California changed its Medi-Cal rules on January 1, 2026, and most published guidance has not caught up. Michael Holmes is licensed in California and advises families there on paying for long-term care, protecting a home from estate recovery, and putting decision-making authority in place before a crisis forces the issue. Figures below are current for 2026 and change annually.
Paying for Long-Term Care in California
The headline: California reinstated its Medi-Cal asset limit effective January 1, 2026 at $130,000 for one person, plus $65,000 for each additional household member. For two years California had no asset test at all, and a great deal of advice still in circulation says so. That advice is now wrong, and acting on it can cost a family a year of eligibility.
- Asset limit: $130,000 for an individual, $195,000 for a couple.
- Income: no cap. California uses a share-of-cost model — a resident pays gross income less health insurance premiums and a $35 personal needs allowance toward care.
- Lookback: 30 months, not the 60 months that applies almost everywhere else. Transfers made between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025 are excluded entirely, and the lookback effectively runs forward from January 1, 2026.
- Penalty divisor: $14,440 per month, the 2026 statewide average private-pay rate.
- Home equity: California is the only state with no home equity limit — a genuine advantage in California housing markets, and one with an expiration date (see below).
The community spouse protections are federal and apply here as everywhere: a Community Spouse Resource Allowance between $32,532 and $162,660, and a monthly maintenance needs allowance up to $4,066.50.
Estate Recovery in California
California is the most protective of the six states we practice in. For deaths on or after January 1, 2017, recovery is limited to what federal law requires — nursing facility care, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription costs for enrollees 55 and older — and it reaches only assets that pass through probate.
That last point is the whole ballgame. A properly funded revocable living trust, or property held in joint tenancy, sits outside the recoverable estate in California. There is also no recovery against the estate of a surviving spouse, a hardship waiver for a homestead of modest value, and a cap on lien interest. The same trust that protects a California home would fail entirely in Idaho, which is why families with property in both states cannot use one strategy.
One deadline worth marking: federal legislation enacted in 2025 imposes a hard $1,000,000 home equity cap for Medicaid long-term services effective January 1, 2028, and removes the state option to elect a higher limit. California, which currently has no limit at all, is among the twelve states that must come down. For a family holding a long-owned California home, the planning window closes at the end of 2027.
Incapacity Documents That Work in California
California has not adopted the Uniform Power of Attorney Act. Durable powers of attorney operate under the Power of Attorney Law at Probate Code sections 4000 through 4545, with a separate statutory short form at section 4401.
For health care, the instrument is the Advance Health Care Directive under Probate Code Division 4.7, with a statutory form at section 4701. For someone already seriously ill, California also recognizes POLST — Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment — at Probate Code sections 4780 through 4786. A POLST is a medical order that emergency responders follow; an advance directive is a planning document that they do not. Seriously ill clients generally need both.
Guardianship and Conservatorship in California
California uses conservatorship for adults — conservator of the person, conservator of the estate, or both, under Probate Code section 1801. Guardianship in California applies to minors only, which trips up families arriving from states where the words are reversed.
Probate Code section 1800.3(b) requires the court to make an express finding that conservatorship is the least restrictive alternative, and section 1800.3(c) directs it to weigh supported decision-making agreements, powers of attorney, health care surrogate designations and advance directives first. California enacted a supported decision-making statute at Welfare and Institutions Code sections 21000 through 21008, effective January 1, 2023. In practice, a well-drafted power of attorney signed while capacity remains is what keeps a family out of that courtroom.
Talk to a California Elder Law Attorney
Elder law questions arrive on someone else’s schedule — a hospital discharge, a diagnosis, a spouse told to “spend down.” For the multi-state picture, see our elder law overview, and for everything else we handle in the state, our California page. When you are ready, contact the California office or call the number listed there.