This decision involves weighing important relative risks. If you transfer your home or other assets and then need them back to pay for home care, assisted living, etc., your children might not cooperate or might not be able to cooperate due to financial problems, creditor issues, divorce, death, etc. On the other hand, if you do not transfer assets and then require long term care, you could lose those assets before qualifying for Medicaid. There are also major tax issues. If you hold your house until death, you pass it to your children with a stepped-up cost basis, allowing them to later sell it with little or no taxable gain. If you transfer it during life, you give your kids your original cost basis, causing them to pay tax on the full gain upon sale. To balance the issues, many clients choose to transfer the house to an Asset Protection Trust. Such a trust prevents your children’s creditors from getting at the house, preserves the stepped-up cost basis at death, and avoids probate as well. Your house probably represents a large portion of your life’s savings. Any decision should be made only after careful consideration of all of the legal ramifications and how they apply specifically to you.