Pre-Planned Funerals as Part of Medicaid Planning

Joining us this week in our first of many guest interviews is Julie Graf-Skinner at Busch Funeral Homes. Today, she will be discussing the importance of pre-planning funerals as part of a Medicaid plan.

Why Prearrange a Funeral?

There are multiple reasons as to why someone would choose to pre-plan a funeral, but more often than not, it is because they are under the wire for a Medicaid plan. Other reasons include allowing families to focus on each other on a difficult day, avoiding doubt, stress, or confusion when emotions are high, and people aren't always playing well together, but also make sure that people's wishes are honored and remembered well.

However, people are often pre-planning funerals for the financial component for Medicaid.

Prepaid Funerals and Medicaid

Medicaid allows people to prearrange funerals as part of their spend down or while they have their full component of resources available.

Are there any special requirements of a funeral that would be related to Medicaid and making it eligible?

For eligibility, the funds have to be placed in an irrevocable agreement. A fund is actually outside of the funeral home's hands and also outside of the client's hands but permanently assigned to the funeral home to pay our bill. 

So, that's typically done either with a trust account or an insurance policy. It's typically not a standard life insurance policy that you might think about. It's a specialized type of funeral policy. And the funeral home can help you set that up.

We certainly encourage everyone in regular state planning and Medicaid planning to look at prearranging the funeral.

Contact Julie at Busch Funeral Homes 

Website: https://www.buschcares.com/
Call: 216-789-5596
Email: jgskinner@buschcares.com

Learn More About Medicaid Planning and Eligibility 

If you are interested in learning more about elder law and Medicaid planning, please contact us at Richard A. Myers, Jr. and Associates.