One of the questions I get is, can a nursing home take money from an irrevocable trust?
Now, the important thing to know about trusts, whether they’re revocable or irrevocable, is that the trustee, the person who’s in charge of the assets that are owned by the trust, is responsible for distributing those assets according to what the Trust says. Now, if the person who created the trust is still alive, but is living in a nursing home and is not able to manage the day-to-day financial matters of the trust, then a successor trustee will take over management of the trust.
It’s likely that the trust document will say that as long as the trust maker, the person who created the trust, is still alive, that the trustee is required to use the trust funds for that person’s care. And so the trustee of a trust, whether it’s revocable or irrevocable, can use trust funds to pay for nursing home care for a senior. Now, that doesn’t mean that the nursing home itself can access the funds that are held in an irrevocable trust.
It’s always the responsibility of the trustee to manage those assets.
Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.
