Medi-Cal Planning Attorney in California: What the Role Covers and How to Find One

When a parent or spouse in California needs nursing-home care, a Medi-Cal planning attorney works on one question: how the family's savings, home and income fit Medi-Cal's long-term-care rules. That means sorting counted from exempt assets, reviewing past gifts against the look-back, applying the protections the rules give to the spouse at home and addressing estate recovery.

This page explains how California's rules treat four subjects: what Medi-Cal counts, how a past gift is treated, what the husband or wife at home keeps, and how the family home is treated. A family can then see how the rules work before deciding whether to send a consultation request.

What a Medi-Cal Planning Attorney Does

Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program. Medicaid is the joint federal and state program that, for long-term care, pays for nursing-home care and certain home and community-based services. The Medicaid eligibility policy page describes it as joint federal and state. Federal law sets the framework. California runs its own program, with its own rules, through the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS).

Medi-Cal planning is not the same as general estate planning. Estate planning is mainly about who inherits and how property passes at death. Medi-Cal planning is about qualifying for long-term-care benefits. Its main subjects are the asset rules, the look-back on transfers, the protections for a spouse at home, and estate recovery.

The core tasks usually include:

• sorting the family's assets into counted and exempt
• explaining the spend-down choices the rules allow
• reviewing past and proposed transfers against the transfer rules
• preparing the information an application requires
• addressing estate recovery

The broader role is set out in what a Medicaid planning attorney does. Medicaid Asset Protection Group is a website that provides information and facilitates inquiries. It is not a law firm.

California Medi-Cal Eligibility for Long-Term Care: The Asset Rules

DHCS states that a California law requires Medi-Cal to count assets for some programs from January 1, 2026. A countable asset is one Medi-Cal counts toward its limit. An exempt asset is one it does not count. The DHCS Asset Limit FAQ lists several exempt assets, including your main home and your main vehicle. It lists second homes and second vehicles as counted. Whether any other item counts depends on current DHCS rules.

Through June 30, 2027, the DHCS page puts the asset limit at $130,000 for one person, plus $65,000 for each extra household member, up to 10 people. Starting July 1, 2027, the page lists $21,000 for one person and $31,000 for two, plus $1,550 for each extra person, up to 10 people. Adult children living in the home are not counted in household size. The details are covered in California Medi-Cal asset limits.

The home has an outer limit under federal law. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(f), a person whose home equity is above a set limit cannot get long-term-care coverage, unless a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child is lawfully residing in the home. The federal 2026 range for that limit runs from $752,000 to $1,130,000, effective January 1, 2026. Which figure California applies depends on current California rules. Section 1396p(f)(4) also calls for a process to waive the limit in cases of demonstrated hardship.

Income works on a separate track. In California, "share of cost" concerns monthly income. It is different from spending savings down to the asset limit. Federally, after eligibility is approved, the contribution is total income minus protected amounts. Those protected amounts include a personal needs allowance of at least $30 and, where the spousal rules apply, an income allowance for the spouse at home, to the extent income of the spouse in care is made available to that spouse.

The Look-Back Period and Transfer Penalties in California

The look-back period is a window of time before a set date during which Medi-Cal looks at transfers of assets. California's window is shorter than the federal one. DHCS states that if you move into a nursing home, Medi-Cal looks at assets given away in the 30 months before you entered the facility. Transfers made before January 1, 2026 will not be counted. Transfers made on or after that date may cause a penalty that delays coverage.

The federal look-back is 60 months for any transfer made on or after February 8, 2006, under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(1)(B)(i). For a nursing-home resident, it runs back from the first date the person is both institutionalized and has applied.

A penalty period is a stretch of time during which Medi-Cal will not pay for long-term care because of a transfer for less than fair market value. Federally, its length is the total uncompensated value transferred, divided by the average monthly cost to a private patient of nursing-facility services in the State (or, at the State's option, in the community) at the time of application. Fractional months are not rounded down.

Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(1)(D)(ii), the penalty starts on the later of two dates, and not during any other period of ineligibility:

• the month of the transfer, or
• the date the person is eligible and would otherwise be receiving institutional-level care.

Because the start date works this way, a gift made early in the look-back counts the same as a recent one.

Some transfers carry no penalty. A transfer to the person's spouse carries no transfer penalty under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(2)(B)(i), and a home transferred to a spouse is also excepted. DHCS also lists transfers that do not cost Medi-Cal eligibility:

• gifts to a spouse or to someone helping the spouse
• gifts to a blind or disabled child
• sales for full value

The Medicaid crisis planning page explains how penalties play out when care is needed now.

