New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog
Why don’t more people do the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT)? The answer is that clients often get the wrong advice from well meaning but ill informed professionals, family and friends. Here are some of the most common MAPT myths.
1. You Can’t Sell the House. The MAPT may sell the house at any time. The money is paid to the MAPT. You may invest the money and use the income for a rental or you may purchase another residence in the name of the MAPT. The five year clock does not start over.
2. You Lose Your Property Tax Exemptions. Properly drafted MAPT’s preserve your Senior, STAR and Veteran’s exemptions as well as the exemption from capital gains taxes on the sale of the primary residence — $500,000 for a couple or $250,000 for a single person.
3. It Takes Five Years. While it takes five years to protect ALL of your assets from long-term care in a facility, the time “pro rates”. For example, if you have to go into a nursing home four years after you set up the MAPT, you only have to pay for the one year that is left.
4. You Can’t Get Your Money. The trust pays you all of the income. Principal may be gifted from the trust in any amount to any of your heirs.
5. The MAPT Cannot Be Revoked. Strange as it may seem, in New York you may revoke an irrevocable trust. Here’s why. It’s irrevocable because you, the grantor, cannot revoke it alone. However, New York has another rule on the books that says that if every person named in the irrevocable trust agrees in writing that they no longer want the trust, then you may revoke it on consent of all the named parties. Since that is just you and your adult children, it is usually a simple matter to accomplish. If a child won’t sign, we simply amend the trust to remove them and then their signature is no longer needed.