Elder Law Report
Elder Law Report
Nursing Home Costs in 2025: Planning Ahead to Save Your Estate
What would you do if you knew there was a 70% chance a meteor would hit your home? You'd move, right? According to the Department of Health and Human Services, that's the same probability seniors face for needing long-term care—yet most aren't prepared for the financial impact.
Nursing homes in North Carolina now cost between $8,000-$13,000 monthly, amounting to a staggering $100,000-$150,000 annually. Without proper planning, these expenses can quickly deplete a lifetime of savings and even force the sale of your family home. But there's good news: with advance planning, you can protect what you've worked so hard to build while ensuring you receive the care you need.
Attorneys Greg McIntyre and Haley Matson outline powerful asset protection strategies including irrevocable trusts that shield investments and savings from being counted for benefits purposes. They explain how LadyBird Deeds allow you to maintain control of your home during your lifetime while protecting it from Medicaid recovery after death. Essential legal documents like Powers of Attorney prevent court-appointed guardianship and empower trusted individuals to implement asset protection strategies if you become incapacitated. As Attorney McIntyre emphasizes, "Preparation is better than cramming the night before for the test"—a few degrees off course now can put you in the wrong place years later.
Don't risk losing everything you've worked for to pay for long-term care. Schedule a free consultation with the experienced team at McIntyre Elder Law by visiting mcintyreclderlaw.com/scheduling or calling 1-888-999-6600. Their comprehensive approach addresses both estate planning and benefits qualification to give you peace of mind and financial security as you age.
Hi, I'm Greg McIntyre with McIntyre Elder Law. I'm joined by co-counsel Haley Matson. . Hello Haley, hi Greg, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. So we're going to talk about the high cost of nursing homes in 2025 and how you can plan ahead to protect your hard-earned money and property, your retirement, your home, those things. So, haley, how expensive is a stay in a nursing home per month or year?
Haley Matson:really depends on where you are, but pretty much anywhere in North Carolina a one month stay at a nursing home is going to cost you anywhere from eight grand to like 13. It can get really, really expensive and that's like a yearly cost of almost what $150,000?.
Greg McIntyre:So it can get really expensive, yeah it can get really expensive.
Greg McIntyre:So it can get, you know, $100, a hundred to $150,000 a year. You can start to really spend down someone's assets or force the sale of their home to pay for that care. And that's a scary proposition, especially for a married couple or for someone who really wants to protect their assets to lead to the next generation or, you know, just to keep and have and control because they worked very hard for it. So so, knowing the expense, what percentage of people over 65 right now are going to need some type of long-term care in their lives?
Haley Matson:right now are going to need some type of long-term care in their lives.
Greg McIntyre:Probably around 70 to 80 percent, 70 percent. According to a 2005 Department of Health and Human Services study, 70 percent of people over 65 in America are going to need some type of long-term care. Long-term care, really, they're defining as in-home assisted living or nursing home care, right? So if I told you there was a 70 percent chance that a meteor was going to hit your office and come through that window right now, would you move? I would move, you probably would move. If you believe that, right? Yeah, so so you know it's. It's. How do I move? How, if I know this, if I'm over 65 right now, if, if I'm worried about the high cost of long term care, if I care about protecting my assets, if I want to have control of them, I want to keep my house, you know, I want to maybe consider qualifying for a benefit that I paid for many times over again with my tax dollars during my life.
Haley Matson:What are?
Greg McIntyre:my options in 2025?.
Haley Matson:First thing that I would suggest and the first thing I would do is I would go see an estate planning attorney as soon as possible. I would go see one who can set me up with some sort of like trust. If we're at that point where maybe I don't need care in the next five years, maybe we can look at other options to protect our assets, like Lady Bird Deed on the home, and maybe we can even do that benefits planning prior to needing to actually get into care, because that's the way that you're going to save the most of your assets by doing it early.
Greg McIntyre:So planning ahead right, planning ahead is best. Yeah, preparation is better than cramming the night before for the test, right?
Haley Matson:Absolutely.
Greg McIntyre:So, yeah, you know I'm going to do better on the test, right, as long as I'm prepared, do better for anything. So if I come to you and I want to plan ahead, let's talk about trust. What might I put in trust? Would I put my house in trust? Would I put, let's say, I have some investment accounts, I have some CDs, I can put all those in trust, right, yep, I have some investment accounts, I have some CDs, I can put all those in trust.
Haley Matson:right, yep, you can put all of them in trust.
Greg McIntyre:Okay, and I can set that trust up. You guys know how to set that up so that it's, according to the benefits rules, not countable as my asset, right?
Haley Matson:Yes, you got to do it early. Though, if we're looking at benefits, there is that like five year look back period. So for that irrevocable trust, which is the one that will get those assets out of your name, you just want to make sure you do that as early as possible, but we can absolutely set you up with that.
