The Hive Law
Long-Term Care Planning in Georgia
A legal strategy for protecting your assets and care decisions before a health crisis forces a spend-down.
How Georgia Families Plan for the Cost of Long-Term Care Without Losing Everything
Three years in a Georgia nursing home costs about $317,550 at today's median price for a shared room, and most families have no plan in place when the need arrives suddenly. Long-term care planning combines legal tools, insurance options, and government benefit strategies so your family is not making financial decisions during a medical crisis. We map every option for your specific asset profile so you know what is protected and what is exposed.
Here Is What Happens When You Need Long-Term Care Without a Plan
Most people will need some form of long-term care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that 70 percent of people turning 65 will need it at some point. A nursing home in Georgia costs about $8,821 a month for a shared room (CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025). A year of care can cost more than most families saved in a decade.
What Medicare Covers and What It Does Not
Medicare pays for up to 100 days in a skilled nursing facility after a qualifying hospital stay. It does not pay for custodial care. Custodial care is help with bathing, dressing, eating, and moving around. That is what most people in a nursing home need. After Medicare’s 100 days run out, the bill is yours. Most families do not find this out until they are already paying it.
What Medicaid Covers in Georgia
Medicaid covers nursing home care in Georgia, but a single person must first spend countable assets down to $2,000. Your home may be exempt while you are alive. After you die, Georgia’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Program can file a claim against your estate, including the house, to recover what Medicaid paid. Georgia waives its claim against the first $25,000 of any estate. Above that, your family may have to pay the claim or sell the house.
Medicaid does not cover assisted living in Georgia. If you need help with daily activities but not full nursing home care, you pay out of pocket. The gap between independent living and nursing home eligibility is entirely your expense. For many families, this is the most expensive and least expected part of long-term care.
What the Spend-Down Looks Like in Practice
A married couple has $350,000 in savings. One spouse enters a nursing home at about $8,821 per month, the Georgia median for a shared room. In 2026, the Community Spouse Resource Allowance lets the healthy spouse keep up to $162,660. The rest must be spent before Medicaid helps. At $8,821 per month, that is about 21 months of private pay. Roughly $185,000 gone before Medicaid covers a single day.
The Five-Year Look-Back Rule
When you ask Medicaid to pay for nursing home care, Medicaid looks back five years. If you gave away property, or moved assets into a trust you cannot take back, during those five years, the full value counts toward a penalty unless an exception applies. You do not get credit for the time that has passed. The penalty is figured with Georgia’s monthly divisor of $11,122 (in effect since April 2026). A $100,000 transfer works out to roughly nine months when Medicaid will not pay the nursing home. The penalty does not start on the day of the transfer. It starts once you are in care, have applied, and would qualify if not for the transfer. That is why this planning works best years before anyone needs care.
What Long-Term Care Planning Does Not Cover
- Legal planning does not guarantee Medicaid approval. Eligibility is determined by DFCS based on medical and financial criteria
- Assets transferred within the five-year look-back period are subject to penalty
- Assisted living costs are not covered by Georgia Medicaid, regardless of legal planning
- IRAs and 401(k)s require separate planning and cannot go directly into a MAPT
Who This Is For
Long-term care planning works best while you are still healthy. Anything you move into a Medicaid trust counts in full toward a penalty if you apply less than five years later. If you are over 60 and own a home or have savings you want to pass on, this planning is built for you.
What a Long-Term Care Plan Includes, How It Works, and What It Protects
A long-term care plan from The Hive Law is a coordinated set of legal documents. The core is a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust. Around it are the documents that handle your care decisions and your finances if you cannot manage them yourself. For Georgia figures on what each kind of care costs and how many older Georgians have a year’s income at or above that price, see our long-term care statistics for Georgia. For figures on Georgia nursing homes, such as federal star ratings and reported nurse staffing in homes with lower and higher Medicaid shares, see our nursing home and Medicaid statistics for Georgia.
