Inheritance When You Are On A Va Disability Pension

[augoldminer]

I am a 60 year old veteran on a 90% VA disability pension and 10% SC and my father is in late stage Alzheimer.

When he passes how will any money or money from the sale of his property affect my disability pension

When he passes i as the his executor will have to sell his houses and property and divide the money 5 ways.

Plus i will have to find a place to live as i am care taking one of his homes and watching the other property right now.

I plan to buy a motor home to live in as i can not take cold weather or hot weather any more. and plan to fallow the weather.

I don't want to rent a place to live as i have had many problems with landlords and don't want to deal with them anymore. living in a motor home if i don't like where i am living its simple to move just load up and drive away.

Plus i have a number of friends that will give me a place to park in exchange for watching there property as a caretaker.

As far as i can tell my part of the inheritance will be about $20.000 to $30.000 due the the housing market.

Will this stop my pension till i use up the inheritance or how does that work i never have got a stright story on it.

I also plan to take some collage courses in gunsmithing and the motor home will allow me to travel to that part of the state to the collage.

[Chuck75]

You are really asking a couple of complicated questions.

In general, as I understand it, unless there is a specific exemption under the VA pension rules, the bequest can cause the VA to reduce your pension or eliminate it for the time it would take to equal the amount of the bequest. I'd also assume that there will be a significant amount of time involved in getting it reinstated.

Next, the unstated question was can this be avoided. I believe the answer might be yes. I can think of certain circumstances that might be useful, if they can be arranged some time before a bequest becomes effective.

If you look at the income statement you are required to send in to the VA, and the instructions, You will notice that some funds can be deducted from the income amount used to calculate or validate a pension.

It might be possible to setup something related to the bequest that would allow it to be offset.

Since the whole thing is intertwined with legalities, A visit to a lawyer that understands VA law is likely going to be required.

Not having gotten personally involved in the pension side of things, I really don't have any specific information/experience to give.

[cooter]

I checked around the web sites and came across this interesting article. Here's an extract from part of the article, and also added the link to the whole article. Hope this helps!

Why Is a Special Needs Trust Important? If you receive an outright inheritance from a friend or family member the inheritance could put you over the $80,000 asset limit. It is not necessary for your family to disinherit you, however, in order to protect your Pension benefits. If your family members provide for a special needs trust in their estate plan, your eligibility for Pension benefits will be protected.The trust would not be included with your other assets to determine if you are below the $80,000 asset limit but the trust will be there to supplement your needs.

Here's the link

The Voice - November 2007 - Vol. 1, Issue 4

Coot

[augoldminer]

What i would inherit would not put me anywhere near $80,000 so i guess i would not be in to bad a shape.

And the home would be motor home and my truck for a car. So i would be alright there.

[Philip Rogers]

You should check w/an atty just to confirm. I don't know you but I'd hate to see you lose out thru some erroneous info gotten here. jmo

pr

What i would inherit would not put me anywhere near $80,000 so i guess i would not be in to bad a shape.

And the home would be motor home and my truck for a car. So i would be alright there.

[cooter]

I defiantly agree with pr! The article is FOI only. If I was in your shoes, I would also check it out to confirm!

Coot