Planning for an older parent, spouse, or your own future can raise difficult legal and financial questions. Who will make decisions if you become incapacitated? How will your family address nursing home costs? What should you do before applying for Wisconsin Medicaid? Heritage Law Office LLC helps Milwaukee-area families evaluate these questions and put appropriate legal plans in place.
Attorney Brad Sarkauskas assists Wisconsin clients with elder law, long-term care and Medicaid planning, powers of attorney, wills, and trusts. To discuss your situation, request a consultation online or call 414-253-8500. Consultations are available by phone or video.
How a Milwaukee Elder Law Attorney Can Help
Elder law brings several important decisions together. Rather than treating a nursing home admission, financial eligibility question, or incapacity document as a separate problem, we can review how each issue may affect the others.
- Long-term care planning: Prepare for nursing home, assisted living, or in-home care needs and explore financial considerations. See our Nursing homes page.
- Wisconsin Medicaid planning: Review eligibility considerations, asset and income rules, and potential problems before transferring property. Read more about Medicaid planning.
- Planning for a spouse: Consider how long-term care costs and applicable spousal impoverishment protections may affect the spouse who remains at home.
- Incapacity planning: Prepare financial and health care decision-making documents, including power of attorney documents.
- Wills and trusts: Coordinate inheritance wishes, decision-making authority, and an estate plan with long-term care concerns.
- Special needs and burial planning: Evaluate whether a particular trust or burial arrangement has an appropriate place in your plan under applicable law.
When Should You Speak With an Elder Law Attorney?
Some families plan years ahead. Others contact an attorney after a hospital stay, a dementia diagnosis, or a notice that long-term care may be needed. Legal advice may be particularly useful before you give away property, change ownership of a home, establish a trust, or submit a Medicaid application. Those steps can have consequences that are difficult or costly to reverse.
If a parent is already receiving care, planning may still be worthwhile. The available options depend on the person's circumstances, the type of care, current rules, and any prior transfers.
Wisconsin Nursing Home and Long-Term Care Planning
Long-term care can create serious financial pressure for individuals and couples. The level and cost of care can vary substantially based on a person's needs and the facility or services chosen. Our goal is to help you understand your legal planning choices without assuming that every family will need the same approach.
Does Medicare Pay for Nursing Home Care?
Medicare generally does not pay for long-term custodial nursing home care when that is the only care needed. Under qualifying conditions, Medicare Part A may cover short-term skilled nursing facility care for up to 100 days in a benefit period; that is not a guarantee of 100 covered days. Families should not assume Medicare will fund an ongoing nursing home stay.
How Wisconsin Medicaid Planning Works
Wisconsin Medicaid may help pay for qualifying long-term care services, but coverage is subject to financial and other eligibility requirements. Which assets count, whether a home is excluded, the treatment of income, and the applicant's marital status can all matter. Applying is not simply a matter of giving away assets or emptying an account.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services explains that certain transfers for less than fair market value during the 60 months before a Medicaid long-term care application can lead to a period of ineligibility for those benefits. Not every transfer causes a penalty; timing, exemptions, documentation, and the facts of the transaction are critical. Consult an attorney before transferring a house, making major gifts, or funding a trust as part of Medicaid planning.
What if One Spouse Needs Care and the Other Lives at Home?
Wisconsin has spousal impoverishment protections that may allow a community spouse to retain certain assets or income under specified circumstances. The amount and treatment depend on the couple's situation and applicable rules. Married couples should obtain individualized guidance rather than assume all jointly owned resources must be spent on care.
Need guidance before a Medicaid application or property transfer? Request a consultation with Heritage Law Office to discuss the facts of your family's situation.
Trusts, Burial Planning, and Protecting Family Finances
A trust can serve valuable estate-planning purposes, but its Medicaid treatment depends on who created it, what assets were used, what rights the person retains, how the trust is written, and when it was funded. Creating an irrevocable trust does not automatically make assets unavailable for Medicaid or protect them from recovery. Different trust arrangements have different legal consequences.
Irrevocable Trust and Asset-Transfer Questions
Families sometimes ask whether transferring a home or savings into a trust will protect an inheritance if nursing home care becomes necessary. Such planning needs to consider eligibility, transfer penalties, access to funds, tax consequences, and future care needs. We can discuss whether a trust belongs in a broader estate plan; there is no one-size-fits-all answer.
