BOCA RATON, Florida – On January 14, 2025, Barry Siegel, Founder and CEO of The Siegel Law Group, P.A., was the featured guest on Episode 27 of the Partnerships for Profit Podcast hosted by Armando Leduc. With over 25 years of experience in Estate Planning and Elder Law, Siegel shared valuable insights on Asset Protection and Medicaid Planning.
Leduc begins the interview with an undeniable fact. “Let’s face it. People are getting old; people are retiring in droves. Many of these folks are looking to exit businesses, looking at what their estate looks like and how we’re leaving this to our kids. You help navigate that entire thing, right?” he asks.
“That’s exactly what we do. I’ve been doing this for a long time, about 25 years in total,” Siegel answers. “We’re in a great area for what you said—retirees, people who are aging, and these people need these services. They need to have Estate Planning. Many people are going to need Elder Law services to make sure they don’t run out of assets during their lifetime due to the cost of long-term care.”
“What is the difference between Estate Planning and Elder Law?” Leduc asks.
“There is some overlap, but Estate Planning is planning your legacy,” Siegel explains. “It’s setting up legal documents, for example, to avoid Probate. A lot of times, people want to avoid Probate, so they set up a Revocable Living Trust. It’s setting up Powers of Attorney and healthcare documents. It’s handling different things like making healthcare decisions—like whether to pull the plug or not pull the plug—making sure we have the right person as Power of Attorney, the right person to handle your Estate after death. And then, of course, making sure we name the right beneficiaries the way you want. There are different ways to leave the assets to your beneficiaries so that you can protect them, even beyond your passing. That’s really what Estate Planning is.
“Elder Law is really more about the preservation of your assets. The biggest threat people have during their retirement years is the cost of long-term care. When I say long-term care, we’re talking about home care, assisted living, and even nursing homes. All of those are expensive propositions here in Florida. Somebody getting just 40 hours of care a week could be spending five to six thousand dollars a month. Assisted living can be roughly five thousand to eight thousand dollars a month and a nursing home here in South Florida can be roughly ten to fifteen thousand dollars a month. I’ve seen even higher than that, so imagine that amount of money coming out of someone’s nest egg who’s retired. They’re not earning any more money, they have their nest egg, they have a fixed retirement and now all of a sudden, five, ten, fifteen-thousand dollars a month is coming out.
“We help the clients in that scenario protect their assets from that expense by allowing them to qualify for government benefits that can pay a significant portion of that amount so that they don’t have to spend down their assets and go broke. Because the bottom line is, and the way that the two mesh, you could have the world’s greatest Estate Plan, Armando, but if you or your spouse become ill and need care and you’re spending down your money, there could be nothing left for both of you. There could be nothing left for the surviving spouse and absolutely nothing to leave to the children or grandchildren. We help preserve the assets so they can leave a legacy.”
Siegel recounts the story of his grandmother, who had to go into a nursing home back in the early 90s. At the time, the nursing home cost around $7,000 per month. She was already widowed and had a lot of health issues. Although she wasn’t wealthy, she had a few dollars saved. Siegel, who was in college at the time, recalls that the nursing home advised his mother and his uncle that his grandmother should spend down her assets until she got down to the Medicaid limit, which was $2,000, as it still is today. Spend down to under $2,000, then the nursing home would have a social worker in their facility do the Medicaid application.
However, once Siegel became an attorney and learned about the Elder Law practice area, he realized that Grandma did not have to spend down her assets. She could have preserved what she had instead of being alone, out of money, financially insecure and feeling like a burden on the family—even though the family didn’t feel that way. She didn’t even have a token amount to leave to her children.
When Siegel recognized that he could do something to help people protect the assets that they’d worked and sacrificed their whole lives for and done all the things people are supposed to do in society—and their only crime was getting sick and needing care—it inspired him to practice Elder Law and Estate Planning. He states that while he highly recommends long-term care insurance for anybody who can afford it, it’s costly. Not only that but by the time people start shopping around for it, many times it’s too late because it’s underwritten just like life insurance, where they look at your age and your health. Not everybody can get it. Even if you do, it’s expensive.
The other option is spending down your money to qualify for Medicaid to help pay for these costs. Medicaid in Florida can cover nearly the entire amount. For example, if a nursing home was $15,000 a month and the client’s income was $3,000 a month, they would have to pay most of that $3,000 to the nursing home, but Medicaid would cover the difference. From the client’s point of view, they’re only paying $3,000 instead of $15,000, which makes a huge difference.
Siegel further explains that there are a few levels to Medicaid Planning. There’s pre-planning, but there is also crisis planning. An example of pre-planning would be an aging individual or a couple still healthy and living. They don’t need help with daily living activities like feeding and bathing themselves, toileting, dressing and walking, but they want to plan to make sure they’re in a position to qualify to get these benefits in the future, should they need them.
Crisis planning is when somebody comes in to see him, usually the adult child or spouse of the person who needs the care. This person is already in the nursing home, getting home care or on the verge of needing it. Siegel likens it to open heart surgery on their finances to do what they need to do to make them qualify. He notes that sometimes, when they get to that point, his law firm may or may not be able to help them, depending on what they’ve already done.
“Let’s say we have a client who needs to qualify for Medicaid,” Siegel explains. “One of the things Medicaid looks at, besides whether you need medical help, is your income and assets. If your income is over the limit, and here in Florida, the limit for gross monthly income from all sources is $2901. Why they had to add one dollar to it, I can’t tell you, but that’s what it is. So, if you are over that limit, you don’t qualify, except there is a way. There’s a type of Elder Law document we can create called a Qualified Income Trust. This Trust can shelter that income and allow someone to qualify in Florida, even though their income is too high.
“Here’s the problem. Do you think it’s possible that somebody who is in their 70s, 80s or beyond and needs care in a facility or at home may lack mental capacity and may have Alzheimer’s or dementia? If that’s the case, they cannot sign this document to help them get around the fact that they have too much income. We’d have to look at a Power of Attorney. Then the question becomes, ‘Do they have a Power of Attorney?’ If they don’t, it’s game over. We have to deliver the bad news that they can’t qualify. They’re going to have to spend down their assets.
“If they do, we want to look at it because it’s not just any Power of Attorney. It has to have specific language that will allow for the creation of this Qualified Income Trust.”
Click below to listen to the full interview.
For more information about Elder Law and Estate Planning, visit https://siegellawgroup.com/.
Your Family, Your Future, Your Legacy: Protect What Matters with The Siegel Law Group, P.A.
The Siegel Law Group, P.A. founder Barry Siegel‘s grandmother Betty did not have long-term care insurance. When she became sick, she had to spend down her assets. She eventually had nothing left. That experience had a profound effect on him—catalyzing his mission to help others avoid those kinds of hardships.
Barry believes people should be able to age with dignity. They should have their needs met as they get older. They should feel like a joy and not a burden to their families. And they should be able to leave a proud legacy behind.
Barry and The Siegel Law Group, P.A. team are dedicated to providing compassionate counsel and effective legal representation in the areas of Estate Planning, Elder Law, Probate and Trust Administration, Business Planning, and more.
We serve families, seniors, and their loved ones in Boca Raton and throughout South Florida.
