Georgia Medicaid Planning Pricing
A Medicaid asset protection trust costs $6,500 at The Hive Law. This trust must be funded at least five years before you apply for Medicaid long-term care benefits. It protects your home and savings from being spent down before Medicaid coverage begins.
A Medicaid asset protection trust in Georgia costs $6,500 at The Hive Law, a flat fee that covers the trust document, deed transfer of your home, Medicaid strategy review, and all implementation guidance. There is no hourly billing. No additional fees for revisions or calls.
Many Georgia attorneys who handle Medicaid planning bill by the hour, so you may not know the final number before you commit. The Hive Law charges one flat fee. You know the exact amount before you decide.
The $6,500 Medicaid Asset Protection Trust package includes every document and step required to properly protect your assets from Medicaid spend-down. Other firms charge a base fee for the trust document and bill separately for everything else. This package has one price.
Medicaid Asset Protection Trust. The core document. An irrevocable trust that holds your assets outside what Medicaid counts as yours for eligibility. Once assets are transferred in, they are no longer counted as yours for Medicaid eligibility, but only after the 5-year lookback period has passed. The trust names a trustee (not you) to manage the assets, and names your beneficiaries to receive them after you pass.
Quitclaim Deed. If your home is the primary asset being protected, it must be formally transferred into the trust by deed. Without this step, the home stays in your name, and after your death Georgia Medicaid can seek repayment of its care costs from it. Deeding the home into the trust is what starts its 5-year clock. Deed preparation and recording are included in the flat fee.
Medicaid Strategy Review. Before the trust is drafted, Melissa reviews your full asset picture, home equity, savings, retirement accounts, and any transfers made in the past 5 years. This review identifies which assets can be protected, which cannot, and whether any prior transfers may trigger a Medicaid penalty period.
Document Walk-Through Call. Melissa walks through every document with you in plain language. You leave knowing exactly what the trust does, what it does not do, and what happens next.
Funding Guidance Session. An irrevocable trust only protects what is inside it. This session explains which assets to transfer, how to retitle accounts, and what to tell your bank. For a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, the five-year clock runs from the day each asset goes into the trust.
Post-Signing Checklist. A written list of what to do after signing: which accounts to retitle, who needs a copy of each document, and which beneficiary designations to review.
Medicaid does not simply look at what you own today. When you apply for Medicaid long-term care benefits, Medicaid reviews every asset transfer you made in the 5 years before your application date. This is called the lookback period.
If Medicaid finds that you transferred assets, including into a MAPT, within that 5-year window, it calculates a penalty period during which you are ineligible for benefits. The penalty is calculated by dividing the transferred amount by a fixed monthly figure Georgia sets each year, not by what nursing home care costs in your area. The larger the transfer, the longer you wait for coverage.
This means the MAPT protects your assets only if it was funded more than 5 years before you apply for Medicaid. The five-year count does not start the day you sign. It starts the day each asset goes into the trust. A move made more than 60 months before you ask Medicaid to pay causes no transfer penalty.
Under federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c), Medicaid reviews every asset transfer you made in the 60 months before you apply.
Who this affects most:
The most common reason families cannot use a MAPT is that they waited until a health crisis to ask about it. By the time a nursing home is involved, there is usually not enough time left to get a transfer outside the 5-year lookback. The trust is most useful when set up before a crisis, not during one.
The right comparison is not what you pay for the trust versus hourly rates at other firms. The comparison that matters is what you pay for the trust versus what your family pays if you do not have one.
Georgia Medicaid will not pay for nursing home care until a single applicant spends down to $2,000 in countable assets. The 2026 Georgia Medicaid asset limit is $2,000. The income limit is $2,982 per month. If you have more than $2,000 in countable assets, those assets must be spent on care before Medicaid covers anything.
A Georgia nursing home costs a median of about $8,821 a month for a shared room and $9,429 for a private room (CareScout, 2025). That is about $105,850 to $113,150 per year. A five-year stay costs about $529,250 to $565,750. Without a MAPT in place more than 5 years in advance, most of that money comes directly out of what you planned to leave your family.
A MAPT that costs $6,500 today can protect your home, your savings, and what is left of your estate from that spend-down, if the trust is funded at least 5 years before a Medicaid application is needed.
For a comparison of MAPT to a standard revocable living trust, see our overview of both options. A revocable trust protects your estate from probate but does not protect assets from Medicaid spend-down. See our full Medicaid asset protection trust service page for a complete explanation of how the trust works. For all pricing options, visit the pricing hub.
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$550 each: rentals, land, cabins.
$1,100 per state. We coordinate with local counsel.
$1,250 each: includes operating agreement update.
The Georgia state recording fee is already included in these prices. We confirm your exact quote in your Design Meeting with our team.
For a complete overview of elder law planning in Georgia, see elder law in Georgia.
A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust solves one specific problem: keeping countable assets out of the Medicaid eligibility calculation. It does not solve every long-term care cost problem, and misunderstanding its limits is one of the most common reasons families are disappointed after the trust is signed.