The Medicaid Asset Protection Trust
The MAPT is a trust you cannot take back. You move your home and savings into it. For what you moved in more than five years before you apply, Medicaid generally does not count the trust’s principal when it decides if you qualify. Anything you moved in less than five years before counts in full toward a penalty. Any income the trust pays you still counts as income for Medicaid. When you die, what is in the trust passes to your children. Because you no longer own it, it is generally outside what Georgia Medicaid can claim after you pass. But Georgia’s rules do mention trusts, any income or right to live in the home that you keep may still count, and no Georgia court has settled the question. So no trust is a guarantee.
The Advance Healthcare Directive
This document tells your doctors what care you want if you cannot speak for yourself. It names a healthcare agent who can make decisions on your behalf. Without it, your family may face legal barriers to getting basic information about your condition. Every long-term care plan includes one.
The Financial Power of Attorney
A durable financial power of attorney lets your agent manage bills, banking, and financial decisions if you become incapacitated. Without it, your family may need to ask a probate court to appoint a conservator. That process can take months and cost more than the documents would have.
How to Get Started
The process starts with a free strategy call. If it’s a fit, the next step is a Design Meeting. Melissa reviews your assets, your family situation, and your health picture. You leave with a specific plan, not a general overview. The Design Meeting fee is credited toward your total if you move forward.
Long-term care plans at The Hive Law start at:
The Documents
- Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT)
- Pour-Over Will
- Quitclaim Deed
- Financial Power of Attorney
- Advance Healthcare Directive
- HIPAA Authorization
The Implementation
- Document Walk-Through Call
- Trust Funding Session
- Funding Checkup
The Included Services
- Successor Trustee Orientation
- Professional Coordination Call
- Surviving Spouse Transition Call
- Post-Signing Checklist
You’ll have your documents to review about 2 to 3 weeks after your Design Meeting. Everything is handled over the phone.
*The fact that you read this far tells us something about you. You take this seriously. So do we.*
Without a Plan
- Nursing home costs about $8,821 a month with no coverage plan
- Medicare stops paying after 100 days of skilled nursing
- Countable assets spent down to $2,000 (single person) before Medicaid pays the nursing home
- Home subject to Georgia estate recovery after death
- Family inherits what remains after years of private pay
With Long-Term Care Planning
- Principal in the MAPT is generally not counted by Medicaid once 5 years pass
- Healthcare directive puts your care wishes in writing
- No spend-down on trust principal moved in more than 5 years before you apply
- Home better protected from estate recovery
- Family inherits what you protected
How It Works
A 15-Minute Call With Shawn
Tell us what is going on with your family. Shawn walks you through your options and what each one costs. Free.
The Design Meeting With Shawn and Melissa
In a 60-minute meeting, Shawn and Melissa review your assets, your family, and your goals together and design your plan. This meeting is credited toward your plan if you move forward.
Review Every Document With Melissa
Before you sign, Melissa walks through every document with you in plain language. No legal jargon. No confusion about what you are signing.
Sign at Home
You sign at home, in front of a notary and witnesses you line up. Your signing instructions tell you who needs to be there. After you sign, you get a written checklist of what to do next.
Melissa Breyer
Georgia Estate Planning Attorney
Melissa Breyer is a Georgia estate planning attorney who works exclusively on trust-based estate planning and LLC formation. She personally designs and drafts every plan at The Hive Law after the initial call. Every plan is built from scratch for your specific family, your specific assets, and your specific wishes.
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What Our Clients Say
After my father passed away, my mother had to rely on my father's employer to navigate the estate. It was a disaster. After this experience, I knew I needed a plan. I turned to The Hive Law to set up a trust. I no longer have to worry about my wife and children going through a difficult process if something happens to me. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
My biggest fear was that if I died first, my wife would have no idea how to navigate the estate and legal system. I reached out to The Hive Law and they put my mind at ease immediately. Their process is easy to follow and they took care of everything. The Hive Law is the best decision I've made for my family's future.
