How Much Do You Know? Take Our Quiz

Do you think you know the rules surrounding the spend-down process for qualifying for SSI/Medicaid and prearranging a funeral under those restrictions?

Try taking our short quiz to test your knowledge. If you do well, good for you! If not, read some of our previous blogs to help you get up to speed on what you need to know:

1. You’re making funeral prearrangements while seeking to qualify for SSI/Medicaid. You want to establish a trust to pay for the funeral. What kind of trust should it be?

a) Revocable
b) Irrevocable
c) Absolute assignment

2. In your funeral prearrangement made while seeking to qualify for SSI/Medicaid, you’re hoping to set aside money not only to pay for flowers but also to pay for a car to take the flowers to the cemetery. Will you be able to do it?

a) Yes
b) No

3. You have $15,000 in an assigned insurance policy to pay for funeral expenses for a family member seeking to qualify for SSI/Medicaid. Your family has talked about it and would like to spend $12,000 on the funeral and give the last $3,000 to the family member’s surviving children at the time of death. Will you be able to do that?

a) Yes
b) No

4. A person has died, and her only surviving relative is a granddaughter. The deceased had a will and named someone else as executor to the estate. Who has the right to control the funeral and disposition of the deceased?

a) The granddaughter
b) The executor

5. You are in the process of spending down your assets so you can qualify for SSI/Medicaid. While making prearrangements for your funeral, you tell the funeral director that you would like to be cremated and have some of your ashes placed in pendants you would like to give to your surviving children. Can you pay for that through your funeral trust account?

a) No
b) Yes

Answers

1.  b. Irrevocable. When a person is seeking to qualify for SSI/Medicaid, the only type of trust they can establish for funeral expenses is an irrevocable trust. This means that the money in the account is not refundable. Any proceeds left over after the funeral is paid for at the time of death must be turned over to the state as partial reimbursement for the care received under SSI/Medicaid.

2. b. No. Over the years, the New Jersey Department of Human Services has added items to the list of services and products that cannot be included and paid for in prearrangements for those seeking to qualify for SSI/Medicaid. Among those items are flowers and a “flower car” to transport the flowers to a cemetery.

3. b. No. Any money remaining from an insurance account designated to pay for the funeral of a person who has been receiving SSI/Medicaid must be turned over to the state.

4. a. The granddaughter. Unless a funeral agent is specifically named in a will or codicil to a will, the right to control a funeral rests with the deceased’s closest living relative.

5. a. No. As in the answer to Question 2, the prearrangements for those seeking to qualify for SSI/Medicaid cannot include memorial items such as keepsake jewelry.