Norcross Medicaid Asset Protection Trust Lawyer
Bowman Law Firm helps families in Norcross and across Gwinnett County plan for the cost of long-term care before a nursing home bill empties the savings they spent decades building. We prepare trusts, wills, powers of attorney, and asset protection strategies for Georgia families, and a Norcross Medicaid asset protection trust lawyer conversation usually starts with one worry: how do we keep the house and the savings if Mom or Dad needs care?
The answer depends almost entirely on timing. Georgia Medicaid looks back 60 months at every transfer you made for less than fair market value. Move assets too close to an application and you trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for nursing home care. Move them early, into the right kind of trust, and much of what you own can be shielded.
That is why this planning belongs in a lawyer’s office years before a crisis, not in a hospital hallway after a fall. Our firm serves families in Norcross, Peachtree Corners, Duluth, Lilburn, and throughout the Atlanta area, and we do this work with the plain-spoken explanations clients tell us they value.
How a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust Works in Georgia
A Medicaid asset protection trust is an irrevocable trust. You, as the settlor, transfer assets into it, commonly the family home, a brokerage account, or other savings, and name a trustee other than yourself to manage them. Because you no longer own those assets outright, they generally are not counted when Medicaid decides whether you qualify for nursing home coverage, once the look-back period has run.
Georgia’s trust code draws a sharp line between revocable and irrevocable trusts, and that line is the whole point. During your life, the property in a revocable trust remains reachable by your creditors, so a revocable living trust is excellent for avoiding court but does nothing for Medicaid eligibility. For an irrevocable trust, creditors can reach only the maximum amount the trust could distribute to you or for your benefit. A well-drafted Medicaid trust limits what you can receive, which is how it protects principal while still letting you benefit in defined ways.
The tradeoff is real. You give up the power to take the assets back or to change the terms freely. You can usually keep certain benefits, such as the right to live in the home or to receive income, depending on how the document is built. Deciding what to keep and what to give up is the heart of the drafting work, and it should match your family’s actual situation rather than a form.
Where Georgia’s Look-Back and Penalty Rules Bite
The rules that drive every Medicaid trust decision are few, and worth knowing in plain terms.
- The 60-month look-back: When you apply for nursing home or waiver coverage, Georgia Medicaid reviews the five years before the application. Gifts and below-market transfers inside that window can delay eligibility.
- The penalty period: The state divides the value you gave away by a monthly divisor that it recalculates each year. The result is the number of months you are ineligible. A larger uncompensated transfer means a longer wait.
- When the penalty clock starts: It does not begin when you make the gift. It begins when you are otherwise eligible: in a facility or waiver program, spent down to the asset limit, and have applied. Gifting after you need care can therefore leave you with no savings and no coverage at the same time.
- Asset and income limits: Medicaid sets a low countable-asset ceiling for a single applicant and a different one for a couple, plus an income cap. These figures are adjusted periodically, so we confirm the current numbers at your consultation.
- The community spouse allowance: When one spouse needs care and the other stays home, the healthy spouse may keep a protected share of the couple’s resources, and the at-home spouse’s income is not counted against the applicant.
- The home equity limit: Medicaid caps how much home equity an applicant can hold and still qualify. Equity above the cap can disqualify you, which matters in Gwinnett County’s housing market.
- Spendthrift limits: Georgia’s spendthrift protection does not stop claims for child support, alimony, taxes and other government claims, tort judgments, or necessaries, so a trust is not a shield against every creditor.
Why Choose Bowman Law Firm for Medicaid Trust Planning
Clients work directly with an attorney who knows their family and their goals, and our staff speaks English, Spanish, and Vietnamese so every adult child and parent at the table can follow the plan.
Attorney Bowman’s background shapes how she approaches asset protection. She has tried cases for a national consumer law firm, served as a law clerk to a federal judge in Georgia, and handled personal injury defense for a large Florida firm. That means she has seen claims, creditors, and courtrooms from the inside, and she plans with the way disputes actually unfold in mind.
Clients describe the firm as honest, hardworking, knowledgeable, and reassuring, and one reviewer who has worked with Shireen for over seven years on hundreds of cases calls her smart and effective. Our guiding idea is that every client is a person first, a client second, and never a file number. For Medicaid planning, that means unhurried meetings and a plan you understand completely before you sign anything.
The process is simple: a free discovery call, an initial consultation to design your plan for $100, and an in-person signing meeting where the finished documents are presented to you. Virtual consultations are available for families who cannot all be in one room.
What to Do Now If Long-Term Care Is on the Horizon
Start by sorting the family into two situations, because the right move differs. If no one needs care yet, you are in the best position you will ever be in: the 60-month clock can run quietly while everyone is healthy. If someone is already in a facility or a diagnosis is close, the plan narrows, but options usually remain, especially for married couples, so do not assume it is too late.
Before you meet with us, gather a clear picture of what you own: the deed to the home and a rough value, bank and brokerage statements, retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and any business interests. Write down transfers you have made in the past five years, including gifts to children and large purchases for others. Those transfers are exactly what a Medicaid caseworker will examine.
Resist the urge to quietly retitle the house to a child. It feels like the obvious fix, but a direct gift is a transfer for less than fair market value, it can carry penalty and tax consequences, and it exposes the property to your child’s creditors, divorce, or lawsuits. A properly drafted trust controls those risks. Also hold off on any large withdrawals or spending sprees before talking to a lawyer.