Working with Melissa Breyer to set up our Living Trust was a wonderful experience. She and her entire team were knowledgeable, professional, and made the whole process easy to understand. I highly recommend The Hive Law for all your estate planning needs!
We highly recommend Hive Law. They were extremely patient and responsive, answering our many rounds of questions regarding trusts and estate planning. Shawn consistently responded the same day we sent our questions, even while his family was on vacation, which we greatly appreciated. Shawn was also always available to discuss matters by phone whenever we needed additional clarification on the options we were considering. Both are very knowledgeable in estate planning, and we would confidently recommend Hive Law to friends and family.
The Hive Law made the entire estate planning and trust process easy to understand and stress-free. Melissa and Shawn walked us through every step and answered all of our questions. We feel confident that our family is protected. Highly recommend!
My mom chose The Hive firm to help with estate planning and developing a trust to protect her assets. I sat in on her meeting with Melissa, and Melissa did a great job of simplifying complex legalese into easily understood concepts. Shawn was very quick to get us our documents and all steps in the process were clear and easy. They make a great team and we are thankful for their help!
I used The Hive Law to help me create a trust for my family. The process was straightforward and Melissa and Shawn made sure I understood each step. They were responsive to all of my questions. I feel much more confident about my family's future now. Highly recommend!
Working with Shawn and Melissa at The Hive Law has been an excellent experience. They were one of three firms we contacted, but she made the strongest impression during our initial call. They asked great questions to understand our situation and clearly explained what we needed to put in place. We initially had some reservations about their fully virtual approach, but those concerns were quickly put to rest. After the first two calls, it was clear how easy they are to work with and how well connected we felt. Communication has been clear, organized, and reassuring throughout the process. Shawn and Melissa are professional, approachable, and thorough. We feel confident we're in good hands and highly recommend The Hive Law for estate planning.
The Hive Law Firm, and specifically Melissa, has been wonderful to work with during our estate planning process. She is knowledgeable, patient, and thorough. She answered all of our questions and made the process easy to understand. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
Shawn and Melissa were amazing to work with! My partner and I recently bought a house and wanted to get important things like wills, healthcare directives, etc. set up. They were incredible at answering all our questions and working with us to make sure we felt confident in all of the legal aspects. Having tried to do this online before with one of the DIY tools, it was just an amazing experience to get to talk through what we wanted with a knowledgeable human and have them take care of the details.
Hive Law was awesome to work with! Melissa and Shawn explained everything, kept things stress-free, and were always quick to respond to my questions. They made the whole process simple and smooth from start to finish. Highly recommend if you want a team that's knowledgeable but also easy to work with.
I lost my father in February of this year without any estate planning in place. The process of dealing with the probate court has been overwhelming and expensive. After this experience, I contacted The Hive Law to set up a trust so my children never have to go through what I've been through. Melissa and Shawn were compassionate, knowledgeable, and made the entire process simple. I highly recommend The Hive Law!
I used to know the bare minimum about probate and trust. I first encountered Shawn Breyer on Facebook. He was offering a webinar that I watched. That gave me a better understanding of probate versus trust. I was impressed enough to have him and his wife represent me. I had my initial one on one interview with Melissa Breyer, it went smoothly and she made everything clear. We are now proceeding with getting a revocable trust in place.
The Hive Law has been amazing throughout the process of setting up our trust. Every detail is considered and no stone is left unturned. They have been easy and enjoyable to work with. I would absolutely recommend them! Don't let your estate be turned over to Probate!!
The Hive Law helped us set up a revocable trust. Their webinar is great for answering any questions you may have, to clarify and avoid probate. Get in touch with them right away, you won't be disappointed.
Melissa was great! She gave me an honest review of my future plans that I already have in place. Turns out, I already had my ducks in a row!!! She was a pleasure to talk with!!
