Protecting Real Estate From Long-Term Care Costs 2026

Shielding the home front

For many clients, real estate is the last, and often most valuable, asset they want to preserve. But as property owners age, long-term care expenses can force them to make difficult choices, especially when Medicaid’s five-year lookback rule turns ordinary transfers into costly penalties. Attorneys who advise older adults, individuals with disabilities, or families planning early must know how real property is evaluated, exempted, or exposed when care costs arise.

Home-saving strategies

Protecting Real Estate from Long-Term Health Costs demystifies the timing, structure, and exceptions that determine whether real estate can be protected, transferred, or preserved for future generations. Attorney Reg P. Wydeven will outline a broad set of tools to evaluate your clients’ circumstances, including:

Proactive approaches:

• How divestment strategies differ when transferring property to beneficiaries, irrevocable trusts, or LLCs
• The implications of relinquishing control through a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust
• How timing, valuation, and retained rights affect Medicaid eligibility

Reactive approaches:

• Exceptions to the five-year lookback rule involving transfers to blind or disabled children
• When transfers to a special needs trust are permissible and how age limits apply
• Conditions allowing homestead transfers to a caretaker child or sibling without penalty

Understand how listing a property for sale can influence eligibility, leverage, and long-term planning strategy. You’ll also learn how to apply the “intent to return” rule when assessing a client’s residence and receive tips on what to do when joint owners refuse to sell.

Safeguard client property within the constraints of Medicaid eligibility with help from Protecting Real Estate from Long-Term Care Costs.