September 18, 2018
BREAKING LAW CHANGE: Three Year Look-Back for VA Benefits is Effective October 18th, 2018
There has been a huge change in law with regards to veterans benefits. More specifically the non-service connected pension, otherwise known as the aid and attendance benefit. This VA benefit could offer veterans and surviving spouses between $1000-$2000 per month to help pay for long-term care.
To qualify for the veterans benefit there were five requirements. The first requirement was that the veteran served 90 days active duty. The second requirement, was that one of those days of active duty was during a period of conflict. The third requirement was that the veteran was not dishonorably discharged. The fourth requirement was that veteran had more long-term care costs going out than income coming in from so security and pension. The fifth requirement was that the veteran or surviving spouse pass an asset test, where if they had more than $30,000 of assets, chances are they would not qualify.
the reason I say was that the laws have changed. All those rules are still true, but with that fifth requirement of the asset test there used to be no look back period. Meaning we could have a veteran who had $300,000 of assets, set up a veterans asset protection trust, move the assets into the trust and in the next month submitted a VA application that would be approved. Often the VA would sit on applications for a period of time or come up with odd results. That said, we almost always got approvals on the first try. Typically a veteran would receive their benefits 3 to 5 months from when the application was submitted. That extra thousand or $2000 a month was a godsend for many veterans and surviving spouses.
As of today, the rules have changed. Now there is a three year look back period, For the VA benefit. That rule is going to be effective October 18, 2018. Moving forward there still strategies available. It is important to work with a certified elder law attorney was also VA accredited.
Here’s a short video that I recorded today discussing the VA benefit rule change in more detail.https://play.vidyard.com/n8zNN6mji5D6r8qEJ7XoBt?disable_popouts=1&v=4.2.20&viral_sharing=0&embed_button=0&hide_playlist=1&color=FFFFFF&playlist_color=FFFFFF&play_button_color=2A2A2A&gdpr_enabled=1&type=inline&new_player_ui=1&autoplay=0&loop=0&muted=0&hidden_controls=0