What Assets Are Exempt for Medicaid in Florida? The Full List, Item by Item

Florida's Department of Children and Families (DCF) splits everything you own into two groups. Exempt (or "excluded") assets are ignored. Countable assets are added up and compared with the limit. For nursing home Medicaid (the Institutional Care Program), PACE and the home and community-based waiver, a single applicant can have $2,000. The limit is $5,000 if the applicant's income is within the lower MEDS-AD limit (ESS 1640.0205).

DCF values countable property at what you could sell it for, minus what you owe on it. For real estate, that means fair market value from a knowledgeable source, not just the tax assessment (ESS 1640.0581).

For married couples, DCF counts both spouses' assets together, then sets aside the Community Spouse Resource Allowance of up to $162,660 for the spouse at home. Our married couples guide explains that calculation. Everything below is about which items stay out of the count in the first place.

DCF excludes the home "regardless of its value" if it's the principal place of residence. Only one home can be excluded. The rule isn't limited to houses: condominiums, cooperative apartments, mobile homes, motor homes and houseboats can all qualify, along with the land the home sits on (ESS 1640.0534).

There's a separate equity test for long-term care. If your share of the home's equity is over $752,000 in 2026, you can't get nursing home or home-care Medicaid unless a spouse, a child under 21 or a blind or disabled child lives in the home (ESS 1640.0307.04). A home stays excluded during a nursing home stay if you state an intent to return. Our guide to selling a home on Medicaid covers that rule and what happens to sale proceeds.

One automobile is excluded regardless of its value or use. If there's more than one, DCF excludes whichever has the most equity. Any other vehicle counts at its average trade-in value minus any loan (ESS 1640.0591).

Household goods and personal effects are excluded "regardless of their dollar value" (ESS 1640.0565.01). That covers:

furniture, appliances, televisions, computers, carpets, dishes and cookware; clothing, personal care items, and jewelry you wear, including wedding and engagement rings; books, musical instruments, hobby materials and pets; items of cultural or religious significance, and items needed because of a disability.

The exception is property held for its value or as an investment. Gems, collectibles, and jewelry you don't wear and that has no family meaning are countable. DCF's own example is a woman who spent a settlement on $3,000 of jewelry to spend down, and the jewelry was counted (ESS 1640.0565.01). If a spouse lives at home, all personal property is excluded for the spouse applying for institutional or home-care Medicaid (ESS 1640.0563).

Florida gives several separate burial exclusions, and they stack:

Burial funds. You and your spouse may each set aside up to $2,500, kept separate from other money and designated for burial. That amount isn't reduced by an excluded life insurance policy or an irrevocable burial contract (ESS 1640.0514). Irrevocable prepaid funeral contracts aren't counted (ESS 1640.0509). Burial spaces for you, your spouse or immediate family (children, stepchildren, siblings, parents and their spouses) are excluded. That includes caskets, headstones and opening and closing the grave (ESS 1640.0516). Life insurance. If the total face value of all policies on one person is $2,500 or less, none of the cash value counts. Above that, all of the cash surrender value counts. Term and burial insurance with no cash value are left out (ESS 1640.0554).

Real estate that isn't your home and isn't a life estate generally counts (ESS 1640.0578). Florida's manual has two related exclusions:

Property essential to self-support. You can exclude the fair market value of income-producing property "that is essential to self-support" (ESS 1640.0544). Income consistent with value. Any income-producing property, including equipment, can be excluded if it "annually produces income consistent with its fair market value," even if only seasonally. The manual names rental and vacation homes, farmland and work equipment (ESS 1640.0548).

DCF may accept your statement that the return is reasonable. If it's questionable, it asks for verification from a knowledgeable source. Property that earns less than a reasonable return counts in full. A temporary drop from something like a fire or a hurricane can be excused for up to 18 months after the end of that tax year (ESS 1640.0549). The manual doesn't set a percentage, so keep leases, the rent ledger, the expenses and a recent value estimate.

Keep in mind that the rent itself counts as income, which can affect the $2,982 income limit and the monthly amount owed to a nursing home.

DCF's manual has no passage on timeshares. Under the general rules, a timeshare that isn't rented out at a fair return is non-home property, counted at what it would sell for minus any debt (ESS 1640.0578 and 1640.0581). Many timeshares have little resale value, so get a written estimate from a knowledgeable source.

Property you can't sell easily can still help. Real estate is excluded temporarily while you make a good faith effort to sell it at fair market value, for example with a broker listing, as long as you haven't turned down a reasonable offer (ESS 1640.0537).

A life estate, such as the interest you keep under a Lady Bird deed, isn't counted as an asset (ESS 1640.0551). See our Lady Bird deed guide.

If you're eligible for regular payments from an IRA, pension or similar plan, the payments are income and the account isn't a countable asset. If you can't receive payments, the available balance counts (ESS 1640.0505.04). In Florida practice, every IRA can get this payout-status treatment. Our IRA and 401(k) guide explains how that works.

Federal law excludes a few more items for a limited time (ESS 1640.0593):

back-payment lump sums from SSI or Social Security, for 9 months after receipt, if kept separate; federal tax refunds, for 12 months; federal disaster assistance and comparable state or local aid.

Changing countable money into exempt property at fair value, such as repairing the home, replacing the car or buying a funeral contract, is generally allowable. Giving money away isn't (ESS 1640.0609.05).