It was decided after a few hospital and rehabilitation visits that my grandmother (80) would be put into assisted living facility.
My grandmother receives social security, and a survivor pension from my grandfather... My mother emptied her savings accounts and surrended the remaining balance of my grandfather's life insurance policy.
However, the issue is my grandfather had taken out insurance policies on the grandchildren and great grandchildren that he paid for and that continued to be paid for from his accounts after he died in December 2017.
Now, the nursing home is saying that we have to "gift" the policies to my grandmother so they can have the balance. Gerber (where the policies are from) said no...
My mother believes I should do it because she spoke to a lawyer who said that's allowed because it was paid for by my grandmother's account... but Gerber (where the policies are from said it sounds illegal and a bad business practice.)
I'd honestly like more opinions on the matter and some guidance before making a decision because I'm the decision maker for my own and my children's...
It is four policies... they were all in my grandfather's name, but are now in my name.. one is mine and the other three are my minor children. He opened them when we were all born and always paid them. When he died, it continued to be paid for out of the same account it always was, except it was now in my grandmother's name.
Gerber told them outright that they were now on my name and it is my decision to gift them alone.
However, they are threatening to evict my grandmother from the nursing home for attempting to hide funds (the policies).
They said as she is on Medicaid, they are entitled to everything before Medicaid pays.
Who, then, owned the accrued value of these policies from Dec 2017 onwards? And who controlled them? Could your grandmother, theoretically, have cashed them in herself?
And how much have premiums totalled since then? - because certainly that could be seen as "gift" money in Medicaid terms.
Goodness knows I'm no expert, but I certainly wouldn't rely on the opinion of a life assurance provider who would like me to continue paying premiums. What about your grandmother's Medicaid advisors, from when she first applied - has your mother tried asking them what to do about these policies?
The nursing home called Gerber directly for the policies and that is when Gerber transferred the beneficiary to me as the parent.
My grandfather paid on the policy once a year, so it would've only been one payment made after his death.
My mother hasn't spoken to any advisor of Medicaid. She spoke to lawyers because of the policies because they threatened to evict my grandmother over the policies.
I wasn't sure if my mother was being railroaded by the nursing home, hence my hesitance to sign the policies over. My children are still relatively young so I honestly doubt it holds much value.. it's just the situation seems very odd to me.
My grandfather was very private about his finances..I honestly forgot about the existence of the policies.
The nursing home called gerber directly and that is when the policies were transferred to my name as the parent. And Gerber said I have to make the decision to "gift" it to them... Which do what made me suspicious on the entire activity.
Gerber representative said it sounded illegal and encouraged me to not sign it over. Of course, probably for their own monetary reasoning.