My spouse is in a nursing home and is receiving Medi-Cal benefits. What should I do next?
If your spouse lacks legal capacity to sign agreements or deeds, you should file a petition with the probate court, under Probate Code § 3101et seq. ( Click here to see Probate Code Section 3101), for a proceeding to authorize a transaction involving an incompetent spouse, to give you the power to transfer your spouse’s assets out of his/her name. This is done in order to meet Medi-Cal requirements and to avoid an estate recovery claim. You should also plan to transfer your own assets to someone other than your spouse in order to avoid an estate recovery claim when you die. If you die before your spouse does, without having done additional estate planning, your spouse will inherit your assets when you die, which may disqualify him/her from Medi-Cal for a period of time.
