I know a 1st party Special Needs Trust is not considered available resources for Medicaid. Does VA take the same approach?
I think the answer is NO, although there might be a split in the opinions among attorneys. In my legal analysis, VAOPGCPREC 33-97 explicitly answered this question. It held that assets transferred by a claimant or its fiduciary to a Special Needs Trust, which is designed to preserve the assets by restricting trust expenditures to the claimant’s “special needs”, while maximizing the use of governmental resources in the care and maintenance of the claimant should be included in the claimant’s Net Worth analysis as available assets. If properly drafted and implemented, the above mentioned IDGT is much safer for VA purposes.
