Q: My Mom’s house is under a life estate. Can we sell her home to pay for assisted living when her cash runs out?
She will exhaust her cash early next year (2022). Most likely she will need nursing home care and will need Medicaid at some point, but we would like to keep her in assisted living as long as her health hasn’t declined to the point of needing full time nursing care.
A:
It sounds like all your mom owns is a life estate. Most life estates are alienable (which means they can be sold), but in reality there is not much of a market for life estate. You probably will not find a buyer. In order to sell both the life estate and the remainder interest, you would need the signatures of your mother and all of the remaindermen.
The situation is actually more complicated than you think. You really should schedule a consultation with an elder law attorney in your area. There might be more options that you realize. And there might have been a good reason for the transfer of the remainder interest, and you wouldn't want to sabotage the planning that was behind that. If there was no planning behind that, then now would be a good time to start. Elder law attorneys deal with these kind of issues every day. Do yourself a huge favor and obtain expert advice based upon your mother's individual facts and circumstances.
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