How do SSI and Medicaid treat the transfer of property into a self-funded trust?
Generally, SSI and Medicaid count property that a person has put into a trust for his or her own benefit as a countable resource, even if the person has no legal right to require the trustee to use the property for the person’s benefit. However, there are two ways that property of a person can be put into a self-funded trust so that the property in the trust is not considered a resource, and the transfer does not result in any period of ineligibility for SSI or Medicaid benefits: 1. Medicaid “Payback” Trust. If the person is under age 65, a parent, grandparent, guardian or court can establish a supplemental needs trust for the person. The trust must provide that the property in the trust will be used only to benefit the person during his or her lifetime, and that any property that remains in the trust when the person dies must go to the state, up to the total amount of Medicaid benefits the person has received. For this kind of trust, the law requires that the actual transfer of money
