How can I leave my estate to my spouse in a manner that my spouse will not be required to “spend it down” on their care if they enter a nursing home?
If you leave your estate outright to your spouse, the assets that you leave to your spouse will generally be considered countable resources for purposes of Long Term Care Medicaid eligibility, and those assets must be spent down on your spouse’s care prior to qualifying for government assistance. Instead, by leaving your estate in trust for your spouse while designating your spouse as the income beneficiary only, and designating other people to receive the trust when your spouse later dies, you may be further protecting those trust assets from having to be spent down prior to your spouse qualifying for long term care government assistance.