Exempt Assets and Countable Assets

To qualify for Medicaid, you must pass some fairly strict tests on the amount of assets you can keep.

To understand how Medicaid works, we first need to review what are known as exempt and non-exempt (or countable) assets.

Exempt Assets

Exempt assets are those that Medicaid will not include in the asset total to determine eligibility. In Georgia, the following are the primary exempt assets:

Home Place: The applicant’s house and all adjoining land and all buildings on the property are excluded from resources if the equity value of the home is $572,000 or less.
Household Goods: Household items including furniture, decorations, art, and appliances are excluded.
Burial Exclusion: The applicant and his/her spouse can each have up to $10,000 designated for burial expenses. This can consist of a prepaid funeral contract with a funeral home or funds designated for burial in a bank account. The face value of life insurance is applied toward the burial exclusion amount first.
Burial Space Items: Burial plots for the applicant and immediate family are excluded as well as certain other items at the burial site. There is no dollar limit on the cost or value of the burial space items.
Life Estate Interests: The applicant’s life estate interests are excluded.
Automobiles: One automobile is excluded regardless of value and whether or not it is in use. Note that junked or recreational vehicles are counted as resources.
Personal Items: Personal items such as clothing and jewelry are excluded.
Retirement Funds: Retirement funds such as IRAs, 401(k)s, and pensions are excludable resources if they are being distributed in periodic payments that include a portion of principal. These payments are counted as income in the month received.
Non‐marketable Assets: Assets are excluded while the applicant is making a bona fide effort to sell the asset. A bona fide effort may be evidenced by an advertisement in the newspaper or a listing with a real estate agent. The property must be listed for no more than its current value, and the applicant must accept an offer if it is at least 2/3 of the current value.

Countable Assets

Basically, all money and property and any item that can be valued and turned into cash, is a countable asset unless it is one of those assets listed above as exempt. This includes the following:

Life Insurance Policies: The cash value of whole life or other life insurance policies is counted as a resource if the burial exclusion maximum has been reached with other assets.
Investments: Stocks, bonds, mutual funds
Checking Accounts
 Savings Accounts
Certificates of Deposit 
Money Market Accounts

While the Medicaid rules themselves are complicated and tricky, for a single person it is safe to say that he or she will qualify for Medicaid so long as the total assets are either exempt and/or are less than $2,000 (the current limit in Georgia).

Client Testimonials

Due to aging, escalating health and cost concerns for both my husband and myself, I chose to work with Hurley Elder Care to do care and estate planning. I am so very pleased with the result. I have a much improved understanding of the complexity of this process, the necessary documents, timing, regulations and the need for professional guidance.

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Superb service through a difficult maze of governmental regulations and requirements which are not navigable by an individual without a depth of knowledge that far exceeds mine.

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All I can say is Wow ! I have never seen a team attack and solve a problem like Hurley. We lost our father and two weeks later our mother suffered a severe stroke. Nursing home costs were draining their life savings, but Hurley found a solution and got things under control.

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Hurley Elder Care Law went to work for my Mother and navigated all of the Government red tape and got her approved for Medicaid in short order. I, as her POA, could not even begin to climb the mountain of paperwork on my own.

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Very comfortable atmosphere. They treat you like you are one of the family.

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It's impossible to accurately describe the lost feeling of realizing you need power of attorney, updated will and general guidance all of a sudden when dealing with a parent with dementia. The firm’s responsiveness has been superb, their work flawless and their advice kind, compassionate and professional. I'll forever know that their guidance prevented us from making many bad decisions.