WAC 182-512-0500 SSI related medical -- Burial funds, contracts and spaces excluded as resources.

1.  For the purposes of this section, burial funds are funds set aside and clearly designated solely for burial and related expenses and kept separate from all other resources not intended for burial.  These include: 

a.  Revocable burial contracts;

b.  Revocable burial trusts;

c.  Installment contracts for purchase of a burial space on which payments are still owing;

d.  Other revocable burial arrangements.  The designation is effective the first day of the month in which the person intended the funds to be set aside for burial. 

2.  The following burial funds are excluded as resources for the client and spouse up to fifteen hundred dollars each when set aside solely for the expenses of burial or cremation and expenses related to the burial or cremation, and the funds are either:

a.  An installment contract for purchase of a burial space that is not yet paid in full; or

b.  In an revocable burial contract, burial trust, cash accounts, or other financial instrument with a definite cash value.  

3.  Interest earned in burial funds and appreciation in the value of excluded burial arrangements in subsection (2)(a) and (b) above, are excluded from resources and are not counted as income if left to accumulate and become part of the separate burial fund.  

4.  The fifteen hundred dollar exclusion for burial funds described in subsection (2) above is reduced by:

a.  The face value of life insurance with CSV excluded in WAC 388-475-0450; and

b.  Amounts in an irrevocable burial trust, or other irrevocable arrangement available to meet burial expenses, or burial space purchase agreement installment contracts on which money is still owing.  If these reductions bring the balance of the available exclusion to zero, no additional funds can be excluded as burial funds.  

5.  An irrevocable burial account, burial trust, or other irrevocable burial arrangement, set aside solely for burial and related expenses is not considered a resource.  The amount set aside must be reasonably related to the anticipated death related expenses in order to be excluded. 

6.  A client's burial funds are no longer excluded when they are mixed with other resources that are not related to burial. 

7.  When excluded burial funds are spent for other purposes, the spent amount is added to other countable resources and any amount exceeding the resource limit is considered available income on the first of the month it is used.  The amount remaining in the burial fund remains excluded. 

8.  Burial space and accessories for the client and any member of the client's immediate family described in subsection (9) of this section are excluded.  Burial space and accessories include:

a.  Conventional gravesites;

b.  Crypts, niches, and Mausoleums;

c.  Urns, caskets and other repositories customarily used for the remains of deceased persons;

d.  Necessary and reasonable improvements to the burial space including, but not limited to:

i.  Vaults and burial containers;

ii.  Headstones, markers and plaques;

iii.  Arrangements for the opening and closing of the gravesite; and

iv.  Contracts for care and maintenance of the gravesite. 

e.  A burial space purchase agreement that is currently paid for and owned by the client is also defined as a burial space.  The entire value of the purchase agreement is excluded; as well as any interest accrued, which is left to accumulate as part of the value of the agreement.  The value of this agreement does not reduce the amount of burial fund exclusion available to the client.

9.  Immediate family, for the purposes of subsection (8) of this section includes the client's:

a.  Spouse;

b.  Parents and adoptive parents;

c.  Minor and adult children, including adoptive and stepchildren;

d.  Siblings (brothers and sisters), including adoptive and stepsiblings;

e.  Spouses of any of the above. 

None of the family members listed above need to be dependent on or living with the client, to be considered immediate family members.