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West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Chapter 5

West Virginia Income Maintenance Manual Page 53 Chapter 5 Assets

• Trust investments made on behalf of the trust do not directly involve or assist any business or corporation under the control, direction, influence of an AG member; and • The funds held in irrevocable trust are either: o Established from the AG's own funds, if the trustee uses the funds solely to make investments on behalf of the trust or to pay education or medical expenses of any person named by the AG creating the trust, or o Established from non-AG funds by a non-AG member. When withdrawals are made from a trust fund, see Chapter 4 for policy about treatment of the withdrawal as income. Dividends that the AG has the option of either receiving as income or reinvesting in the trust are not assets. See Chapter 4 for treatment of dividends. A client cannot be required to petition the court for the use of the trust. In addition, this fund cannot be presumed to be available to the client. WV WORKS, AFDC-Related and SSI Medicaid Groups: For SSI Medicaid, AFDC-Related and SSI Medicaid Groups, M-WIN, CDCS, PAC, QDWI, QMB, SLIMB, and QI-1, this section applies to any trust established on or after August 11, 1993. For trusts prior to August 11, 1993, see Appendix B of this chapter. • For WV WORKS, this item applies to any trust established on or after January 1, 1997. Trusts established prior to January 1, 1997, are not counted as assets. Generally, all trusts are counted as assets, regardless of their purpose, restrictions on distributions, or on the trustee's discretion to distribute the funds, whether acted on or not. There are exceptions to this general rule and there is a difference in the treatment of trusts established by a will and those not established by a will. In addition, sometimes revocable and irrevocable trusts are treated differently. Details are found below. If a trust is made up of the client's resources and those of one or more other persons, only the amount established with the client's resources is counted. For purposes of this item, the terms "individual" or "client" include: • The client • His spouse • Any person, including a court or administrative body, with legal authority to act in place of, or on behalf of, the individual or the individual's spouse • Any person, including a court or administrative body, acting at the direction of, or upon the request of, the individual or the individual's spouse