Month: January 2008

Is it a problem to apply too early for Medicaid?

On: By: Bill Gatesman

Some families make large gifts to family members — to enable a child to purchase a house, for example, or to assist a grandchild by paying college expenses. Others make the conscious choice to make a large gift of assets to their children to ensure that those funds will stand in the place of an inheritance should the parents ever require long term care in a nursing home. Without such large gift, those funds might otherwise be depleted by high nursing home costs.

Considering Future Medicaid Eligibility

When making such gifts, seniors must pay close attention to the affect such gifts would have on their ability to obtain government benefits to pay for future nursing home care. As long as sufficient time passes from the time of the gift and an application for Medicaid benefits, those assets will be protected and the gift-giver’s children will not be required to pay back the gift to cover the gift-giver’s care costs.

Continue reading “Is it a problem to apply too early for Medicaid?” →

Forms for our clients

On: By: Bill Gatesman

We have added a page to our website to provide our clients with forms they may need to facilitate our representation. You may access that page by clicking on the word “Forms” in the menu at the top of this page.

One of the documents in the Forms directory is a Memorandum listing the items one needs to provide to us to support a Medicaid application .

Can a guardian be paid for services after the ward has died?

On: By: Bill Gatesman

Battley v. Banks (Md. App. December 20, 2007)

The Gatesman Law Office assists clients in the appointment of a guardian for persons who become incapacitated and cannot make personal or financial decisions for themselves. Guardians are entitled to be compensated for their services, but they must petition the guardianship court for approval of such compensation.

When the disabled person, called the “ward” of the court, dies, the guardian must prepare a final account of the ward’s assets. That account should include the guardian’s final request for compensation.

Whether the guardian may pay such compensation to himself out of the guardianship assets before the ward’s assets are turned over the personal representative of the ward’s probate estate depended on the county in which the ward resided. The courts in different counties applied different rules.

Now, however, the rule is clear. Continue reading “Can a guardian be paid for services after the ward has died?” →