Tennessee planning starts with a hard number: TennCare's current LTSS materials set a 2026 income cap of $2,982 a month alongside a one-person countable-resource cap of $2,000. Anyone whose income exceeds that cap may still qualify by using a Qualifying Income Trust, which is why Tennessee planning has to treat income with the same care as assets.
A valid TennCare QIT isn't an informal arrangement — it has real structural requirements. The trust has to be irrevocable, has to name only Tennessee and the individual as beneficiaries, and has to include a Tennessee payback provision covering whatever remains in the trust up to the amount of medical assistance TennCare paid. Combined with the state's daily rather than purely monthly transfer-penalty calculation, these requirements make Tennessee planning noticeably more structured than a simple spend-down.