An official State of Texas website.
Revision 14-4; Effective December 1, 2014
Under both pre-DRA and post-DRA transfer of assets policies, assets — including the person's home — may be transferred without resulting in a penalty when:
- Transferred to the person's spouse or to another for the sole benefit of that spouse, or from the person's spouse to another for the sole benefit of that spouse.
- Transferred to the person's child who has a disability. Disability must meet SSA disability criteria. Additionally, there is no age limit for the person's child who is determined to have a disability under SSA criteria.
- Transferred to a trust (including an exception trust) established solely for the benefit of the person's child. The child must meet SSA disability criteria. There is no age limit for a child with a disability for transfer of assets purposes.
- Transferred to a trust, including a trust established for the sole benefit of an individual under age 65 who has a disability as defined under SSA disability criteria.
- Satisfactory evidence exists that the person intended to dispose of the resource at fair market value.
- Satisfactory evidence exists that the transfer was exclusively for some purpose other than to qualify for Medicaid.
- Imposition of a penalty would cause undue hardship.
- A person changes a joint bank account to establish separate accounts to reflect correct ownership of and access to funds.
- A person purchases an irrevocable funeral arrangement or assigns ownership of an irrevocable funeral arrangement to a third party, and the funeral arrangement is for the person or the person's spouse.
Note: If the transfer is made to a child who is claiming a disability, but there is no record that the child meets SSA disability criteria, request medical records for the Disability Determination Unit (DDU) to make a disability determination. Submit these records to Austin for imaging.