Protecting your home and savings before you need home care

Many Caribbean New Yorkers worked for decades to buy a house in Brooklyn, Queens or the Bronx. Here's how to keep it in the family if a parent needs long-term care.

Right now: no look-back for home care

Today, Medicaid for home care does not look back at past gifts or transfers. Nursing home Medicaid looks back 5 years. New York has already passed a 30-month look-back for home care, but as of November 2026 it hasn't started because it is waiting on federal approval. When it starts, gifts made inside that window may delay home care coverage. Planning before it starts gives you more options.

Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT)

• You move your home or savings into an irrevocable trust, usually with an adult child as trustee.
• You can keep living in your home and receive the trust's income.
• You can't take back the principal.
• After 5 years, those assets are also protected from nursing home costs.

What New York can take back after death

New York's estate recovery reaches only assets in the person's own name that pass through their will or probate. Assets in a properly set-up trust, or owned jointly, generally aren't reached. Recovery is also put off while a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child is alive.

Transfers that are always allowed

You can transfer the home without penalty to:

• a spouse;
• a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child;
• a child who lived there and cared for you for 2 years.

A change coming in 2028

A 2025 federal law caps the Medicaid home equity limit at $1,000,000 starting in 2028. New York's limit is $1,130,000 in 2026, so some homeowners will need to plan.

General information, not legal advice. Every family's situation is different, so speak with an elder law attorney before transferring property. Verified November 2026.