Page 18 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, May 12, 2023 Like us on Facebook advocate newspaper Facebook.com/Advocate.news.ma St. Anthony’s Church Flea Market & Bazaar POOLED TRUSTS ELIGIBILITY OPERATIONS MEMO 23-15 M assHealth has just recently issued Eligibility Operations Memo 23-15 regarding how it will be treating pooled trusts. Pooled trusts are utilized typically when a single individual is applying for MassHealth benefits and is over the asset limit. A Payment is made to the non-profit organization that administers the pooled trust in order to reduce the applicant’s countable resources to $2,000. The administrator of the pooled trust may use the monies set aside for the applicant for support services that MassHealth does not pay for or for the purchase if items that MassHealth does not pay for, such as a computer. Any monies left over upon the MassHealth recipient’s death has to be utilized to pay back MassHealth for benefits paid on behalf of the recipient and typically 10% of the funds remaining will be kept by the pooled trust organization (often 20% if the recipient was receiving MassHealth benefits for two years or longer). If there are still monies remaining, those monies will be distributed to the family of the MassHealth recipient. The benefit is that MassHealth pays a nursing home anywhere from fifty to sixty percent of the private pay amount. Therefore, the amount that has to be repaid is much lower than the private pay rate allowing for the funds in the pooled trust to last longer. There is a chance that money will be left for the family to enjoy. Currently, a single person can put money into a pooled trust if over the asset limit and immediately qualify for MassHealth. There is no five-year look back period requirement. This recent memo is stating that after March 1, 2024, there will be a five-year look-back period requirement for funds placed into a pooled trust for applicants over the age of 65. Currently, there is no fiveyear look back period requirement for applicants who have funded a pooled trust at age 64 or younger, regardless of whether an application for MassHealth benefits is not submitted until age 65 or later, and that provision will remain the same. The likelihood is that this memo is designed to provide our state legislature time to enact legislation to allow for pooled trust to continue to be utilized as they have been in the past thereby requiring no fiveyear look-back period in order to avoid a disqualifying transfer. For example, if you wish to transfer your home into an irrevocable trust, you have to wait for five years in order to avoid a disqualifying transfer. We’ll see what law is actually passed in hopes of protecting the use of pooled trusts. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a master’s degree in taxation. Saturday, May 13,, 2023 from 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM Featuring Crafts, Nick-Nacks & So Much More! ~ Admission Only .50 Cents ~ For info, call Linda: (781) 910-8615 All proceeds benefit St. Anthony’s Church For Advertising with Results, call The Advocate Newspapers at 617-387-2200 or Info@advocatenews.net REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS BUYER1 TAMANG, DIL B BUYER2 RAI, MAN K SELLER1 ROMANO, FRANCIS G SELLER2 ROMANO, STEVEN A Copyrighted material previously published in Banker & Tradesman/The Commercial Record, a weekly trade newspaper. It is reprinted with permission from the publisher, The Warren Group. For a searchable database of real estate transactions and property information visit: www.thewarrengroup.com. ADDRESS 65 MORRIS ST CITY MALDEN DATE 04.21.23 PRICE 699000
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