Refuel #26

🔥 Refuel | Issue #26
A Newsletter from Faith + Gasoline
📅 Subject: “When the Inheritance Goes to the Nursing Home” – How Elder Care Affects Generational Wealth

🛠️ Welcome to Refuel

Hey fam,

This one hurts—because it feels personal.

Your parents worked their whole lives.
Paid off the house. Saved a little. Maybe even said,

But then came the long-term care bills.
The assisted living. The skilled nursing.
And month after month, that “inheritance” started disappearing.

This issue is about what actually happens when care becomes costly, and what you can do before the system drains everything.

🔥 This Week’s Theme: Love Your Parents. Understand the Law.

📖 Verse of the Week:
“A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children…” – Proverbs 13:22

But what if the system is set up to take what’s been built?
We honor legacy by protecting it—not just remembering it.

🚗 Story from the Road: It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This

My mom always said, “If you all don’t want my house, the bank can have it”. But it’s not that simple. The issues around probate were lost on her, and it was easier to quit-claim the deed into my name than to let it rot in court.
She owed money on it, so selling the house outright wouldn’t help either. Then her needs changed, and we needed more help, and we learned fast:
Medicare wouldn’t cover it.

I didn’t do the 5-year planning - if I had sold her house and she went on Medicaid, they would go back five years and take those proceeds.

That’s when I promised: I would help others get ahead and share my story. If I wasn’t prepared, I was sure most people weren’t.

📊 What Actually Happens to the Money When Someone Needs Long-Term Care?

❌ Medicare ≠ Long-Term Care

Medicare may cover short-term rehab (up to 100 days)—but it does not cover custodial care (daily help with eating, bathing, dressing, etc.)

💸 Medicaid Will Cover It—But Only If You Qualify

To get help from Medicaid, your parent must “spend down” to $2,000 or less in assets.
That means:

• House may need to be sold (or becomes a lien after death)

• Bank accounts emptied

• Inheritance = gone

  Check your state’s rules!!

🏚️ The Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP)

After your parent passes, Medicaid can come after the estate to recover costs—unless there are legal protections in place.
This often includes the home, even if it was intended to pass to you.

📌 Bottom Line: The government can’t take everything, but without planning, it will take more than you think.

⛽ Quick Refuel: ✅ 5 Things You Can Do to Protect the Family Legacy

✅ 1. Meet with an elder law attorney.
Ask about Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, look-back periods, and legal spend-down strategies.

✅ 2. Don’t wait.
Medicaid has a 5-year lookback window. Planning late = fewer protections.

✅ 3. Consider transferring the home—carefully.
Gifting the home or putting it in a trust may help, but timing and legal structure matter. Never DIY this.

✅ 4. Keep detailed care records.
If you’ve paid for care, kept someone at home, or been a caregiver, document expenses—this may matter later for estate issues.

✅ 5. Have the “money talk” early.
It’s uncomfortable, but clarity now avoids resentment and confusion later.

📌 Takeaway: Generational wealth is lost through silence, shame, and delay. Not through care, but through unpreparedness.

🛤️ Faith in Motion: A Simple Prayer

"God,
Help me protect what my family has built.
Give me wisdom to ask the right questions, courage to have hard conversations,
and clarity to make decisions rooted in love, not fear.
Let me honor the sacrifices of those who came before—and guide the legacy that comes after.
Amen."

📌 Next Steps

💬 Let’s Connect:

I want to keep the newsletter free, so if you have found any value and would like to donate, my CashApp is: $faithandgasoline

📘 Recommended Read:
📖 “Get It Together” by Melanie Cullen – a practical estate planning organizer for caregivers and families.

📢 Forward this to your sibling, cousin, or parent. Let this be the start of the money talk you’ve been avoiding.

💙💙 Community is the new currency 💙💙

The inheritance isn't just money.
It’s dignity. Direction. Legacy.
And with wisdom, it doesn’t have to disappear.

Go be great. 🚀💙
Love you.

With faith & fuel,
Judith A. Culp
Founder, Faith + Gasoline