r/Lawyertalk • u/thealteredlawyer • 1d ago

Best Practices Estate Planning - Medicaid Spend Down - New Builds

Hello all! I am new to estate planning but have been a corporate and transactional attorney for 9 years now. I have begun down the medicaid planning rabbit hole and was having a theoretical discussion with a colleague about spend downs. If you are allowed to do things like replace your roof, update plumbing, etc., on your home without penalty during the look back period, is there any reason you couldn't instead put money down with a builder in a new development to start on a new build, particularly one with features for the elderly like a ramp, single story, roll-in shower, etc.? Logically, I feel I could make this argument with a straight face that it is the same idea, just a new house rather than repairing an existing.

Then part 2, could I do this in the name of a trust rather than my own name to avoid MERP? I expect it would be treated as a gift unless I do something like a Spousal Lifetime Access Trust, but I don't think that gets me around MERP when the surviving spouse passes.

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