A Georgia QIT has exact requirements
A Qualified Income Trust may contain only the applicant's own income, must be irrevocable, must name DCH as remainder beneficiary up to Medicaid paid, cannot be backdated, and must be established in Georgia (DFCS PAMMS §2407).
Georgia's QIT desk guidance describes opening a separate trust account and depositing enough income within the same calendar month to bring remaining countable income below the cap (Georgia DFCS QIT Desk Guide).
For trusts created on or after August 11, 1993 by or for an applicant, DFCS generally treats trust corpus as a countable resource or a transfer subject to penalty unless a properly structured QIT exception applies (DFCS PAMMS §2337).
QIT caution: it cannot be backdated, must be established in Georgia, and must follow Georgia's income-only and remainder-beneficiary rules (
DFCS PAMMS §2407).
Transfers, annuities, and the home need separate review
Georgia uses a 60-month transfer review and a $11,122 monthly penalty divisor effective April 2026, so the funding date and value of an asset transfer matter (DFCS PAMMS §2342; Georgia DFCS Appendix A1).
An annuity must satisfy DFCS conditions including required state remainder-beneficiary status, irrevocability, nonassignability, actuarial soundness, and equal monthly installments to avoid adverse resource or transfer treatment (DFCS PAMMS §2339).
A life-estate deed can trigger the ordinary transfer review, and a new TOD deed should not be assumed to resolve Medicaid recovery because its interaction with Georgia's expanded recovery policy has not been directly addressed in located DFCS policy (DFCS PAMMS §2322; DFCS PAMMS §2398).
Use a coordinated plan
Georgia's income cap, transfer review, QIT rules, annuity rules, and recovery scope can pull in different directions. Compare Florida's long-term-care planning page and use Advance Medicaid Planning for the broader planning framework.
A Georgia elder-law attorney and tax adviser should review a plan before trusts, annuities, deeds, or large transfers are signed.
Not mutually exclusive. Most families combine two or three funding pillars — this one rarely stands alone.
The
Journey Assessment ranks all ten pillars against your specific situation and
recommends the top three.
