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.
Legal Strategies Georgia Families Use to Protect Assets From Nursing Home Costs
A Georgia nursing home costs about $8,821 a month for a shared room, and without a plan, that money comes from your savings and property before Medicaid steps in. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust funded more than five years before you need care can keep the trust's principal from being counted. No trust is a guarantee. The Hive Law handles this planning before a nursing home stay becomes an emergency.
Here Is What Happens to Your Assets Without a Plan
A nursing home in Georgia costs about $8,821 a month for a shared room and $9,429 for a private room (CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025). At that price, three years in a shared room comes to about $317,550. 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 when you apply, Medicaid looks back five years at what you gave away or moved. That is a federal rule Georgia applies. Our figures on who pays for care in Georgia’s certified nursing homes show how often Medicaid has been the primary payer for residents each year since 2015, though not whether residents paid privately first.
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 can file a claim against your estate for what it paid for your care, and the house is usually the biggest asset in it. That claim is paid out of your estate, often from the house, before your family receives what is left.
Your Retirement Accounts
A 401(k) or IRA in the name of the person applying for Medicaid counts toward the asset limit if it can be cashed out. The state does not care that it took you forty years to build it. The main exception: if you are getting regular payments from the account that include part of the principal, the account itself is not counted, and those payments count as income instead.
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 most of the savings and the standard of living they spent a lifetime building.
The Five-Year Trap
You cannot fix this in the moment. Medicaid looks back five years at every asset transfer you made. Gifts to your children, transfers to a trust, and property sold below market value can all trigger a penalty period. During the penalty, Medicaid will not pay the nursing home, and you pay the bill yourself.
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 is a gift. If you apply within five years, it can leave Medicaid refusing to pay for months or 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 generally does not count the trust’s principal when it decides if you qualify. Any income the trust pays you still counts as your income. The earlier you fund a MAPT, the better the odds that five full years pass before you need care.
A MAPT is also stronger protection than a revocable trust against estate recovery after you pass. The reason is not that trust assets skip probate. It is that you no longer own them, and federal law lets a state claim only assets you still had a legal title or interest in when you died. 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. No trust is a guarantee.
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. We review all of it during your Design Meeting and tell you exactly which tool your situation calls for. If more than one applies, we explain 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.
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 confirm your price. 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
Medicaid does pay for nursing home care in Georgia, but only after you’ve spent down almost everything you own. The asset limit is $2,000 for a single person, with a limited protected share for a married couple’s community spouse. When you apply, Medicaid also looks back five years at what you gave away or moved.
Your home is protected from nursing home costs only while you or your spouse still live in it. Once the last of you leaves the home permanently, that protection ends. After you pass, Georgia Medicaid can file a claim against your estate for what it paid for your care, and the house is usually the biggest asset in that estate. That claim is paid out of your estate, often from the house, before your family receives what is left.
Adding your children to your deed does not protect your house from nursing home costs, and it is one of the most common mistakes families make. Transferring assets to their names directly can trigger the five-year Medicaid look-back penalty, which Georgia applies under federal law. That can leave Medicaid refusing to pay the nursing home for months or years. The tools that actually work are a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, long-term care insurance purchased in advance, or crisis Medicaid planning if time has already run short.
Georgia allows the healthy spouse at home, called the “community spouse,” to keep a limited share of the couple’s assets and income, but everything beyond that share goes toward your care. Families who haven’t planned for this often watch the community spouse lose most of the savings and the standard of living built over a lifetime.
A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is an irrevocable trust that holds your home, savings, or other assets outside your countable estate. You keep the right to live in your home and receive income from trust assets, but you give up the ability to pull the principal back out. The five-year clock starts the day you fund the trust. After five years, Medicaid generally does not count the trust’s principal. Any income the trust pays you still counts as your income. Because you no longer own the assets in the trust, they are also generally outside what Georgia’s estate recovery program 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. No Georgia court has settled the question. So no trust is a guarantee.
The five-year window may already be tight, but crisis Medicaid planning can still protect a meaningful portion of what you own even without advance notice. The available strategies are more limited than proactive planning, but they are not nothing. The sooner you call, the more options are still open.
A 401(k) or IRA in the applicant’s name counts toward the Georgia asset limit if it can be cashed out. It does not matter how long it took to build. The main exception: if you are getting regular payments from the account that include part of the principal, Georgia does not count the account itself, and those payments count as income instead. A counted account must be spent down like any other countable asset before Medicaid begins paying.
Long-term care insurance can be a good alternative to a trust if you buy it before you need it. A long-term care insurance policy, or a hybrid policy that combines life insurance with a long-term care rider, can cover some or all of the monthly cost without ever touching your other assets. The tradeoff is that premiums rise with age and coverage may be unavailable or unaffordable after a health event, so it needs to be coordinated with the rest of your plan rather than used alone.
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.