How Much Does a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust Cost in Georgia?

For the full picture of how this fits into your plan, see our guide to Medicaid planning in Georgia.

What’s Included in the $6,500 Flat Fee

The $6,500 flat fee covers three things: drafting the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust document, deeding your home and other assets into it, and funding it correctly the first time.

Some firms charge $6,000 to $9,000 just to draft the trust. Then they bill separately for the deed work and funding. That can push the real cost past $10,000. At Atlanta Estate Planning, the flat fee includes all three from the start.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust only works if it is funded correctly. If your home or savings stay titled in your name instead of the trust’s name, those assets are still countable for Medicaid even after the trust is signed. The flat fee includes the funding step so this does not get missed.

Why the Cost Is Small Next to a Georgia Nursing Home Bill

A semi-private room in a Georgia nursing home costs about $105,850 a year. A private room runs about $113,150 a year. Most families cannot pay that out of pocket for more than a year or two.

The $6,500 trust cost is a one-time fee. Compare that to even a single year of private-pay nursing home care, and the trust can pay for itself many times over if it helps your family qualify for Medicaid instead of draining savings.

Medicaid only pays for care once you qualify. In Georgia, that means your countable assets have to drop to $2,000 or less. A properly funded Medicaid Asset Protection Trust moves your assets out of that countable total years before you need care.

The 5-Year Look-Back Period and Why Timing Changes Everything

Georgia Medicaid looks back 60 months (5 years) from the date you apply. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c), any assets you transferred during that window, including into a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, can trigger a penalty period. During that penalty period, Medicaid will not pay for your care.

Georgia divides the value of what you transferred by the average monthly cost of nursing home care in the state. That gives you the number of months you will be ineligible. The earlier you set up the trust, the sooner that 5-year clock runs out, and the sooner the trust actually protects you.

This is why the timing matters as much as the price. A trust set up 5 years before you need care works exactly as intended. One set up 2 years before you need care may still leave you with months of ineligibility.

What to Do If You’re Already Facing a Nursing Home Stay

If a nursing home stay is likely within the next 5 years, or already happening, a new Medicaid Asset Protection Trust will not avoid the look-back penalty for assets moved into it now. Setting one up at this point can create the exact problem it is meant to prevent.

You still have options. A Qualified Income Trust, also called a Miller Trust, can help if your income is too high to qualify. Spending down assets on exempt purchases, like home repairs or a prepaid funeral, can also lower your countable assets without triggering a transfer penalty. Our long-term care planning guide and incapacity planning guide cover the documents that usually need to work alongside this decision.

This is a case where getting advice before you act matters more than the dollar cost of any one option. A short consultation can tell you which path avoids a penalty and which one does not.

Medicaid Asset Protection Trust vs. Other Options — And What They Cost

Here is how a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust compares to the other ways to qualify for Medicaid in Georgia.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is the only option on this list that both protects your assets and requires planning years in advance. The other options work with less lead time, but none of them let you keep and pass on the assets the way a funded trust can.