Greg McIntyre:No time like the present right. So present being present, present planning. You know that's what we want to do. We want to show up early, we want to show up now. We want to be fully present and take inventory of what we have the people in our lives, the assets and then start to formulate our goals and how we want the plan to look to protect what we have, stay in control, hopefully, of what we have and access a benefit to pay for long term care, set ourselves up for success Right.
Greg McIntyre:Oh, yeah, absolutely path, and the path is toward staying in control of assets, keeping my assets qualifying for long-term care benefits. It's important that I set the course early so that I end up in the right place right. Yes, sir, absolutely A few degrees off and we could end up in the wrong place in a journey of five that takes five years, right, yep, so it's important to plan correctly. And then, what about the house? You know, I have heard a lot about this ladybird deed, the enhanced life estate deed. Tell me how that works.
Haley Matson:So the ladybird deed or the enhanced life estate deed is going to allow you to own and live in your home for the rest of your life, until you and or your spouse passes away, and then it gives a beneficiary who's listed on the deed your home. So it works a lot like a pay on death for a bank account where they really can't access the home. They don't have any rights to sell it or anything like that until after you, and if maybe a spouse is listed on your deed until both of you pass away, it gives you a lot of freedom.
Greg McIntyre:And then it belongs to the kids, then it belongs to my kids if I put them on there.
Haley Matson:Yeah, then it belongs to your kids.
Greg McIntyre:And even if I access a benefit me and my wife let's say North Carolina Medicaid nobody can come back and take it from me or from the kids.
Haley Matson:Doesn't go through probate, so it's safe for the kids.
Greg McIntyre:Because probate what's the big deal with probate Probate's? That only window, isn't it when claims can attach to your estate when you leave those assets to go through probate right.
Haley Matson:Yep.
Greg McIntyre:Now, let's say I need a benefit. Can you guys handle at the time, me, my wife, you know, if we come to you, somebody comes to you, my agent, under a power of attorney, they come to you. We set that up. Um, can you guys handle activating the benefit for me?
Haley Matson:Yeah, that's absolutely something that we can handle. Okay, frequently yeah.
Greg McIntyre:So you have a benefits department. We handle that right.
Haley Matson:We have a whole benefits department with some awesome, super knowledgeable people, so we work on it all the time and we have plenty of experience.
Greg McIntyre:So, you know, I feel like we've built the whole structure here, but I've forgotten to talk about foundations. I don't want to skip over those. Hey, I don't want to wind up in guardianship here if something happens to me. I want to make sure that if something does happen to me and I need assisted living, nursing home care, I want to avoid those costs, even if I fail to do some planning. You know, hey, I don't want to get stuck with with all our assets frozen me and my wife, things like that. I want to make sure I appoint the right person to make my healthcare decisions. I want to make sure they can work with you.
Haley Matson:Yeah.
Greg McIntyre:They need to to protect assets and activate benefits for me.
Haley Matson:Yeah, how do.
Greg McIntyre:I do that.
Haley Matson:You're going to need to get a general, durable power of attorney, which is an agent who can handle. How do I do that? But that gives them the right to access your financial and legal stuff and also gives them the authority to help you make health care decisions when you no longer can.
Greg McIntyre:That is awesome.
Haley Matson:It's awesome.
Greg McIntyre:Sounds like you guys have a comprehensive estate planning and elder law practice.
Haley Matson:I think we do.
Greg McIntyre:I know we do. Hey, you know that was a fun exercise. Thank you, attorney Mattson. Attorney Mattson is a phenomenal attorney and extremely sharp. I'm blessed to be able to work with her. Thank you for doing this video educational video with me, attorney Mattson. You know so.
Greg McIntyre:At our firm at McIntyre Elder Law, that's what we handle. We understand the high cost of long-term care. We do estate planning across the board for all kinds of issues, but we understand that we need to keep one eye on the high cost of long-term care, on preserving assets and on opening yourself and the client up to benefits so that you have a good experience in your life, you have peace of mind, and we want your life to be made easier with the ability to pay for care and not have to lose everything you've worked for your entire life. I think that's a travesty and that's essentially what our practice is based around is helping you avoid those situations.
Greg McIntyre:We will be glad to offer a free consultation to sit down with one of our attorneys, including me or Attorney Madsen. You can schedule directly on our calendars by going to MC. That's MikeCharlieElderLawcom. Mcelderlawcom. Slash scheduling elderlawcom. Mcelderlawcom. Slash scheduling. Or you can please give us a call 1-888-999-6600. And one of our great folks will help you schedule that consultation, so thanks attorney Madsen and we'll see you next week on the elder law report.
Haley Matson:Sounds good, Thank you.