you
(26:57):
worked and work and work, and you saved the money,
and we did all are things to qualify you for
the medicaid. To qualify you for the medicaid according to
the rules, it is like taxes the government. The government
takes a bunch of money. Maybe they'll give some back.
Maybe you don't have to pay quite so much. Maybe
maybe it's a government program. It ain't the poor box
(27:19):
at church for crying out loud. Okay, we're talking about
money that you've been paying into the government. Do you
want to pay for it again? You're already paying for
a whole bunch of other people who are getting it.
Why shouldn't you, Well, oh, well I don't need it, really,
you don't need it. Well, when you're broke, you need it, yeah,
I guess. Well, wait a second, what did those other
(27:39):
people do versus what you did. You worked, and you saved,
and you did all the righteous things. Good good. You
paid your taxes. Good good. You bought the submarines and
the B two bombers and all the rest of this stuff.
Good good. You paid so that your neighbor who wasn't
as smart as you, who didn't plan ahead, whatever, right,
that they're not broke too great, wonderful. Let's get his deal.
(28:04):
That's all I want. I just want to deal your
neighbor gets. I don't want anything special. Okay, That's all
I want is the base. Just give me what they're
I'll pay for the rest. I want a private room.
I still have my life. Say I can pay for it.
I want my own laundry, I can pay for it. Okay,
I don't want a room. I can pay for it.
(28:26):
Do you see that's the whole idea. This is not
about not paying for long term care. It's not it's
about not paying twice for long term care. It's not
about it's it's about not being a chump.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
Right.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
When the government says you can deduct like our other caller,
you know, well it's my house. Yeah. Well, the government
says that if you lived in the house for two
of the last five years. You don't have to pay tax.
We won't even report it to I R S. Well,
what if you don't know about that? What if you
go ahead and you pay the tax that you don't owe.
How does that make any sense? Right? Why would did
(29:00):
you pay twice? Why would you pay twice? I don't
get it, especially when you can prove your own quality
of life, your spouse's quality life, and that could be
and for most people, most of my clients, anyway, that
means add home care. That means staying at home means
not going to a nursing home. But if you need it,
if you need it, then PACE will pay for that
(29:20):
as well. That's that one program, which we absolutely love
that one program. But there's other programs too, Right, you
need to know what this is so you don't get chumpified.
I don't get it. How does that get to be
a good idea? And yet Dave Ramsey is not willing
to look deep enough into it to see what he's
(29:41):
talking about. Sorry about that. I love the guy, But
there you go. You're listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier. Your family's personal attorney. Well, come back
to the David Carrier Show. I'm David Carrier, your family's
personal attorney. Hope we cleared that up about you know
this pejorative medicals, medigat nursinggo well, a lot of mythology
(30:03):
out there, A lot of things get repeated, and you know,
practice law is an awful lot like that. You see
an awful lot of estate planning that is simply stuff
that's repeated without any examination of what's actually going on,
and it's unfortunate. It's yeah, I guess is the way
most people do most things, right. I mean, we repeat
what we've heard and we think that's I think that's
(30:25):
the way it is. You know, the for for so
many years we uh, we were dealing with kids on houses,
joint tenancies and stuff. Now that's flipped over to lady
bird deeds. You know, still uh solves one problem, creates
other problems, you know, and again without without a real
(30:48):
thoughtful hey, how do we get this done correctly? Instead
it's like our one of our first emails that we did,
you know, how can I get this done easily and
for cheap without legal And it's like you're trying to
do big things you're trying to get. Let me think
about taxes, right, right, your taxes. That's where you're giving
(31:10):
money to the government. Okay, you're sending them money. Is
it easy to fill out your taxes? Do they make
it easy for you to give them money? Do you
think it would be easier to get money out of them? Right?
And that's what medicaid is. Medicaid is. Well, think about
your social security, think about medicare. What's easy about that?
(31:34):
This is worse, a lot worse. You know, when you're
doing the medicaid stuff? Now, is it worth not breaking
your spouse? Is it worth you know, ensuring that your
spouse isn't going to be there, you know, greeting people
at the big box retailer, you know, as they walked
in the door. Is that a good idea? I don't know,
(31:57):
I don't know. Maybe you think that's maybe yeah, Let
let let her say helload of people when they're in
the Christmas season. That'll be that. That's what I want
my wife to be doing, saying a load of people
as they walk in. Sure. Fine, if that's your that's
what you want, Well, that's what you're going to get.
You don't plan ahead, and that's my view of the world. Anyway,
(32:21):
I got one last email here which I don't know
how many people have this as an issue. But can
I hold title to my house as a trust without
listing the trustee's name myself? Or do I have to
put my personal name on I want to hold title
to my house. Is the Smith Family Trust making no
mention of my own name? However, I've been told repeatedly
(32:45):
that the title has to be held by the trustee
something like this, John Smith, trustee for the Smith Family Trust.
Does that mean I have to put my name on title?
I don't want to for various for various reasons. Thank you.
So here's the thing. You can have a you know,
you can call your trust whatever you want to call
your trust. The banks won't take it. They won't They
(33:08):
need to see your name. Then this is not a
legal thing. It's just the way they are. You got
to put your name on there as the as the trustee, right,
excuse me, as the in the title of the trust.
