twopupsmom Asked October 2013
I am POA for my husband, our home is in both of our names, how can I change that to have the house in my name only?
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my husband had a week & a half Hosp stay, his doctor there ( military) suggested I have this done to protect that asset.
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sense! You sure wouldn't want house going to dad when he may not be competent to make the change later. But what if twopupsmom also develops problems? Perhaps MedicAid planning? Many people are doing this to protect assets from being taken by government, they would rather assets go to children. Wonder what happens under Obamacare...
TPM, google AVVO to pose question at no charge to attorneys in your area, and receive responses.
Investigate all options with an attorney. Not just the one. Sometimes they only tell you what they prefer, but it may not be right for you. Use an elder care attorney so that they can tell you about Medicare and Medicaid and how future benefits will be effected by what you decide.
If you want to own the property now, for whatever reason that you have ( ?) you may ask him to sign a Quit Claim deed. This requires both a Notary and a lawyer. The Quit Claim is often used in divorces, but can be used under other circumstances also.
We put the house in a trust so that it would go to the children if my mom passed first. My dad ended up passing first and we had to sell the house since my mom could not live alone.
Now I am once again visiting an elder law attorney to figure out the details of mom's assets from the sale.
All of this is complicated and I feel an attorney in the state that you live in can give you detailed information on what should be done in ones particular case.
Married couples traditionally own their homes jointly, unless they choose to keep their property separate (when one spouse inherited the property or where the home was already in the name of one spouse prior to the marriage). When a couple owns the home in both names, it is wise to consider transferring the title to be in the sole name of the community spouse. Although the home isn't usually a countable asset for Medicaid, there are a few reasons to transfer it to the community spouse's name after qualifying for Medicaid.
First, if the Medicaid applicant/recipient becomes incapacitated, the future transfer or sale of the house may be difficult.
Second, when the property is owned jointly with rights to survivorship, as many couples' houses are, if the community spouse dies before the Medicaid recipient, the house will become a countable asset of the Medicaid recipient. The Medicaid recipient may then have to sell the house to maintain eligibility if the Medicaid recipient will continue to reside in a nursing home. But then, when the home does sell, the proceeds will belong to the Medicaid recipient and will disqualify the recipient from further Medicaid eligibility.
If the home is owned jointly without any survivorship rights, and if the community spouse ceases to reside there, it will have to be placed on the market for sale.
Third, if the home is transferred to the name of the community spouse, Medicaid will not be able to place a lien on the property to recover for payments made on behalf of the Medicaid recipient. Similarly, transferring title of the home to the community spouse will avoid any possible "estate recovery," since the home will no longer be part of the Medicaid recipient’s estate.
First if all, Maryland is an equitable property state. Is there a pre-existing trust prepared before your husbands dementia? if so, I believe that would make his part of the trust irrevocable at the time of diagnosis. You may not be able to exercise your POA to make changes.
Do you have children of this marriage? Are there step children involved in inheriting within the trust (IF there is a trust)?
Protect the house from what? If your husband needs to go on Medicaid, there can be a five-year look back, and they will discover his ownership even if records are that title was changed within that time.
There are too many unknowns for anyone to give you a simple answer here, just general information. Best to see a NAELA certified attorney so you get ALL the answers you need based on accurate detail information.