Veteran’s Benefits in Estate Planning: What You Should Know

Benefits you earned shouldn’t be out of reach just because the rulebook is complex. We sit down on Veterans Day to map a practical path to VA Aid and Attendance—a pension that can help pay for in‑home care, assisted living, or nursing home care—without draining a lifetime of savings. Drawing on years of elder law practice, we unpack the real asset limits, the home and acreage rules, and the underused Veterans Asset Protection Trust that can shield excess resources and still keep you in control.

Across the conversation, we focus on preserving dignity and choice. You’ll hear how to balance everyday access to funds while sheltering the rest, how to select a trusted third‑party trustee, and why a well‑timed trust can be Medicaid‑compliant so you can stack Aid and Attendance with Medicaid when health needs escalate. We also lay out the essential foundation: a general durable power of attorney, a health care power of attorney, and a living will—documents that prevent guardianship and keep decision‑making with the people you choose. For the home, we explain probate‑avoidance strategies like a Lady Bird deed to protect equity and ensure it passes cleanly to your heirs.

Whether you’re a veteran, a spouse, or a surviving spouse, the goal is clear: protect what you’ve built, activate the benefits you deserve, and keep control over where you live and how you’re treated. If you’ve wondered how to qualify for VA Aid and Attendance, avoid unnecessary spend‑downs, and steer clear of probate, this guide offers the steps and the reasoning behind them. Subscribe for more elder law insights, share this with a veteran who could use it, and leave a review to help others find trustworthy planning advice.

Episode Transcript

Greg McIntyre (00:08):
Hi, it's Greg McIntyre with McIntyre Elderlaw
here with my law partner,Brenton Begley at McIntyre
Elderlaw.
Hey, Brenton.

Brenton Begley (00:16):
Hey.

Greg McIntyre (00:17):
You know, we just wanted to say happy Veterans
Day to everyone and talk alittle bit about estate
planning, veterans' benefits,and how that's important to
veterans.
So, Brenton, we handle estateplanning to assist veterans in
qualification for veterans aidand attendance pension benefits.
Tell us a little bit aboutestate planning that can get

(00:40):
someone lined up for a veteransaid and attendance pension
benefit.

Brenton Begley (00:44):
Well, you know, the veterans and attendance
pension benefit is somethingthat you have to qualify for,
okay?
And you can only have so manyassets and qualify for it.
So, you know, there's a coupleoptions out there if you're
over-resourced to qualify forveterans' benefits.
Okay.
So specifically, we're talkingabout benefits, by the way, when

(01:07):
it comes to long-term care orin-home care, um, and not
necessarily disability benefits,those are conflated quite a
bit.
So uh when it comes to aid andattendance pension benefits, um,
you can only have around it'saround $130,000 in addition to a

(01:28):
residence, no greater than um,you know, two acres of land with
that residence.
Okay.
So if that's the case, then inyour overresource, then you may
um be able to use a veteransasset protection trust to um
tuck away some of those assetsthat are over the threshold.

(01:52):
And if you are able to do that,then those assets no longer
count as yours, and you candirect who those assets go to at
death.
You can direct who managesthose assets through you know
that trust by appointing atrustee, and you can avoid
probate any unnecessary processafter you've passed away.

Greg McIntyre (02:15):
Brent, I think that's a that I just wanted to
say, you know, I think thatveterans asset protection trust
is a way, uh it's such anunderutilized tool by veterans.
It it really opens them up forthat veterans aid and attendance
pension benefit that can payfor in-home assisted living or
nursing home care without havingthem spin down all their
assets, and and it's notapplying for Medicaid, right?

(02:38):
It's not applying for anotherbenefit.
It's actually actuallyaccessing a pension benefit from
your employer, your pastemployer, the United States
military.
And it's offered.
But you know, sliding someassets in that veteran's asset
protection trust, that's a nicelittle safe to put them in.
And and they're they're stillthere for your use of benefit,

(03:00):
right?

Brenton Begley (03:01):
Exactly.
You know, you do have to name athird party.
Uh can be you can't be yourspouse as the trustee.
Um, but that doesn't mean itcan't be a family member, a very
close trusted family member.
The other thing is that it'sit's a great situation for a
veteran, too, because you're ifyou're looking at paying tens of
thousands of dollars worth ofyou know health care costs, then

(03:22):
activating that benefit isreally gonna help.
And you can still keep out alot of assets from that trust
where you have direct um accessto those assets.
So you don't have to rely on atrustee for everything.
You know, a lot of people youknow uh avoid maybe setting up a
trust where they appointsomebody else as the trustee

(03:45):
because they don't want to haveto go through that individual to
access the trust.
But here, you know, this givesyou the opportunity to keep
sufficient amount of assets outof the trust to be able to pay
for anything that you need andtuck away the excess to go ahead
and have that excess protectedand so that it no longer counts

(04:06):
against you as an asset whenyou're trying to qualify for
that benefit.

