New Ways to Plan for Long-Term Care Costs: Self-Insure & Medicaid Trusts
Planning for long-term care is harder than ever as insurance premiums rise and availability shrinks. In 2025, families are turning to two main strategies: self-insuring with dedicated assets or using Medicaid trusts for protection and eligibility. This article breaks down how each option works, their pros and cons, and which approach fits your financial situation. Proactive planning today can help you protect assets, reduce risks, and secure peace of mind for retirement.
Gifting Your House with a Life Estate vs. Medicaid Trust
I recently published an article called “Don’t Gift Your House To Your Children” which highlighted the pitfalls of gifting your house to your kids versus setting up a Medicaid Trust to own your house, as an asset protection strategy to manage the risk of a long-care care event taking place in the future. That article prompted a few estate attorneys to reach out to me to present a third option which involves gifting your house to your children with a life estate. While the life estate does solve some of the tax issues of gifting the house to your kids with no life estate, there are still issues that persist even with a life estate that can be solved by setting up a Medicaid trust to own your house.