Spousal Protections: What the Community Spouse Keeps

Federal spousal-impoverishment rules in 42 U.S.C. § 1396r-5 protect part of a married couple's resources and income. The community spouse is the spouse who stays at home while the other receives institutional-level care. The community spouse resource allowance is the share of the couple's resources that the spouse at home may keep. When one spouse applies, the resources held by either spouse, or both, are treated as available to the spouse in care, but only to the extent they exceed that allowance. After eligibility is set, the community spouse's own resources are not counted against the spouse in care.

According to CMS's 2026 spousal impoverishment standards, which list these standards as effective 1-1-26 unless otherwise noted:

• the minimum resource standard is $32,532
• the maximum resource standard is $162,660
• the maximum monthly maintenance needs allowance is $4,066.50

The minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance is $2,705 in most states, effective July 1, 2026. That figure is the federal minimum income amount protected for the spouse at home, and it is adjusted each July 1.

California's own spousal figures, and the dates they apply from, depend on current California rules. DHCS states that some married couples and registered domestic partners may qualify for higher limits under Spousal Impoverishment, and may be able to split assets. Whether California allows spousal refusal also depends on current California rules.

The Family Home and Medi-Cal: Exemption, Liens, and Estate Recovery

During the applicant's lifetime, DHCS states that a main home the person owns and plans to return to will not count against them, while any extra homes will count. That protection is still subject to the home-equity limit in 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(f). Above that limit, long-term-care coverage is barred unless a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child is lawfully residing in the home.

Estate recovery is the process by which DHCS seeks repayment from a deceased member's estate for certain Medi-Cal benefits paid. DHCS states that for members who died on or after January 1, 2017, California limits recovery to estate assets subject to probate. Whether a particular home is reached depends on the facts and the rules at the time.

Federal law also controls the timing. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(2), recovery is delayed, not cancelled, while any of these people survives, and that subsection sets further conditions where a lien on a home is involved:

• a surviving spouse
• a child under 21
• a blind or disabled child

Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(3), a state must also have procedures to waive recovery when it would work an undue hardship.

Planning Tools an Elder-Law Attorney May Use

Families often ask whether a trust can protect the house or savings. A trust that cannot be revoked is called an irrevocable trust, and putting assets into one can be a transfer that the look-back reaches. Federally, payments from a trust that are treated as transfers fall within the 60-month look-back. What such a trust does depends on its terms and timing, and no trust always protects assets.

Annuities have strict federal conditions. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(1)(F), buying an annuity is treated as a transfer for less than fair market value unless the State is named as remainder beneficiary in the first position for at least the total amount of medical assistance paid, or in the second position after the community spouse or a minor or disabled child (and then in the first position if that spouse or a representative of the child disposes of the remainder for less than fair market value). Separately, under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(1)(G), for the transfer rules the term "assets" includes an annuity bought by or for an annuitant who has applied for nursing-facility or other long-term care coverage, unless one of these applies:

• it is an annuity described in section 408(b) or (q) of the Internal Revenue Code, or was purchased with proceeds from an account or trust described in section 408(a), (c) or (p), a simplified employee pension or a Roth IRA, or
• it is irrevocable, nonassignable and actuarially sound, and pays equal amounts with no deferral and no balloon payment.

Even an annuity that meets those terms does not always protect assets.

Spend-down means using countable assets on things the rules allow, so that savings come under the limit. DHCS states that a person who may need long-term care must spend down. Its examples include paying medical bills and paying off a car loan or other debts. The Medicaid spend-down attorney page explains the concept further.

Transfers that carry no penalty are only the ones the rules list, including those to a spouse, a blind or disabled child, or a sale for full value. This page does not cover Medicare, private long-term-care insurance or veterans' benefits.

Records the Medi-Cal Rules Turn On

DHCS states that people share information about what they own when they apply for or renew Medi-Cal. The asset limit, the spousal rules and the look-back each turn on records of what is owned and in whose name, of each spouse's income, and of the date and amount of each gift or transfer.

What This Site Covers — and What It Does Not

This site covers Medi-Cal planning for long-term care in California:

• eligibility, asset and income rules
• look-back and penalty rules
• spousal protections
• the home and estate recovery

It does not cover Medicare, private long-term-care insurance or veterans' benefits, and it gives no tax advice.

Medicaid Asset Protection Group is not a law firm and represents no one. A consultation request sent through this site may be passed to attorneys who decide for themselves whether to respond. No response is promised, and nothing shared is described as confidential or privileged.

Medicaid rules vary by state. The California content on this page reflects California's rules as DHCS states them. Florida's figures, for example, appear on the Florida Medicaid planning page.

Requesting a Consultation

California's rules changed on January 1, 2026, and DHCS gives a different asset limit for the period starting July 1, 2027. This page describes how the rules work in general and cannot settle how they apply to one family's facts. It does not cover Medicare or private insurance. To request a consultation about Medicaid and long-term-care options, use Medicaid Asset Protection Group.