Greg McIntyre (04:09):
Yeah, and as a bonus, I just add Veterans Asset
Protection Trust are alsoMedicaid compliant.
So while I was bagging on thatbenefit earlier, hey, there
might be a situation where youwant to roll to a benefit in
North Carolina to also add tothe Veterans Aid attendant's
pension and pay for assistedliving or nursing home care.

Brenton Begley (04:31):
Yeah, you can stack those benefits if you go
ahead and put the veterans assettrust in place early enough.
You can go ahead and stackthose benefits.

Greg McIntyre (04:39):
This you can stack the benefits, and it works
for both.
And it's Medicaid compliantalso.
So, I mean, you know, and youknow, one of the things that we
do is is we do help veteranswith this type of benefit and
qual, how about qualification toget their assets lined up so
they can apply and qualify forthat benefit.
We know the benefit well.

(05:00):
And I think too many veteransdo not invest in estate
planning.
Right.
You gotta look at, hey,veterans out there, guys, men,
women, you need to invest insome professional estate
planning, professional legalservices.

(05:20):
It is worth its worth theinvestment if you do it
correctly, okay?
And it can help protect theassets that you work so hard
for.
Um we do take care of ourclients, we take care of our
veterans.
I'm a veteran of the U.S.

(05:41):
Navy and so many fond memories,tough memories.
I'm very proud that I served.
And I know you are too.
And I work hard to take care ofmy family, and I have a good
estate plan in place to makesure I take care of my assets,

(06:01):
open myself up for benefits, andyou should too.
And we make that affordable andaccessible to all people,
especially veterans, okay?
Now, an often overlooked thingveterans do as well, and
everybody does, is reallyfoundational work.
If you become, heaven forbid,incompetent or incapacitated,

(06:26):
you do not want your family tohave to go after guardianship
for you and take care of you.
You want to have in place, ifyou have the trusted people in
your life, agents appointedunder a general durable power of
attorney, a healthcare power ofattorney, have that living will
in place.
Let's have the last will andtestament to say where your
assets go, okay, as a safety netto get them there.

(06:49):
Britain foundations is soimportant, and the planning we
do for veterans and others is somuch about protecting yourself
during your life, not just afteryou're gone, right?

Brenton Begley (07:01):
Yeah, I mean, imagine, you know, what we
provide is not just protectionof assets, it's a protection of
your dignity and protection ofyour right to choose, you know,
how you use and deploy yourassets and also where you live,
where you're going to betreated, how you're going to be
treated.
You know, a lot of peoplethink, well, I have family

(07:22):
members next of kin can makedecisions for me if I can no
longer make those decisions.
That's just not the case.
To make a decision on someoneelse's behalf, you have to have
legal authority to do so.
And if you do not have power ofattorney, you do not have legal
authority unless you seekguardianship, and that's an
extreme measure that we want tostay away from.

(07:42):
I mean, the law even reflectsthat it's an extreme measure.
The law wants you to have thepower of attorney in place
because the law is going to makeeverybody look and see if
there's a power of attorney inplace before a guardian can be
appointed.
So it's a way to protectyourself from having a guardian
put in place that is going totake that ability to choose away
from your family.
Certainly take the ability tochoose away from you, and you

(08:04):
get to dictate where you live,how you're treated, through the
relationship you have with atrusted individual and the
parameters that you put in thoselegal documents that we craft
and customize specifically forour clients.
So these are things that areoften overlooked, but incredibly
important because it gives youthe ability to control what

(08:25):
happens, gives you the ability,you know, as much as we can to
control your future, yourdestiny, and to determine where
your assets go.
You know, and even if you don'thave enough assets where it
necessitates a trust, you reallyought to keep those assets out
of probate.

(08:46):
That's another thing.
I mean, if you're looking atmaking sure that your home goes
to your children and actuallymakes it to them, you don't want
it to go through this processcalled probate where the
creditor has the opportunity tomake a claim against it, you
know, and using something like aladybird deed to protect that
property, even if a trust isn'tnecessary, is important.

(09:07):
These things are oftenoverlooked, you know, but
they're low-hanging fruit.
If you can go in, see anattorney, make sure you have
those foundations in place, makesure you're avoiding probate,
that's fundamental.
And then you can also look,hey, how can I now or in the
future activate a benefit tohelp cover the cost of very
expensive, overly expensivecare, okay, to make sure that I

(09:31):
don't have to spend everythingI've worked hard my whole life
at the end of my life, right,just to pay for this care.

Greg McIntyre (09:39):
Very well said, agreed, Brenton.
Um, we're proud of our veteranclients.
We're we're we're thankful fortheir service, and we would like
to be of service to them.
The benefits that we're talkingabout are for veterans and
their spouses and spouses ofdeceased benefit uh of the
deceased veterans.

(10:00):
Um, and anyway, you know,Brenton, thank you for joining
me in this special kind ofveterans uh edition of the Elder
Law Report, where we're talkingabout qualifying for veterans,
um, aid and attendance pensionbenefits and other estate
planning that veterans shouldhave in place.
I would offer a free consultfor our veterans.
You can schedule by calling1888 999 6600 or directly online

(10:26):
on our calendars atmcelderlaw.com/slash scheduling.
Thank you.