Funeral and Burial Arrangements
Certain burial assets and qualifying irrevocable burial arrangements may receive special treatment when Wisconsin Medicaid evaluates resources. An arrangement is not automatically exempt simply because it is described as a funeral trust. The terms, funding, and current program rules must be evaluated before relying on it.
Special Needs Trusts
A properly structured special needs trust can sometimes help an eligible person with a disability receive supplemental support while addressing public-benefit rules. However, requirements differ depending on whose assets fund the trust, the beneficiary's age and disability status, the trust's terms, and possible Medicaid reimbursement provisions. A trust's title alone does not determine eligibility.
Wisconsin may also seek repayment for certain Medicaid-funded long-term care services through its Estate Recovery Program. Any plan that involves Medicaid should account for eligibility and potential recovery separately.
Planning for Incapacity and Future Decisions
Elder law planning is about more than paying for care. It can also help put trusted people in a position to assist with decisions if illness or cognitive changes make independent decision-making difficult.
Financial Power of Attorney
A financial power of attorney can authorize an agent to handle certain financial or property matters under the terms of the document and Wisconsin law. Choosing an appropriate agent and defining the authority carefully can help avoid confusion later. A power of attorney does not itself transfer ownership of all assets to the agent.
Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will
Wisconsin distinguishes a power of attorney for health care, which appoints an agent to make health care decisions if the legal conditions for activation are met, from a living will (Declaration to Health Care Professionals), which addresses specified life-sustaining treatment decisions. They are separate advance-directive documents. You can review the Wisconsin DHS advance directive resources or discuss whether customized documents are appropriate.
Wills and Estate Planning
A will allows you to state who should receive probate assets and nominate a personal representative, subject to Wisconsin law. Many families also consider beneficiary designations and trusts so their plans work together. Long-term care planning should be coordinated with, rather than separated from, a person's existing estate plan.
Guardianship When Planning Was Not Completed
If someone no longer has sufficient decision-making capacity and no adequate authorization is available, a court proceeding may be necessary. Whether guardianship is appropriate depends on the person's capacity, existing documents, and less restrictive alternatives. Planning early can help preserve choices.
Request a Milwaukee Elder Law Consultation
When you contact Heritage Law Office, tell us whether you are planning ahead, facing a move to assisted living or a nursing home, dealing with a Medicaid eligibility issue, or arranging legal documents for an aging family member. We can review the general nature of your concern and discuss whether our legal services are a fit for your needs.
Call 414-253-8500 or request a consultation online. Heritage Law Office serves Wisconsin clients, including Milwaukee and nearby communities, with convenient phone and video consultations. Please do not send confidential or urgent details through the website contact form.
Frequently Asked Questions About Elder Law in Wisconsin
Should I contact an elder law attorney before applying for Medicaid?
It can be especially important to get advice before making gifts, changing ownership of a home, or moving money into a trust. These actions may affect eligibility for long-term care benefits.
Does a spouse have to spend all the couple's savings on nursing home care?
Not necessarily. Wisconsin has rules intended to protect certain income and assets for a spouse living in the community. The actual amounts and requirements depend on the couple's circumstances and current law.
Will an irrevocable trust always protect assets from Medicaid?
No. Medicaid treatment varies by the terms and funding of the trust, the applicant's rights, and the timing of transfers. A transfer to a trust may also raise divestment issues. The document and transaction should be reviewed individually.
Can Medicare pay for a long-term nursing home stay?
Medicare generally does not cover long-term custodial care. It may cover qualifying short-term skilled nursing facility services, but only subject to specific coverage conditions and limits.
What is the difference between a living will and a health care power of attorney?
In Wisconsin, a living will addresses specified life-sustaining treatment decisions. A health care power of attorney designates someone to make health care decisions when the statutory requirements for that authority are met.
Can an adult child request a consultation about a parent's legal needs?
Yes. Family members frequently make the initial inquiry. Whether the parent or another person can be represented or authorize particular actions depends on capacity, existing legal authority, and attorney-client relationship considerations.
Ready to discuss an elder law or long-term care planning issue? Request a consultation with Heritage Law Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