For several years now I have been thinking about having a will drawn up, but continued to procrastinate until an older sibling had a medical situation occur which none of the family was prepared for. This was the determining factor for me to get it done. We never know when an emergency medical situation could arise and I didn't want my other siblings to be scrambling around trying to figure things out in the event I couldn't make any decisions for myself, or God forbid I pass away. My attorney (Melissa), was very funny and made the whole experience quite entertaining. She listened to what I wanted and explained the type of plan I needed. Thanks Melissa & Shawn for making the process an enjoyable experience.
The Hive Law Firm did an excellent job helping my mother-in-law with her estate plan. The process felt overwhelming at first, but their team walked us through every step with compassion and professionalism. They listened to our concerns, explained things in simple terms, and made sure our mother's wishes were honored. We're very grateful for their guidance.
The Hive Law firm did an outstanding job helping my family members with their estate planning. They made the process clear, smooth and stress free. Truly professional and caring team, highly recommend!
The whole process of creating a family trust felt simple, clear, and stress-free. We really appreciated how patient, helpful, and easy to communicate with the team was throughout everything. Shawn and Melissa gave us great guidance and helped us feel confident every step of the way. We're grateful for their support and would definitely recommend them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Insurance and legal planning solve different halves of the problem. Insurance pays the monthly bill, if you hold a policy and you qualify for benefits. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust funded more than five years before you apply can help protect what insurance does not cover. No trust is a guarantee. Many families use both. Others, especially those who can no longer qualify for insurance because of age or health, rely on legal planning alone. We will review your situation in your Design Meeting and tell you which approach fits.
The MAPT is the core document in a long-term care plan, but the plan is bigger than the document. A full plan adds the advance healthcare directive, the financial power of attorney, and a strategy for how those pieces work together. If your only concern is protecting assets from Medicaid, the MAPT page covers that document specifically. If your concern is the whole picture, care decisions and finances and asset protection together, this is the right page.
The answer depends on your situation. If you have not applied for Medicaid yet, there may still be planning options open to you. Some strategies work even after a health crisis has started, though the options narrow sharply once an application is filed. The best first step is a Design Meeting, where we can tell you what is still available to you.
Georgia lets the community spouse, the one who stays home, keep a share of the couple’s assets under the Community Spouse Resource Allowance. For 2026 that maximum is $162,660. Legal planning works to maximize what the community spouse keeps while still qualifying the other spouse for Medicaid. A MAPT funded more than five years before you apply can protect assets beyond what the allowance covers.
Retirement accounts cannot go into a MAPT directly, because the transfer is treated as a taxable distribution. In Georgia, an IRA or 401(k) normally counts toward Medicaid’s $2,000 asset limit. It counts at the amount you could withdraw today, after any early-withdrawal penalty. The exception is when you are getting regular payments from the account that include part of the principal. Then the account itself is not counted, and those payments count as income instead. This is one reason the Design Meeting matters. The rules for retirement accounts are not the rules for savings and real estate, and the right move depends on your account types and balances.
Assets still held in the MAPT at your death pass to the beneficiaries named in the trust, on the terms you set. The protection a MAPT gives comes from giving up ownership permanently and from funding it more than 60 months before you apply, not from avoiding probate. Georgia defines the estate it can recover from broadly, so nobody should be told an asset is beyond the reach of the state simply because it sits in a trust.
Find Out Where You Stand
You’ve been meaning to do this for a while now. That’s normal. Most families wait until something happens, then wish they hadn’t.
A 15-minute call tells you exactly what you have, what’s missing, and what your family needs next. No paperwork, no obligation, just a straight answer.
- No sales pitch. Just a straight answer about where you stand.
- No confusing terms. We explain everything in plain English.
- A real next step. You’ll know exactly what to do when we hang up.
Where We Serve
Georgia Counties We Serve
We help families across Georgia protect their assets and avoid probate. Select your county to learn more about estate planning where you live.