We get a lot of client questions about protecting assets from the nursing home. It would be easy for us to sell an irrevocable trust to every prospective client who raises the issue (which, honestly, is a lot of them).

But we don’t. We spend time talking people out of them. Here’s why.

UNDERSTANDING MA

To understand why we don’t do irrevocable trusts, you first have to understand a little bit about how long term care is paid for in this country.

Everyone who reaches a certain age will receive Social Security and Medicare. The government calls these programs “entitlements,” meaning that all of us are entitled to them because we paid into the system with payroll taxes while we were working.