Elder Law
Protect Your Home and Savings from Nursing Home Costs in Georgia
Attorney Melissa Breyer helps Georgia families keep what they own when nursing home costs arrive. Everything is handled virtually over the phone. No office visits required.
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Legal Strategies Georgia Families Use to Protect Assets From Nursing Home Costs
Georgia nursing home costs average over $8,800 per month, and without a plan, that money comes from your savings and property before Medicaid steps in. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and proper titling strategies can shield what you have built from long-term care spend-down. The Hive Law handles this planning before a nursing home stay becomes an emergency.
Here Is What Happens to Your Assets Without a Plan
Nursing home care in Georgia costs $7,000 to $12,000 a month. The average stay runs more than two years. One spouse needing long-term care can drain a lifetime of savings before Medicaid ever covers a dollar.
Medicaid does pay for long-term care in Georgia. But it only pays after you have spent down almost everything you own. And the state looks back five years to see what you owned and what you transferred.
Every asset you own is counted a different way. Every one of them is exposed.
Your Home
Your home is exempt from Medicaid eligibility up to a limit while you or your spouse live in it. The moment the last of you leaves the home permanently, that protection ends. After you pass, Georgia Medicaid files a claim against your estate for every dollar it paid for your care. That claim attaches to your house. Your family inherits the bill, not the home.
Your Retirement Accounts
A 401(k) or IRA in the name of the person applying for Medicaid counts fully toward the asset limit. The state does not care that it took you forty years to build it. It is countable. It must be spent down before Medicaid pays.
Your Savings and Investment Accounts
Every bank account, brokerage account, CD, and money market fund in your name counts. The Medicaid asset limit for a single person in Georgia is $2,000. For a married couple with one spouse applying, the community spouse can keep a limited share. Everything above that limit must go to care costs before benefits begin.
Your Spouse’s Security
When one spouse enters a nursing home, the healthy spouse at home is called the “community spouse.” Georgia rules allow that spouse to keep a limited share of the couple’s assets and a portion of the monthly income. Everything else goes to care. Families who do not plan for this often watch the community spouse lose the home, the savings, and the standard of living they spent a lifetime building.
The Five-Year Trap
You cannot fix this in the moment. Georgia Medicaid looks back five years at every asset transfer you made. Gifts to your children, transfers to a trust, property sold below market value — all of it is counted as if you still own it. Any transfer inside that five-year window triggers a penalty period. During the penalty, Medicaid pays nothing and you pay out of pocket.
The only way to win this is to plan before the five-year clock matters.
The Legal Tools That Actually Protect Assets
Most of what the internet tells you to do is wrong. Adding your kids to your deed does not protect the house. Moving money to your kids’ accounts triggers the five-year lookback and can disqualify you for years. Buying an annuity sold by a nursing home salesperson can benefit the facility more than you.
Three legal tools actually work. The right one depends on your timing and your situation.
1. Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT)
A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is an irrevocable trust designed to hold assets outside your estate for Medicaid purposes. You transfer your home, savings, or other assets into the trust. You keep the right to live in the home and to receive income from trust assets. You give up the right to pull assets back out.
The five-year clock starts the day you fund the trust. After five years, Medicaid cannot count those assets when calculating your eligibility. The earlier you fund a MAPT, the more of what you own is protected when you actually need care.
A MAPT also protects against the estate recovery lien. Assets inside the trust are not part of your probate estate. Georgia Medicaid cannot attach a claim to them after you pass.
This is the right tool for families who are planning ahead and can wait out the five-year window. Learn more on the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust page.
2. Long-Term Care Insurance and Hybrid Policies
Long-term care insurance pays the monthly cost of nursing home care, assisted living, or in-home care. A policy purchased before you need care can cover the entire bill, or a large portion of it, without ever touching your assets. Hybrid policies combine life insurance with a long-term care rider, so the money is used either for care or for your family.
Insurance has limits. Premiums rise with age. Policies sold after a health event may be unavailable or unaffordable. The coverage must be coordinated with the rest of your estate plan so the trust, the policy, and the beneficiary designations do not work against each other.
This is the right tool for families planning early who want to keep control of assets and pay care costs from a separate pool. Learn more on the Long-Term Care Planning page.
3. Crisis Medicaid Planning
Sometimes the five-year window is already closed. A parent is in the hospital and about to move to a nursing home. A spouse has been diagnosed with dementia. The family is watching the bank account drain and the options feel gone.
There are still legal strategies that work in a crisis. Spousal refusal. Asset conversion. Promissory notes. Spend-down on exempt assets. Half-loaf gifting. Each has specific rules, specific risks, and specific paperwork. None of them are do-it-yourself. A mistake here can disqualify you for years.
This is the right tool for families already in or near the crisis window. Learn more on the Medicaid Planning page.
Which One Fits Your Family
The answer depends on your age, your health, the value of what you own, whether you are married, and how close you are to needing care. Melissa reviews all of it during your Family Protection Audit and tells you exactly which tool your situation calls for. If more than one applies, she explains how they work together.
There is no universal answer. There is only the right answer for your family.
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.
Melissa Designs Your Plan
She builds your estate plan from scratch based on your specific assets and family. You get an exact quote before you commit to anything.
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.
Your Plan Is Complete
Melissa delivers your completed documents and explains exactly what your family needs to do. You leave knowing your plan is in place and your family is protected.
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 every plan at The Hive Law and handles every client consultation herself. 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 helpful and professional in guiding us through the process of creating a Revocable Living Trust. Melissa and Shawn were thorough, answered all our questions, and made a potentially confusing process easy to understand.
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 after my father passed away. They were very thorough in explaining every step of the process. They made a difficult time much easier to navigate. I highly recommend The Hive Law for anyone needing estate planning services.
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 a great experience. They are very knowledgeable and took the time to explain all of our options. They made the process of setting up a trust simple and stress-free. I would highly recommend them to anyone needing 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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