---
title: "Michigan Medicaid Estate Recovery | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/michigan/medicaid-estate-recovery/
description: "Michigan's probate-only recovery rule, family deferrals and hardship process, and why a Lady Bird deed is central to home planning."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Michigan · Estate Recovery

# Michigan Medicaid Estate Recovery

Last updated 2026-10-20

**Quick answer:** Michigan limits Medicaid estate recovery to assets that pass through probate. The exception: if you got a Long-Term Care Partnership asset disregard, Michigan can pursue recovery against all of your assets.

Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services defines the recoverable estate, for Medicaid purposes, as property and other assets that pass from a deceased Medicaid beneficiary to heirs through probate. That's a meaningfully narrower scope than states with expanded recovery rules.

There is one notable exception: for a beneficiary who received an asset disregard under the Long-Term Care Partnership Program, Michigan can pursue recovery against all of that person's assets, regardless of whether they passed through probate. That exception is exactly why Lady Bird deeds and Partnership-qualified insurance both matter so much to Michigan home planning.

## Sources and official resources

- [MDHHS: Nursing Facility Eligibility](https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/-/media/Project/Websites/mdhhs/Doing-Business-with-MDHHS/Forms-and-Applications/nursing_fac_elig_134653_7.pdf)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full Michigan guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/michigan/)