Legal Question in Elder Law in California

Elder law question. My mother and I have joint bank account and we also own a house in joint tenancy. I want her to be medi-cal elegible but cannot do so because of the bank account. How can we protect the joint bank account and the house. Can I remove her from the title of the house and if so how can I do that. What's the best way to get her off the account. Just remove her name from the account or should she give me her half of the money in installments or can we use that money to pay part of the mortgage of the house. What's be best and quickest way to do this. She does not need medi-cal right now but I want to do this before she needs it.


Asked on 2/09/12, 6:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

If you think that MediCal has not figured out that people will try to do what you are trying to do, and have written rules to make it very difficult, you are not thinking very hard. It is possible to move and protect assets to maximize MediCal benefits, but it is a task for experts in estate planning and elder financial planning. Try doing it yourself and you will just muck it up such that you'll be lucky if all they do is disregard the transfers, and you could set yourself up for civil and criminal penalties depending on what you do and say once the time comes. If you have enough wealth to be worth protecting, it's worth the money you will spend on a good elder planning specialist to do it right.

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Answered on 2/09/12, 6:52 pm


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