---
title: "Rhode Island Lady Bird Deed | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/rhode-island/lady-bird-deed/
description: "Rhode Island’s active Medicaid rule specifically restricts enhanced-life-estate deeds created after July 1, 2014."
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.
---
Rhode Island · Asset Protection Tool

# Rhode Island Lady Bird Deed

Last updated 2026-10-20

**Quick answer:** Rhode Island's Medicaid rule addresses Lady Bird (enhanced life estate) deeds directly. A Lady Bird deed on your primary residence created and recorded on or after July 1, 2014 makes you ineligible for long-term care Medicaid unless you convey the remainder back to yourself; deeds executed before that date are grandfathered.

An enhanced life-estate deed — widely known as a Lady Bird deed — lets the person holding the life estate keep the power to sell, mortgage, revoke, amend, or otherwise dispose of the property while they're still alive. Rhode Island's active LTSS eligibility rule calls this structure out by name, which is unusual; most states never mention the strategy explicitly in their regulations, and that direct treatment matters far more here than a generic claim that the deed 'avoids probate.'

For any enhanced life-estate deed created, executed, and recorded on or after July 1, 2014, the rule makes an LTSS applicant or beneficiary who holds their primary residence this way ineligible — unless they exercise their retained power to convey the entire outstanding remainder interest back to themselves, using a properly created, executed, and recorded warranty or quitclaim deed, and end up holding the property free and clear of that arrangement. Deeds executed before July 1, 2014, however, are explicitly grandfathered and won't cause denial on that basis alone.

## Sources and official resources

- [Rhode Island EOHHS: Long-Term Services and Supports](https://eohhs.ri.gov/consumer/health-care/long-term-services-and-supports)
- [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)
- [CMS: 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards](https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/cib04272026.pdf)

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

[← Back to the full Rhode Island guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/rhode-island/)