Certified Medicaid Planner Florida: What They Can and Can't Do

You've been told your parent needs a Certified Medicaid Planner to help navigate Florida's long-term care system. Then someone else says you need an elder law attorney. They cost very different amounts and do very different things, and hiring the wrong one at the wrong time can waste money or leave critical documents unfinished.

What a Certified Medicaid Planner Actually Does

A Certified Medicaid Planner (CMP) is a professional who specializes in the administrative side of Medicaid eligibility. The CMP designation is awarded by the Certified Medicaid Planner Governing Board, which sets education, experience, and examination requirements.

In Florida, a CMP can help families with:

• Asset analysis. Categorizing your parent's resources as countable or exempt—determining which bank accounts, retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and real property count toward the $2,000 limit, and which don't.
• Spend-down strategies. Identifying legitimate ways to reduce countable assets: prepaying burial contracts, paying off debts, making home modifications, or purchasing a replacement vehicle.
• Application coordination. Guiding you through the ACCESS Florida portal, preparing the documentation packet (five years of bank statements, Form CF-ES 2505, CF-ES 2515), and tracking the application through DCF's 45-day processing window.
• QIT management. Explaining how a Qualified Income Trust works, calculating the monthly deposit amounts, and setting up the disbursement ledger.
• Spousal protection planning. Calculating the Community Spouse Resource Allowance (up to $162,660 in 2026) and the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance ($2,705 to $4,066.50).

A CMP typically charges between $2,000 and $7,000 for a comprehensive planning package that covers the analysis, strategy, and application support through approval.

What a CMP Cannot Do in Florida

This is where Florida's rules diverge from what families expect. Under Florida Supreme Court rulings on the unauthorized practice of law (UPL), a Certified Medicaid Planner cannot:

• Draft a Qualified Income Trust. Even though a CMP can explain how a QIT works and manage the monthly ledger, the actual trust document must be drafted by a licensed Florida attorney. The QIT is an irrevocable trust with specific requirements—naming AHCA as the residual beneficiary, obtaining an EIN from the IRS, and establishing the proper disbursement waterfall.
• Prepare a Lady Bird Deed. An enhanced life estate deed is a legal instrument that must be drafted, witnessed, notarized, and recorded in the county where the property sits. Only an attorney can prepare it.
• Draft a Personal Services Contract. If the family wants to pay an adult child for caregiving as a spend-down strategy, the caregiver agreement must be a legally compliant written contract with specific terms regarding services, compensation rates tied to fair market value, and prospective (not retroactive) services.
• Create or modify a Durable Power of Attorney. A DPOA with the Florida § 709.2202 superpowers needed for Medicaid planning (authority to create trusts, make gifts, change beneficiaries) must be prepared by an attorney.

In short: a CMP can tell you what legal tools you need. An attorney is the only person who can create them.

When a CMP Is the Right Call

A CMP makes sense when your parent's situation is financially straightforward—income and assets are close to the eligibility limits, no complex transfer history, no contested family dynamics—and the primary challenge is navigating the bureaucracy.

Scenarios where a CMP earns their fee:

• Your parent's income is above $2,982 but all income sources are standard (Social Security plus one pension). A CMP can walk you through the QIT setup process, though you'll still need an attorney to draft the trust itself.
• Assets are over $2,000 but under $50,000. The spend-down path is clear—prepay burial, pay off the car, settle outstanding bills—and you mainly need someone to organize the paperwork and time the application correctly.
• You want to handle the application yourself but need someone to review your document packet before submission to catch mistakes that cause DCF delays.

When You Need an Elder Law Attorney

An elder law attorney is the right choice when the situation involves legal instruments, contested transfers, or amounts large enough that a mistake creates a penalty period.

Scenarios where you should go directly to an attorney:

• Your parent made financial gifts within the five-year lookback. A $50,000 gift to a grandchild three years ago triggers a penalty of roughly 4.7 months ($50,000 ÷ $10,645). An attorney can evaluate whether the gift can be returned, whether an exception applies, or whether a half-a-loaf strategy can reduce the penalty.
• The family home needs protection. Drafting a Lady Bird Deed or evaluating whether an irrevocable trust makes sense requires an attorney. A CMP can explain the concepts, but you'll be paying twice if you hire a CMP for the analysis and then an attorney for the execution.
• Your parent has lost cognitive capacity. If a DPOA wasn't executed before capacity was lost, the family may need a court-appointed guardianship. This is a legal proceeding that costs $4,000 to $10,000 or more and requires attorney representation.
• There are complex assets. Business interests, rental properties, investment portfolios, or retirement accounts in non-standard configurations (e.g., an inherited IRA that may or may not be in payout status) require legal analysis.

Board-certified elder law attorneys in Florida typically charge $3,000 to $15,000 as a flat fee for comprehensive Medicaid planning, or $300 to $600 per hour for individual services.

The Hybrid Approach

Some Florida families hire both—an attorney to draft the legal documents and a CMP to handle the ongoing application management and DCF follow-up. This can make sense if the attorney charges hourly (you don't want to pay attorney rates for phone calls to DCF), but it adds another professional to coordinate with.

If you're choosing only one, and your situation involves any legal instruments at all (which it almost certainly does if your parent's income exceeds $2,982 and requires a QIT), start with the elder law attorney. Most elder law practices in Florida handle the full scope—legal drafting, asset analysis, application submission, and follow-through—as part of their flat-fee planning package.

The Florida Medicaid Long-Term Care & Asset Protection Guide includes the decision framework for whether your family's situation calls for a CMP, an attorney, or both, along with the complete asset analysis worksheets and QIT ledger templates that reduce the professional hours you're paying for regardless of which path you choose.

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