I recently lost my grandmother. Her will is going thru the Probate process at this time and there is a car, house and a few other assets to be divided among my mom n my moms 4 siblings. Nothing is being contested and a pretty straighforward agreement with all parties. I have expressed an interest in purchasing the home from the children and it looks as if that will be what occurs as they would like the home to remain in the family. Here is the question/dilemma. My mom is on SSDI/ Medicare/Medicaid. She is a cancer patient who is terminally ill and counts on Medicare/Medicaid for survival and her SSDI is only income she receives. She is a widow. She is disabled and unable to work. Due to projected sale price of the home, she stands to receive $32,000 as her portion. She cannot risk benefits as that helps her w treatments so she can keep fighting. Does she have an options to not risking loss of benefits due to inheritance? Can an estate or trust, etc option be the solution?
SSDI is not needs-based. SSI/Medicaid is. In Texas a Will can be reformed retroactively to provide that any inheritance of a beneficiary who is disabled will be paid to a special needs trust or a master pooled special needs trust such as the ARC of Texas Master Pooled Trust to preserve needs-based benefits. The executor should ask the probate attorney to file a Motion asking the court to do this.
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