hi I'm attorney Kevin rebus with a law
firm of Kolbert and rebus you're
experienced local choice for elder law
people often ask can I just sell my
house to my child for a dollar in order
to protect it from the cost of long term
care well first of all transferring a
house to your child for a dollar isn't a
true sale it's actually a gift so if you
need to apply for medical assistance
benefits to pay for your care during the
next 5 years after that gift you'll find
yourself ineligible for medical
assistance benefits but beyond that by
transferring the house for the
consideration of a dollar you're giving
up everything you're transferring the
house solely to another person and it
becomes subject to their own potential
liabilities and problems so it's
generally speaking not in an
individual's best interest to just sign
the house over to someone else for a
dollar fortunately there are other
things that you can do well in advance
of the need for long term care in order
to protect your home one of those
options is something we call a life
estate where you can retain the right to
live in your home for the rest of your
life and give to someone else what we
call a remainder interest we might also
recommend utilizing a specialized type
of trust to hold the home and protect it
from future exposure to long term care
costs for more information on this and
other topics or if you'd like to
schedule a free initial consultation
visit us online at elder law NEP a calm