North Dakota Administrative Code › Title 75 - Department of Human Services › Article 75-02 - Economic Assistance › Chapter 75-02-02.1 - Eligibility for Medicaid › Section 75-02-02.1-31 - Trusts

Current through Supplement No. 393, July, 2024
1. A trust is an
				arrangement whereby a person known as the "grantor" or "trustor" gives assets
				to another person known as the "trustee" with instructions to use the assets
				for the benefit of a third person known as the "beneficiary". The assets placed
				in trust are called the "principal" or "corpus". The positions of grantor,
				trustee, and beneficiary occur in all trusts, but it is not uncommon for a
				single trust to involve more than one grantor, trustee, or beneficiary. It is
				also not uncommon for a grantor to establish a trust where the grantor is also
				a beneficiary or where the trustee is also a beneficiary. "Trusts" includes
				escrow accounts, investment accounts, conservatorship accounts, and any other
				legal instruments, devices, or arrangements, whether or not written, managed by
				an individual or entity with fiduciary obligations. A trust may have an effect
				on eligibility whether the applicant is a grantor, trustee, or
				beneficiary.
2. Review of a trust
				as a part of an eligibility determination includes efforts to ascertain the
				intent of the grantor. The grantor has no authority or power to determine
				eligibility or to require a particular outcome in an eligibility determination,
				and a grantor's efforts to do so may be disregarded.
3. Trusts may be categorized in many ways,
				but the revocability of a trust is a fundamental characteristic. A revocable
				trust is a trust that the grantor, or someone acting at the request, direction,
				or influence of the grantor, has the power to revoke, remove from, or otherwise
				end the trust. An irrevocable trust is a trust that may not be revoked in any
				way by the grantor or anyone acting at the request, direction, or influence of
				the grantor. The determination of trust revocability is not based solely on
				trust terms stating the trust is irrevocable. A trust is treated as revocable,
				regardless of its terms, if:
a. The trust
				reserves a power to amend to the grantor, or grants a power to amend to some
				other person, unless the power to amend is limited to authority to terminate
				the trust for impossibility of administration, and the trust also provides for
				distribution of the trust assets to the primary beneficiary, free of
				trust;
b. The grantor and the
				beneficiaries consent to the revocation;
c. The grantor is also the sole beneficiary
				of the trust;
d. The grantor of a
				trust and all trust beneficiaries are part of a Medicaid unit;
e. The grantor is a parent, and beneficiaries
				of the trust include only the grantor, the grantor's spouse, or the grantor's
				minor children;
f. The trust has
				been amended subsequent to its establishment, unless the trust was amended
				under North Dakota Century Code section 59-12-11;
g. The trust provides for termination and
				disbursement to the grantor upon conditions relating to the grantor during the
				grantor's lifetime; or
h. The trust
				provides for revocation or amendment only upon order of a court.