Medicaid Magic, Medicaid Mistakes
Medicaid Magic, Medicaid Mistakes
Thomas E. Simmons
May 6, 2025
Medicaid is the primary alternative to financing nursing home care out-of-pocket. The rules for qualifying for Medicaid, therefore, are of great interest to clients. Qualifying for Medicaid is a very unique sort of asset protection planning. Its eligibility rules vary tremendously from state to state and change quite frequently from time. This lively discussion will engage and illustrate with specific examples. Both failed plans and successful ones will be outlined.
Tom Simmons is a professor at the University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law where he teaches Trusts & Wills, Estate Planning, Professional Responsibility, Remedies, and a pair of Tribal Wills Clinic courses.
Tom is an academic fellow and outgoing state chair of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, and a life fellow and state chair of the American Bar Foundation. He is the recipient of the Cutler Award for Excellence in Legal Education and the John Wesley Jackson Memorial Award for Outstanding Professor of Law.
He serves on the South Dakota Governor’s Task Force on Trust Administration Review and Reform. He is an Associate Justice on the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Supreme Court. He also a commissioner of the Uniform Law Commission. In an “of counsel” role with Thompson Law in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he serves as an expert and consultant in complex trust litigation.
Prior to joining the academy, Tom clerked for federal district court judge Andrew Bogue and was a partner with the Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson & Ashmore law firm.
He has taught at every educational level: pre-K in a Head Start program, middle school students in Japan, fourth graders in the U.S., undergraduate paralegal students, and law students.
