As Midchuck said, that's about the situation. If there is any expectation of going the Medicare/Medicaid route, you need to have gotten rid of all of your assets several years earlier.....Give your money and home to the kids then and let them take care of you. Because as soon as you go into the residential centers if that's what you need, all of your assets and money will go to pay the bills there first before any government money kicks in......so would you prefer to pay the Daisybrook Nursing Home all of your money or give it to your kids?

We ran into a situation with Karen's grandmother where she was being "cared for" by her son and his wife. During that time, the "care" mainly involved whatever minimum was possible while the wife controlled her money.   Nell asked on several occasions if Karen or others had gotten their CD money but was assured that all was being taken care of........yeah, right. When it came time that she needed full time care, they had indeed gotten rid of her money, but she came here instead and we had to put her into a nursing home. The social Security people questioned many of the previous expenditures but chose not to prosecute the son and daughterr-in-law. Instead they held up her Medicaid money and we were paying for the nursing home. It's a long story and it doesn't have a happy ending for anyone....least of all Grandma and Karen. Grandma had wanted to live with us to begin with but that was ruled out by the son and "the wife." When grandma finally did get to come here she was far too ill to live with us and within a month we had to put her her into the nursing home. Karen has never and will never get over this one because she was so close to to Grandma.

Old age pretty well sucks in the U.S..........Especially for the middle class...........and even moreso with dysfunctional families!

Spaw