Assets transferred within the last 5 years. This is the most critical limit. If you transfer assets into a MAPT and apply for Medicaid within 5 years of that transfer, Georgia treats the transfer as a gift and sets a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for care. The 5-year lookback is a federal rule that applies in every state. A MAPT funded today does not protect those assets until the 5-year clock runs out, not on the date you signed, but on the date assets were actually transferred into the trust.
Assets you do not transfer in. The trust only protects what is funded into it. Checking accounts, brokerage accounts, vehicles, and any other asset you hold outside the trust remain countable for Medicaid. Signing the document is step one. Properly transferring assets into the trust is step two. Both steps are required.
Existing liens and mortgages. If your home has a mortgage or a lien when you transfer it into the trust, that debt stays attached to the property. The trust holds the property subject to any existing obligations. MAPT transfers legal ownership, it does not clear title or eliminate debt.
Monthly income. Medicaid evaluates both your assets and your monthly income. A MAPT protects countable assets but has no effect on income. If your monthly income exceeds Georgia’s Medicaid income limit ($2,982 per month in 2026), a separate Qualified Income Trust, also called a Miller Trust, may also be required alongside the MAPT.
Medicare costs. MAPT is a Medicaid planning tool. It has no effect on Medicare premiums, copays, or deductibles. Medicare and Medicaid are separate programs. Nursing home care under Medicaid and Medicare are handled differently, and MAPT only addresses Medicaid eligibility.
The Hive Law’s MAPT process runs entirely by phone. No office visits required. You’ll have your documents to review about 2 to 3 weeks after your Design Meeting. Signing and funding come after your review, so the total depends on how quickly you go through your drafts.
The critical milestone is not signing. It is funding. The 5-year lookback clock begins when assets are transferred into the trust, not when you sign the document. The Hive Law’s funding process is designed so that funding happens as quickly as possible after signing.
Tell us what is going on with your family. Shawn walks you through your options and what each one costs. Free.
In a 60-minute meeting, Shawn and Melissa review your assets, your family, and your goals together and confirm your price. This meeting is credited toward your plan if you move forward.
Before you sign, Melissa walks through every document with you in plain language. No legal jargon. No confusion about what you are signing.
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.
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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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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.
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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!
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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!!
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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.
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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.
A Medicaid asset protection trust costs $6,500 at The Hive Law, a flat fee that includes the trust document, deed transfer of your home, Medicaid strategy review, document walk-through, funding guidance session, and post-signing checklist. There is no hourly billing and no additional fees for revisions or calls.
For most people over 60 with a home or significant savings, yes. A Georgia nursing home costs a median of about $8,821 to $9,429 per month (CareScout, 2025). Without Medicaid coverage, a 5-year stay costs about $529,250 to $565,750. A MAPT funded more than 5 years before a Medicaid application protects your home and savings from that spend-down. The $6,500 flat fee is the cost of starting the 5-year clock.
When you apply for Medicaid long-term care benefits in Georgia, Medicaid reviews every asset transfer you made in the 5 years before your application date. If you transferred assets (including into a MAPT) within that window, Medicaid calculates a penalty period during which you are ineligible for benefits. A MAPT protects only assets transferred more than 5 years before a Medicaid application.
Georgia’s 2026 Medicaid asset limit for long-term care is $2,000 in countable assets for a single applicant. The income limit is $2,982 per month. Assets over these limits must be spent on care before Medicaid pays anything. A MAPT moves assets out of the countable category once the 5-year lookback has passed.
You can still live in your home if you put it in a Medicaid trust. The trust holds legal title, and you keep a life estate, the right to live in the home for the rest of your life. You continue to use the home as normal. Your beneficiaries receive the home after your death without probate. Because you no longer own the home, it is generally outside what Georgia Medicaid can claim after you pass. But Georgia’s rules do mention trusts, and Georgia puts a value on a life estate and can claim it, so the right to live there that you keep may still count. No Georgia court has settled the question. So no trust is a guarantee.
A revocable living trust protects your estate from probate but does not protect assets from Medicaid spend-down, because you can take the assets back at any time, Medicaid counts them as yours. A Medicaid asset protection trust is irrevocable. Once assets are transferred in, you cannot take them back. That permanence is what lets the assets stop counting toward Medicaid’s asset limit once 5 years have passed since they went in. Money the trust earns still counts as your income for Medicaid.
A MAPT is most useful when it is funded more than 5 years before a Medicaid application. Once a nursing home stay begins, there is usually not enough time left to get a transfer outside the 5-year lookback. If a crisis has occurred, other Medicaid planning strategies may still help. A MAPT funded today clears the 5-year look-back 5 years from now, even if a health event has not yet occurred.
The most common asset transferred into a MAPT is the primary home. Other assets include savings accounts, brokerage accounts, second properties, and other non-retirement assets. Retirement accounts (IRAs, 401(k)s) generally cannot be transferred without triggering a taxable distribution. The Medicaid strategy review identifies which of your specific assets can be transferred and which should remain outside the trust.
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.
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