So you do have to have you know, the John
Smith Family Trust right. A lot of banks will require that,
even though there's no they require it for their own purposes. Okay,
(33:32):
But the question here is with the house. So what
if you, uh, you know, instead of instead of John Smith,
what if we had John Doe trustee of the Widows
and Orphans Fund Trust. Because you can name your trust
whatever you want, right and hold the trust that way,
(33:53):
hold the property that way. And you say, oh, but
now I'm going to lose my principal residence exemption. I'm
going to lose all the tax benefits and whatnot. And
I say, well, not necessarily not if you're the primary beneficiary.
And the trust spells out that you're the beneficiary. And
you say, yeah, but now I got John Doe as
my trustee, and I want them, you know, I want
(34:14):
to be the boss of my stuff. Okay, So when
you record the d you're recording it to John Doe,
trustee of the let's call it the Smith Family Trust.
Can you do that? Absolutely, you can do that. You've
got to name the trustee though, Okay, you have to
name the trust d because otherwise it doesn't work. Which
(34:34):
is different, of course than like a limited liability company
or a corporation, where you don't have to say in
the deed who the president of the corporation is. A
trust is different than those entities legally.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
This is this is why we have lawyers, right, because
they do different things in different ways. All right. This
is why you have plumbers and electricians and auto mechanics
and automatic trains mission repairment. This is why when you
get things, when things get complex, HVAC people, right, when
things get complex, you need somebody who understands the ins
(35:10):
and outs. And we don't have time to figure out
all the ins and outs of everything, all right. You
know there are people who specialize in hot tubs. There
are why because not everybody wants to be a specialist
in hot tubs. It's kind of a narrow specialty. But
there you are. I mean, that's how it works. Think
(35:30):
about your doctors. Gosh, you get a doctor for each fingernail,
don't you something like that? Anyway, The point is that
this stuff can get complex. You really do need to
know what you're talking about. But when it comes to
titling it right, just title, just have a John Doe
trust the you know. But but the thing is, it's
your it's your house, right, so it have to be
(35:51):
John Smith Deeds to John Doe, Trustee of the Mystery
Name Family Trust, which you could do. Okay, you can
call it that, you can call it the mystery in trust,
whatever you want. There's nothing illegal about it. And then
what you do, like as soon as you make that transfer,
(36:15):
the John Doe resigns as trustee and appoints you as trustee.
Right and so now, right now you're owning the property. Again,
you're in control, not John Doe. So you're in control
of your stuff. We haven't recorded your name on a
deed yet, okay, although we did record your name because
you have to be the grand tour you have to
(36:36):
be the one who gives the property. And then you
can file for your principal residence exemption. What have you
right and proved to the local governing authority, you know,
your township or city or whoever it is that's taxing
you local taxing authority who you are, and that you're
entitled to the principal residence exemption or whatever other exemptions
(36:57):
you may be qualified for. Right, So, is there a
way to do this? Yeah, you could, Yeah, you could
do it that way. It's hard to see how that
would be a value. You know, you're not really hiding anything,
but you know, if you wanted to, if you wanted
to most things. There's ways to there is ways to
(37:19):
do things. Let's see, my sister put her name on
my CD and my will not take her name off
my CD. I did authorize it. My CD had my name.
Then my sister scratched out then put her name. Well,
(37:43):
if you authorized it, if you gave it to her,
I mean, did you see? Then then you get into
what did you say, yeah, you can put my name
on it. Did you do that so that she could
spend it on you? You know, if you became incapacitated
or something. See, this is sort of a do it
yourself estate planning. That doesn't you know that has unforeseen consequences.
(38:06):
What are the unforeseen consequences? Well, that your sister wouldn't
give you your money back? How unforeseen is that? All right? Really,
you're trusting on your sister give your money back. Well,
maybe she won't, or maybe she won't. Apparently now she won't.
That's that's not what we call good planning. Let's see
if we can get one more one more of these
(38:27):
emails real quick here? Uh, what if my spouses will
is out of date and conflicts with our twenty five
year old pre nup Murray, what will happen my husband dies,
his will isn't specific enough and conflicts with our prenup
from two thousand. Tourney once told me that prenup Trump's
(38:47):
a will. Not sure about that? Oh, there we go,
So I guess we're done. Sorry, we'll get to that
one next week. You've been listening to the David Carrier Show.
I'm David Carrier inviting you to go to the website
Davidcarrier Law dot com. The AI keeps getting better, answers
your questions and gives you suggestions and what have you.
But it's not legal advice. Let's not make that mistake.
(39:10):
Not legal advice. Go to the website Davidcarrier Law dot com.
Sign up for a free three secrets works out. Love
to see you there. I'm David Carrier, your family's personal attorney.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
You've been listening to the David Carrier Show. A lively
discussion addressing your questions and concerns, but not legal advice.
There is a big difference. So when making decisions that
affect your family, your property, or yourself, the best advice
is to seek good advice specific to your unique needs.
If you missed any of today's show, or would like
additional information about the law offices of David Carrier, please
(39:46):
visit Davidcarrier law dot com.
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