Plan Today Or Pay Tomorrow: The Real Costs Of Care And Probate

Most families don’t lose wealth to bad markets—they lose it to long-term care costs and the slow grind of probate. We unpack a practical, two-part strategy that shields savings during life and delivers a faster inheritance after death, balancing control, care, and legacy without guesswork or jargon.

We start by facing the numbers on long-term care and why paying out of pocket can drain even healthy nest eggs. Then we share how pre-planning creates options: trust structures designed for Medicaid compatibility, timelines that respect look-back rules, and coordinated spend-down strategies that preserve resources for a spouse and heirs. With the right lead time, you can qualify for benefits later without sacrificing the home or savings you worked for.

From there, we turn to probate—the hidden risk that slows transfers and opens the door to creditor claims, including Medicaid estate recovery. You’ll hear how beneficiary designations, pay-on-death and transfer-on-death tools, and well-drafted trusts move assets directly to loved ones, cutting delays and reducing exposure. Coordination is everything: titling, beneficiaries, and trust funding must align so nothing slips back into the estate. The payoff is speed, certainty, and more value staying in the family.

If protecting your legacy matters, this guide gives you a clear blueprint: plan for care, avoid probate, and keep options open. Subscribe for more elder law strategies, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review to tell us what planning question you want us to tackle next.

Transcript

Defining The Two Big Risks

The True Cost Of Long-Term Care

Brenton Begley 0:10

Hello and welcome to the Elder Law Report. My name is Britain Begley. I'm an attorney partner with McIntyre Elder Law, and I'm joined today by one of our associates, Jordan McIntyre. Hey Jordan. All right. Jordan, today we're going to talk about how to protect assets for the next generation. So, you know, if we're looking at protection of assets, really what we ought to look at first is what the risk to those assets are. So, you know, we look at two main risks to money and property, one being the cost of long-term care, and two being probate. So if we're starting off with the cost of long-term care, why might that be a risk to your money and property?

Jordan McIntyre 0:57

I think that's pretty simple, Brenton. Long-term care costs a lot, all right? If you don't have the money to pay for it, um, you're gonna have to qualify for some type of benefit, specifically long-term care Medicaid or special assistance, and that can put your property at risk, right? In the event that you pass away and you don't do some type of planning with McIntyre, Elder Law, or other estate planning attorneys.

Pre-Planning And Trust Strategies

Brenton Begley 1:21

Right. So, you know, it costs a lot of money. That means that you gotta pay for it somehow. And what a lot of people end up doing, especially if they don't understand the rules to help them get qualified for a benefit, is they take their money and property and they use that to pay for long-term care. Which if you're looking to pay in five, ten, fifteen thousand dollars a month, you can really burn through a nest egg, savings, retirement, or real property very quickly. And if one spouse needs care, then the one that doesn't need care is looking at their nest egg slowly dwindling over time, or quickly dwindling rather, over time, and um, and probably wondering how am I going to live if you know my my loved one passes away um after needed care. Are we gonna deplete everything that we have saved just to pay for this care? And that's one of the things that we want to prevent. So, one way to um really have all assets subject to to real danger would be not planning on how to pay for long-term care. And as you mentioned, you said, hey, you know, you could probably activate a benefit like Medicaid to help pay for that long-term care. Um, but you know, I I also noticed that you said you're gonna have to do some pre-planning to make sure that that is something that you can eventually qualify for, right?

Jordan McIntyre 2:45

Yeah, and I know that you're highly qualified to discuss this, but you've done some great trust planning for clients who have significant amounts of assets and done some pre-planning to get people with, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars qualified for a benefit in the future because of that smart planning you did.

Why Probate Threatens Your Estate

Brenton Begley 3:04

Yeah, and you know, that that's something that we pride ourselves on as a firm to be able to lay a plan in place, pre-plan in place, because you always want to plan ahead to make sure that eventually you can qualify for a benefit to pay for long-term care if that's the route you want to go. At least allow that to be an option on the table because you know, if time comes and you're looking at paying hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in medical costs, then you want to at least have more than the option of having the pay out of pocket. Um, so what about probate? Why might probate be a risk to money and property, Jordan?

Medicaid Recovery And Creditor Claims

Jordan McIntyre 3:42

Well, not only does it halt administration, it takes forever to pass anything through probate. Um, it's the only opportunity in North Carolina for any creditors, specifically Medicaid, to come in and make claims. So if we can bypass probate and avoid probate, then even if you do get qualified for benefits or pass with any debts, um, we can avoid the only period uh during probate when the notice to creditors is run when they can come back and attach to assets going through that probate estate.

Avoiding Probate For Faster Inheritance

Two-Part Plan And Final Takeaways

Free Consultation And Contact Info

Brenton Begley 4:15

Right. So if I have you know real property, money in the bank, things like that. And you know, I get my loved one, my my uh my spouse qualified for a benefit to pay for long-term care. And I feel good because you know, I saw problem number one, long-term care is paid for. Um, I might be out of the frying pan into the fire if I haven't figured out a way to keep my assets out of probate, because all of that money that Medicaid paid, they're gonna make a claim against that estate to try to recover that money if my loved one dies or if I die. Um, so that's that's you know, speaking directly to you know, the the main risk that probate um you know makes us face with respect to leaving assets behind for a loved one, is look, you know, if there's any creditor out there, they have all the opportunity in the world to come after the assets passing through probate. You may not think you have creditors. I mean, you in fact, you may not have creditors right now if you're listening to this and you pay your bills as they become due. But most people incur substantial medical debt before they pass away, whether it's hospital or long-term care bill that's going to be hanging out there so that when you pass away, they can come after assets going through probate. So if you've set your assets up to avoid probate, not only do they pass immediately to your loved ones, so they don't have to wait a six-month to two-year-long process to receive those assets, but you know, they they also actually get the assets before a creditor comes and takes a piece. Um, so that's a really important thing to look at when trying to preserve assets for the next generation. So, you know, the the two big things that you can do to preserve assets for the next generation are gonna be plan for long-term care. The cost is high, there's more than one way to pay for it. You don't necessarily have to pay out of pocket, at least keep that option open. The second thing is avoid probate with those assets so that if you do incur any type of medical debt, they don't get taken before they ever get to your loved ones, and so that they instantaneously inherit those assets because look, there's a time value of money. I'd rather have money now rather than money later, right? It's more valuable to have it in your pocket now than to have it down the road. So, Jordan, thank you. Appreciate your time. This has been the Elder Law Report. If you have questions about how to protect your hard-earned money and property, which is one of the things we help clients do, give us a call, 704-259-7040, or visit our website at mcelderlaw.com to schedule your free consultation.