Veterans Benefits

The Aid and Attendance Pension Benefits for War Veterans

If you or your spouse are a qualified war veteran, one or both of you may qualify for the Aid and Attendance Pension benefit.  The purpose of this benefit it to assist to with the cost of long term care including  in home care, assisted living and nursing homes.  To qualify for this benefit, the VA will look at the amount of your financial assets and whether or not you own a home.  If you own a home but are no longer living there, you may need to transfer your home in to an irrevocable residence trust.  This is required even if your home is owned by your revocable living trust. Once the home is transferred to the trust and assuming you qualify financially otherwise, you can start receiving tax free income from the VA in the amount of approximately $1,000.00 - $2,000.00 per month.    Your financial assets can be placed in this trust as well and then will not count towards the resource limits.  The other benefits/characteristics of the trust in addition to qualifying for the Aid and Attednance Pension benefit  include;

• The home will be protected from the Medi-Cal Estate Recover Lien
• The low Prop 13 tax basis will be preserved and can be passed to the children
• The benficiaries of the trust will get a stepped up basis in any inherited property from the trust.  This will result in little if any capital gains taxes due upon the sale of the property.  If the a trust is not used, the beneficiaries will receive a lower carry over basis in the property if the property is gifted to them while the parent is alive and thus would have to pay capital gains taxes upon the sale of the property.

The Law Offices of Brian Chew can assist our veterans with qualifying for the "Aid and Attendance Pension" benefit for qualified veterans to assist with their long term care costs. Call us at 949.873.7273 or fill out the contact us box for more information.