Scenario 1: You have just been told you will receive a terrific settlement for your Medical Malpractice lawsuit. But you are receiving Medicaid benefits- you ask yourself, can I stay on Medicaid? Your settlement will be over a million dollars, how do you protect against tax and preserve Medicaid? Finally, why do you need Medicaid anyway, with a million dollar settlement?

• To preserve your settlement in the most advantageous tax situation, you need to talk with a structured settlement advisor.

• Next, preserve your Medicaid eligibility by purchasing your email conversation with our Medicaid Associate, ask the associates about a Special Needs Trust to preserve the money.

• No matter what the settlement, you need to consider a Special Needs Trust because you just do not know how much it will cost in the future to treat your disability. A Special Needs Trust will make the settlement money go a lot farther.

1. Disabled person will lose Medicaid benefits if he applies for back income from Social Security Disability. Solution: Stopspenddownnow.com can coach your client to preserve that back income and still remain Medicaid eligible!
   
2. Uninsured disabled person must declare bankruptcy to get rid of huge hospital bills! Solution: An Over-resourced and Un-insured person may access Medicaid by following certain strategies – all approved under Federal Law – that Stopspenddownnow.com will outline for them.
   
3. A victim of a traffic accident or a Medical Malpractice victim who receives a multi-million dollar settlement or verdict, will NEVER need Medicaid! WRONG! Healthcare costs continue to rise. A person’s disability will cost more to maintain as that person ages. So it is imperative to protect this disabled person’s access to Medicaid benefits. The individual does not need to use Medicaid if they so choose. But as a professional advisor, you would have liability if you did not set this disabled person up to receive Medicaid benefits.

Statutes Giving Authority

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 ( OBRA 93) under 42 USC 1396p(d)(4)(c) permits the use of a Pooled Trust by disabled individuals receiving Medicaid benefits. A fully disabled individual under the SSA definition may maintain assets in a Pooled Trust over the eligibility limits and still remain eligible for continued Medicaid coverage. Every Pooled Trust or Individual Special Needs Trust requires a Medicaid Payback Provision.

There are age requirements which vary State to State. For Lawsuit Settlements, usually a Commutation Rider is required by law, to ensure the State Medicaid Agency will receive their payback upon the disabled beneficiary’s death.

The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (FICA 99) amended Federal Law with respect to Supplemental Security Income candidates, and now allows SSI recipients to maintain assets in a Pooled Trust in excess of the Program limits.

IDEAL POOLED TRUST STRUCTURE

A. National investment Advisor
B. Independent Corporate Trustee
C. Independent Third Party Administrator
D. Owner is a Group of Charities
E. Beneficiary Advocate

As you can well imagine, if positions A, B or C are occupied by same or related persons or entities, there could be some non-transparency to the Pooled Trust. Look for a Pooled Trust where the National Trustee is independent of the Charity and the Investment Advisor is NOT the same as or related to the Trustee!
The Third-Party Administrator needs to have experience to understand the implications of distributions so an inappropriate disbursement does not inadvertently cause the SSI or Medicaid benefits to be lost. Experienced Governance is a really important factor.

The owner of the Pooled Trust needs to be a charity or a group of charities that has financial strength to keep the Pooled trust operating. Also, look for a program wherein the Beneficiary can define the charity they wish to help with some of the fee money collected each year for administration.

Family Friendly is really important! Look for a Pooled Trust program which involves the family member as the Beneficiary Advocate so there will be some family understanding of needs of the beneficiary. With a lawyer or professional disbursement trustee, family concerns usually do not receive much attention.

Talk To An Associate at Stop@StopSpendDownNow.com

Learn How to preserve your client’s Medicaid Eligibility!

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