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Too much emphasis is on tax consequence, IMO.
Our "kids" were excruciatingly cruel to my wife when we were married.
Rude, inconsiderate, and cruel.
So, wife and I decided to skip ..them..and give to grandchildren who were babies at the time.
Then wife died.
The trust, being irrevocable, then prevented me from access to assets over half the combined total.
When wife died, the trust ...FROZE.
I could (and can) diminish HALF of it.
Time passed, the "kids" grew up, the grandkids on the other hand have reversed the whole thing and now specialize in babies before marriage!
IOW.... flexibility in passing on assets is WAY MORE IMPORTANT than tax implications.
In my opinion and EXPERIENCE !!!
Trusts are extremely complex documents and very few people understand what they are committing to, they just know that they are determined to make other people pay for their care!
We have our own parents to pay for, we do not want to pay for yours. Spend your money for the care you need. Your kids can earn their own money, just as you did.
Buyer beware.
In 2019, our elder care/estate attorney set up a regular irrevocable trust with our sons as trustees to protect our funds until such a time it is needed to take care of us. Our sons have a lot more investment experience (one is a CPA) and are both very trustworthy. Yes, a benefit of the trust is protection should we need VA (3 year look back) or Medicaid LTC.
The main benefit we wanted was protection from ourselves, especially after one of us dies. We are far from wealthy but wanted to protect what we have... not to leave to our sons unless there is something left! At any time, we can hold them accountable for how they manage the funds. It is called planning for your unknown future needs while you are living as well as making it a lot easier at the time of our deaths.
Fortunately my parents had a irrevocable trust when he remarried six months after my mother died. He only had a couple acres with a mobile home and very little savings but it was way more than she brought to the marriage. He believed in being the provider so set it up to give her lifetime rights to live there in the event of his death. It didn't take long for things to get rocky and he left but still allowed her to stay in the home. She decided she wanted to sell everything. My sister and my father went to discuss things with her and brought the documents to show her my sister was the only one who could sell it. She wouldn't even let them in the house, demanded they get off the property and called the sheriff to remove them. The sheriff looked at the documents and said they had every right to be there. They finally divorced... without him losing the little bit he and my mother had worked for during their 47 year marriage.
Our sons have the ability to use the funds for whatever we need and have already pulled some out in one instance. Fortunately, we haven't had to use VA or Medicaid LTC benefits yet but my husband's needs for caregivers is increasing. Hopefully if SNF is in our future, we can choose our own place with private pay first then apply and transfer to a Medicaid bed when it is appropriate.
I loathe these tricky trusts. They rob you of everything you worked so hard to earn and give it over to your heirs who worked NOT AT ALL for the funds. And just when you need good solid are in ALF or Memory Care you are "broke". Because, hey! It's being protected for your kids.
Just be certain you fully understand that if you make one of these trusts EVERYTHNG YOU HAVE that is put into it is no longer yours, and you have ZERO to say about it. In fact NO ONE has any say about it until they can push you into the ground. It's all neatly tied up in bright ribbons for the kids when they can finally bid you a fond adieu.
Be CERTAIN you fully understand all of this if you do this.
The cost was an eye opener for me when my Dad hired 3-shifts of caregivers to help him with daily living (the man was brilliant but couldn't make himself a cheese sandwich). Dad was in his 90's. It was costing him $20k per month, thus $240k per year. Then there were all those other every day expenses that can add up. Yikes, Depends are expensive.
Plus, it just isn't fair to have us taxpayers pay for your Medicaid room/board/health care when you have the funds to pay for this out-of-pocket.
Hubby and I are ridiculously fugal to a point of being eccentric. We plan to use our savings (which are in a Revocable Trust, easy to get to) to give us the best care we can find instead of handing it over to family who would probably just blow through the money like no tomorrow.
You better be quite healthy and not at all likely to need a facility till 2029 to be totally past a 5 yr lookback. So look at your health history and factor in your age as to how close you are to average death in the US for your demographic to see if your risk is low.
Personally I am of the firm belief that unless you have mid to high six figures to place into any type of Trust, doing a Trust is ludicrous. That Trust needs its own source of funding that is too owned by the Trust to pay for whatever costs of the home and any other costs of the Trust (like legal fees, CPA, etc). Trust needs something it owns to have $ to spend and replenish outlays. Like there are investments in the Trusts name that have a financial advisor. Unfortunately often what folks tend to do is place home & maybe a weekend home or land into the Trust all by themselves and the use their own SS income to pay property costs (taxes, insurance, maintenance, whatever). Then when they file for LTC Medicaid, as it requires them to do a copay or Share of Cost paid to the NH, there is zero $ to pay on anything. The Trust endpoint beneficiaries don’t have to cough up the $…. they can but do not have to. Trust defunds. It does happen and you see it often at property tax delinquency sales.
You should be fully informed before making that decision. Including whether or not your state will pay for assisted living . You can do more research online .
Where I live ( my state ), Medicaid does not pay for assisted living or memory care in assisted living. I would need the ability to access my funds to pay for that for myself and/ or my husband . Medicaid in my state will pay for SNF ( skilled nursing facility ) , however you will not be admitted unless you qualify medically .
In other words , if I’m not in bad enough shape medically to be in SNF nursing home ,
but I need assisted living , I’d better make sure I have access to my assets to pay for it.
I’ve known many who jumped at the chance to “ protect their home and assets from Medicaid “ without fully understanding that they will not be able to use that money for themselves should they desire to .