How to protect your vacation home or beach condo from the cost of a nursing home in Florida

Attorney Tom Olsen: Mom has got not only a house but she's got a condo at the beach. Now, we just talked about the house being protected, what's going to happen to the condo, Robert?

Attorney Robert Hidock: Well, if it's a vacation home, we would suggest that they make that property a rental property. If it's income-producing, it's not a countable asset for Medicaid. The asset remains protected, however, the income will have to go as part of the nursing home patient responsibility. If she was still married and both people owned that vacation condo, the husband could just receive all the income, but when there's only one person that owns it, there's no one really who we can divert that income to, so it's not all rental income goes to pay the facility, it's rental income less expenses.

In our scenario, if she had that house and she had the beach house which she's now renting it, she's going to get put over Medicaid's income limit, which is $2,523. That's when we have to draft what's called a qualified income trust for her which will allow her to be qualified for Medicaid. Well, while she's over income.

Attorney Tom Olsen: I like the sound of this, so they could rent out mom's beach condo, because this is a rental property, this is not her homestead, they could use the rent to pay the taxes, maintenance, insurance, HOA, electric, et cetera, and only any money leftover after that rent, after those expenses are paid would be used towards the nursing home Medicaid plan.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Yes.