VA Aid & Attendance: No Penalty Or Look Back Period For Giving Away Assets To Qualify
VA Aid & Attendance: No Penalty Or Look Back Period For Giving Away Assets To Qualify.
Under Alabama Medicaid, there is a penalty period or a “look back period” to see if you gave away assets in the last 5 years.
The VA Aid and Attendance (Special Pension) does not have this. (At least not now (March 15, 2017) but it may be coming soon. Or maybe not. No one really knows.)
So, as a qualified veteran, it is allowable to give away assets to qualify.
There are very important rules to understand about who the assets can be given to.
What it means to “give away,” and we always have to keep one eye on Alabama Medicaid.
Since this is the case, be very careful with who you receive your advice from on what you can transfer.
To be blunt, your insurance salesperson or financial advisor does not and cannot know the intricacies of the VA Pension law and Alabama Medicaid.
Neither do they understand how these two laws — which are both helpful but often contradict each other — can be used together to provide for your long term care.
But the point of this article is to encourage you to not give up on the VA Aid and Attendance just because someone has told you that you have too many assets.
Or if you have been told (incorrectly) that the VA prohibits the transfer of assets before applying for the benefits.
The VA may change the law in the future.
However, right now this is the law: there are allowable transfers that will not cause you to lose eligibility for the benefits and there is nothing wrong with staying with in the laws — similar to taking tax deductions.
Contact Us.
If you live in Alabama and you are a veteran or a relative of an Alabama veteran, contact us.
Especially if you’re interested in learning more about theis benefit and your options.
You can give us a call at 1-205-879-2447.
You can also fill out our contact form and we will get in touch with you soon.
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Have a great day.
As of today (October 29, 2013), there is still no penalty period or look back period under the VA. But . . . Congress is working on a bill to start a 3 year look back rule.
This means — if it passes — that when you apply and are qualified for the VA Pension benefits the VA will want you to bring a “box” of all of your financial records for the last three years.
If the VA sees any “gift” — that is a transfer of something for less than full fair market value — then the VA will say you will be penalized.
Basically this will mean there will be a number of months going forward in time — from when you applied and were qualified — that you will NOT receive the VA Pension. This will likely even apply to widows if their veteran spouse made a gift.
Bottom line is you need to keep an eye on this as the rules are changing and if you are going to do any planning to qualify for the VA Aid & Attendance, now is a good time to look at doing so before the rules change.