If an individual receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) receives certain types of payments, those payments must be reported to the Social Security Administration (SSA) and their benefits may be reduced, often quite significantly. The most common distribution that would need to be reported is payment of income in the form of food or shelter, referred to as In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM). This type of income is any payment from a third party (including from a trust) for the necessities of life—food and shelter. ISM occurs when distributions are made not only for groceries, rent, or a mortgage payment, but also for basic utilities such as natural gas, water, electricity, sewer service, and garbage collection.

Last week, the SSA published a proposed rule that seeks to exclude food from the ISM calculation.

Elder law and estate planning are often confused with each other. Admittedly, they are akin to each other, but here’s the key difference: elder law is about planning for what happens when a senior is still alive, and estate planning is about planning for what happens after someone passes away.

When a client needs Medicaid benefits to pay for their long term care needs, their elder law attorney likely has several strategies in their quiver to help get them qualified. One such strategy is using a sole benefit trust. What is this trust and when can it be used?

Medicaid has strict income and asset rules for those seeking long term care benefits. When a client has excess assets that they need to spend down to qualify for Medicaid, they can put those assets in a sole benefit trust. The benefit of doing so is that transfers to a sole benefit trust are not penalized. However, there are rules about who can be the beneficiary of the sole benefit trust.