There are many ways that you can protect your assets as you get older. One of them is an irrevocable trust. This trust can be used to qualify for benefits like income based veterans benefits and Medicaid. This can be a much better way to handle your assets than simply gifting them to someone. Here are a few reasons why.

Receiving an Income

While the grantor of the trust is unable to access the principal of the trust, they may still draw an income from the trust. This allows you to put aside assets to qualify for income based aid, but also draw some money in order to help pay for costs during the five year look-back period that Medicaid and other aid programs require.

Better Control of Assets

A gift is just that. Money is given to someone else for them to use as they wish. While that might be okay in some circumstances, a less mature recipient of the gift may end up using it in ways that you would rather not see your money be spent.

A trust will allow you more control over the disbursement of the funds and can stipulate things that they can and cannot be used to purchase. You can even set up a trust to approve or disapprove the distributions for the rest of the grantor’s life time.

If you need legal assistance or have questions about setting up a trust, contact Stano Law group today.