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value of $7,000. Because the boat has a higher equity value, it is disregarded. The automobile does not meet the criteria for exemption and so is a counted asset; count $7,000 in the asset assessment and the asset determination. • All assets designated for burial purposes. This includes burial assets owned by the applicant/member and/or the community spouse for a child(ren). • Any unreasonable amount should be supported by documentation of the burial-related costs or contract.

Do not allow applicants and members to simply state that they are setting aside an unreasonable amount of cash (e.g., $1,000,000) as their burial fund for unspecified funeral expenses. If they can document the funeral expense that they expect to incur, it can be totally exempt regardless of its cost.

For example, ask the member to document that they have arranged to purchase a $100,000 casket or that a funeral home will provide them with a $75,000 funeral along with an itemized listing of the funeral goods and services that will be provided.

This differs from EBD burial policies for non-institutionalized persons and institutionalized persons without a community spouse (see SECTION 16.5 BURIAL ASSETS). • Household goods and personal items, regardless of their value. • All assets not counted in determining EBD Medicaid eligibility. • IRA and work-related retirement benefit plans or individually-owned retirement accounts, such as IRAs or Keoghs owned by an ineligible community spouse (see SECTION 16.11.2 RETIREMENT FUNDS AS ASSETS). 18.4.2 Asset Assessment The IM agency must make an assessment of the total countable assets of the couple at one of the following, whichever is earlier: • The beginning of the person’s first continuous period of institutionalization of 30 days or more • The date the person was first determined functionally eligible for HCBWs Complete an asset assessment when a person applies, even if he or she had one done in the past, to get the most current asset share. If a member was not married on the first date of institutionalization or waivers request, apply the policy from the point he or she is married. If he or she has remarried since the first date of institutionalization or waivers request, apply the policy from the date he or she married his or her current spouse. The IM agency should inform the person for whom an assessment is being made what documentation is required. He or she must document ownership interest in and the value of any available assets the couple had at the time of his or her first period of continuous institutionalization. The same documentation procedures are used as when an application is filed (see SECTION 20.1 VERIFICATION INTRODUCTION). 18.4.3 Calculate the Community Spouse Asset Share The community spouse asset share is the amount of countable assets greater than $2,000 that the community spouse, the institutionalized person, or both, can possess at the time the institutionalized person applies for Medicaid.