Elder Law in Georgia
Medicaid Planning and Long-Term Care for Atlanta Families
Georgia Medicaid pays for nursing home care — but only after you spend down to $2,000 in countable assets. For a married couple, the spouse at home keeps up to $154,140. The planning that protects the rest must be done at least five years before you apply.
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The Five-Year Lookback and What It Means for Your Family
The average Atlanta-area nursing home costs $8,000 to $10,000 per month. A three-year stay consumes $288,000 to $360,000 — money most families have, but cannot afford to lose. Georgia Medicaid examines every financial transaction in the five years before you apply. Assets transferred inside that window are treated as if you still own them. The Medicaid asset protection trust is the primary tool for families who act before the window closes.
The Georgia Medicaid Numbers Every Family Needs to Know
Georgia Medicaid will pay for nursing home care — but only after your countable assets fall to $2,000 or below. For a married couple, Georgia allows the spouse remaining at home to keep up to $154,140 in countable assets (2025 figure, adjusted annually). Income above $2,742 per month in 2025 must be contributed to the cost of care.
Most Atlanta families have more than $154,140 in combined savings, investment accounts, and retirement funds. Without planning, those assets are spent on care at nursing home rates before Medicaid steps in. The planning that protects them must be completed at least five years before the Medicaid application date — the federal five-year lookback period.
The lookback is not a grace period. It is a review. Georgia Medicaid examines every financial transaction in the 60 months before you apply. Assets transferred for less than fair market value during that window are treated as if you still own them, and Medicaid calculates a penalty period — a number of months during which you are ineligible for benefits despite having no money left to pay for care.
What the Five-Year Lookback Actually Covers
Gifts to children, transfers to grandchildren, paying down a mortgage, adding a family member to a deed, and contributions to an irrevocable trust — all of these trigger lookback scrutiny if done within five years of a Medicaid application. The penalty calculation is mechanical: the total value transferred, divided by the average monthly nursing home cost in Georgia (approximately $8,100 in 2025), equals the number of months of ineligibility.
A family that transfers $200,000 to adult children two years before needing care faces a 24-month penalty period. During those 24 months, Medicaid will not pay — and the family has no assets left to cover the cost themselves.
The Medicaid asset protection trust (MAPT) is an irrevocable trust that, once funded and past the five-year window, removes assets from your countable estate for Medicaid purposes. The assets are protected from spend-down. Your children or other beneficiaries inherit them directly. You can continue to receive income generated by the trust assets during your lifetime.
What Elder Law Covers Beyond Medicaid
Medicaid planning is the most urgent piece for families approaching retirement age — but elder law is broader. It also covers the authority documents your family needs to act on your behalf while you are alive: the durable financial power of attorney that lets a trusted person pay your bills, manage your accounts, and file your taxes without going to court, and the advance healthcare directive that tells medical providers what you want and names someone to speak for you when you cannot.
Without those documents in place, a family managing a parent’s incapacity must petition the probate court for guardianship and conservatorship. That process costs $3,000 to $8,000 in legal fees, takes three to six months, and places the court — not the family — in a supervisory role over every significant financial decision going forward.
We address all of it in a single planning process: Medicaid qualification strategy, asset protection structure, and the authority documents your family needs to act without court involvement at every stage.
Asset Protection
A Medicaid asset protection trust removes assets from your countable estate once the five-year lookback period has passed. Combined with an irrevocable trust structure, it is the primary tool for protecting a family's savings and home from nursing home spend-down.
Care Planning
Medicaid planning determines your eligibility strategy. Long-term care planning addresses the full picture — care options, facility selection, family coordination, and cost management before and during a care transition.
Authority Documents
A durable financial power of attorney and advance healthcare directive give your family legal authority to manage your finances and healthcare without going to court. Incapacity planning addresses the full scope of authority your family needs.
Planning For Your Specific Situation
If you own rental properties or a business, your situation has layers a standard estate plan does not address.
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Melissa Breyer
Georgia Estate Planning Attorney
Melissa Breyer is a Georgia-licensed estate planning attorney focused exclusively on trust-based planning for individuals and families. She personally meets with every client and designs every plan from scratch. No templates. No associates handling your case. Every plan is built for your specific family, your specific assets, and your specific wishes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
An individual applying for Georgia Medicaid long-term care benefits must have $2,000 or less in countable assets. A married couple follows different rules: the spouse remaining at home may keep up to $154,140 in countable assets in 2025, a figure adjusted annually by the federal government. Countable assets include bank accounts, investment accounts, and non-exempt real estate. Exempt assets include the primary residence up to a certain equity limit, one vehicle, personal property, and irrevocable burial plans.
Georgia Medicaid reviews all financial transactions in the 60 months before a long-term care application. Any asset transferred for less than fair market value during that period creates a penalty — a number of months during which Medicaid will not pay for care, calculated by dividing the transfer amount by the average monthly nursing home cost in Georgia (approximately $8,100 in 2025). The lookback does not prevent you from applying. It determines when your benefits begin. Assets transferred more than five years before application are fully protected.
A Medicaid asset protection trust (MAPT) is an irrevocable trust that removes assets from your countable estate for Medicaid purposes once the five-year lookback period has passed. You transfer assets into the trust, name a trustee — typically an adult child or other trusted person — and designate beneficiaries who will inherit at your death. You may receive income generated by the trust during your lifetime, but you cannot take principal back. Once five years have passed from the funding date, those assets are protected from Medicaid spend-down requirements.
Yes. Georgia Medicaid offers several waiver programs that cover home- and community-based services as an alternative to nursing home placement. The SOURCE program provides in-home aide services, nursing visits, and care coordination for adults who meet functional and financial eligibility criteria. The Community Care Services Program covers similar services. These programs have enrollment caps and waiting lists. Eligibility requires meeting the same financial criteria as nursing home Medicaid — including the $2,000 asset limit — and a functional assessment confirming the level of care needed.
When one spouse enters a nursing home and applies for Medicaid, Georgia protects a portion of the couple’s joint assets for the spouse remaining at home — called the community spouse resource allowance (CSRA). In 2025, the maximum CSRA is $154,140 and the minimum is $29,724. The actual amount is calculated as half the couple’s total countable assets on the date the ill spouse is institutionalized, subject to those limits. Assets above the CSRA maximum must be spent down or legally protected through planning strategies before the institutionalized spouse becomes eligible for benefits.
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