Check the paperwork around the trust too. You will want a durable financial power of attorney and an advance directive for health care in place, because a Medicaid application often requires someone to act for a parent who can no longer manage it. Georgia’s power of attorney must be signed by the principal, witnessed by a competent witness, and acknowledged before a notary who is not that witness, so these documents need to be done correctly the first time.
Finally, know where disputes would land. If a family ends up needing a guardianship or conservatorship because no powers of attorney exist, that is a petition in the Probate Court of Gwinnett County, which also handles estate administration and the probate of wills. Good planning keeps your family out of that courtroom.
Medicaid Trust, Revocable Trust, or Both: Matching the Tool to the Goal
Many of our Norcross clients leave with two trusts, because they solve different problems. A revocable living trust keeps you in control, lets a successor trustee step in if you become incapacitated, and moves property to your heirs without waiting on a court. It does not protect assets from nursing home costs. An irrevocable Medicaid asset protection trust gives up control in exchange for that protection.
Some families split the assets. Cash and investments you are comfortable parting with go into the irrevocable trust. Day-to-day accounts and property you want to manage freely stay in a revocable trust. A pour-over will catches anything left outside, and trust funding, the step of retitling real estate and accounts into the trust’s name, makes the whole structure actually work. An unfunded trust protects nothing.
Georgia also has no state estate tax or inheritance tax, and the federal estate tax exclusion is large enough that most families we serve will never owe it. For most of our clients, then, the trust is about long-term care costs and control, not tax. We say so plainly, so you do not pay for complexity you do not need.
Questions Families Ask About Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts
What exactly is a Medicaid asset protection trust?
It is an irrevocable trust to which you transfer assets so they are no longer counted as yours for Medicaid eligibility, after the look-back period passes. A trustee you choose manages the property under written terms, and your beneficiaries receive it later according to those terms.
How far back does Georgia Medicaid look at my transfers?
Sixty months. Any transfer for less than fair market value made in the five years before you apply can produce a penalty period of ineligibility for nursing home and waiver coverage.
Can I protect my house, or will Medicaid force a sale?
Often the home can be protected, but the method matters. Transferring it into a properly designed irrevocable trust early is very different from deeding it to a child. Medicaid also limits how much home equity a long-term care applicant may hold, so the value of the home is part of the analysis.
What happens if I need care before five years have passed?
You are not necessarily out of options. A shorter wait may still reduce the penalty, assets transferred to a spouse are treated differently, and some planning tools work faster than the full look-back. We evaluate your timeline honestly rather than promising what the rules do not allow.
Do I lose control of my property in an irrevocable trust?
You lose the power to freely take it back or rewrite the terms, which is what makes it protective. Georgia does not let a settlor modify or revoke a trust unless the document expressly reserves that power. Depending on the design, you may still keep the right to live in the home or receive certain income.
Can creditors or a lawsuit reach assets in the trust?
For an irrevocable trust, a settlor’s creditors can reach only what the trust could distribute to or for the settlor. A trust that limits those distributions offers real protection, but spendthrift clauses do not defeat claims such as child support, alimony, taxes, or tort judgments.
Is a revocable living trust enough to qualify for Medicaid?
No. Because you can revoke it, the assets are treated as yours, and in Georgia the property of a revocable trust remains open to your creditors during your life. It is valuable for avoiding court and for incapacity planning, just not for Medicaid.
How does this work for a married couple when only one spouse needs care?
Medicaid does not count the healthy spouse’s income against the applicant, and the spouse who stays home may keep a protected portion of the couple’s resources. Transfers between spouses are treated more favorably than gifts to others, so married couples usually have more room to plan.
Do I still need powers of attorney if I have a trust?
Yes. A trust only controls what is titled in it. A durable financial power of attorney lets someone handle everything else, including a Medicaid application, and an advance directive names who makes medical decisions. Georgia’s financial power of attorney is durable unless it says otherwise, and it ends at the principal’s death.
Can a Medicaid trust be changed if my family situation changes?
Irrevocable trusts are harder to change than living trusts, so we build flexibility in at the start, such as naming who can serve as trustee and how beneficiaries are treated. If circumstances shift, we review whether an amendment or other adjustment is possible under Georgia law.
How much does it cost to get started with you?
Begin with a free discovery call. If you move forward, the initial consultation to design your estate plan is $100, and we explain the next steps and fees before you commit to anything.
Serving Medicaid Planning Clients Across Norcross, Gwinnett County, and Metro Atlanta
We start with Norcross and the Gwinnett County families around it: Peachtree Corners, Duluth, and Lilburn close by, then Lawrenceville, Suwanee, and Buford across the county. Many of our clients live along the Buford Highway corridor in Doraville, Chamblee, and Brookhaven, where multigenerational households make long-term care planning especially personal.
We also work with families in north Fulton, including Johns Creek, Alpharetta, and Roswell, and in the Perimeter area in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. To the west and east, we serve Marietta in Cobb County and Decatur in DeKalb County. Farther north, we help families in Cumming in Forsyth County and Gainesville in Hall County, and we also serve Dalton. If getting to us is hard, a virtual consultation lets you plan from home.
Talk With a Norcross Medicaid Asset Protection Attorney
The families who come out best are the ones who plan while everyone is still healthy. If you are weighing how to protect a home, savings, or a business from the cost of nursing home care, a Norcross Medicaid asset protection attorney at Bowman Law Firm can walk you through what a trust can and cannot do for your situation. Call to schedule a free discovery call, and let us help you decide, on your own terms, what your family keeps.
