By the time you're old enough to end up in a nursing home, you'll be on Medicare, but the coverage that Medicare provides for nursing homes is somewhat limited, so you'll most likely end up on Medicaid. The difference is with Medicaid, your nursing home expenses have to be paid upon your death, and they can force the sale of your home to recover some of that money.  Here is how you can keep your home in your family and not lose possession of it during your life time.

Life Estate Deed

A life estate deed is a deed that allows you to transfer your home to your children, but retain the right to live in and control the home for the remainder of your life.

Creating a life estate deed can be a bit tricky. You'll need to include the right language in the deed that protects your life use of the home.  Leave that language out and the home is no longer yours.

Other Benefits

Another purpose to transferring your home to your family and retaining life use is that your home does not need to go into probate after you pass away. Immediately upon your death, your home belongs to the grantees of the property, and the probate court does not need to oversee the transfer of the home.

Obligations of the Life Tenant

You have certain obligations you need to meet as the life tenant. You are required to pay all of the real estate taxes on the property, not let the property go to waste, and keep it free and clear from encumbrances and liens.

Also, you cannot mortgage or sell the property on your own. While the grantee does not have any right to the property until your death, you retain no right to get rid of the property without their knowledge or consent. If for some reason you need to mortgage the property, the grantee must be involved in the entire process, as they would have to sign the paperwork as the legal owner of the property.

Talk with an attorney like Donald B Linsky & Associate Pa who does estate planning to find out more information about the estate deed process. It can be confusing and a bit overwhelming, but do understand that no matter what you do have options to protect your property should you ever need to enter a nursing home.