How to Set Up a Miller Trust in New Mexico: Step by Step
New Mexico does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form. To meet its requirements, an attorney (or, where permitted, you) drafts the trust to satisfy HCA's own published policy, names a trustee, opens a dedicated trust bank account, and funds it with the applicant's income in the same calendar month you want coverage to begin. The trust diverts income above New Mexico's $2,982/month long-term-care Medicaid cap (effective January 2026) so the applicant qualifies. For complex estates, consult a New Mexico-licensed elder-law attorney. This guide is informational only and is not legal advice — we explain what HCA's policy requires; we do not draft the trust or provide sample trust language.
New Mexico does not publish a fill-in Miller Trust form, so the trust is drafted — by an attorney, or by you where permitted — to meet New Mexico Health Care Authority (HCA) -- the Medical Assistance Division (MAD) sets Medicaid eligibility policy; the Income Support Division (ISD) makes eligibility determinations and is the applicant's point of contact through the local ISD field office. HCA was created July 1, 2024 by merging the former Human Services Department (HSD) with several other state programs; MAD and ISD continue as HCA divisions.'s own published requirements. Here is the full sequence, with the HCA fact behind each step.
-
Confirm the applicant's income is over the New Mexico cap
A Qualified Income Trust only helps when monthly countable income exceeds New Mexico's long-term-care Medicaid limit — $2,982/month single (effective January 2026). If income is under the cap, a trust usually is not needed.
-
Get the required-provisions checklist
New Mexico does not publish a fill-in QIT form. HCA's own published policy (8.281.510.11(C) NMAC ("Recognized Medicaid Trusts" -- "Income Diversion Trusts"), within Title 8, Chapter 281, Part 510 ("Trust Standards"); cross-referenced by 8.281.510.7 NMAC (definitions), 8.281.510.16 NMAC (documentation/submission), 8.281.510.18 NMAC (non-compliance), and 8.281.510.19 NMAC (amendments)) instead lists exactly what a compliant trust must contain — the checklist tells you what to bring to an attorney or verify in a draft.
-
Have the trust drafted
New Mexico case law draws a similar line to most states we cover: State Bar of New Mexico v. Guardian Abstract & Title Co., 91 N.M. 434, 575 P.2d 943 (1978), held that filling in blanks on an existing, attorney-drafted form is not the unauthorized practice of law, but exercising legal judgment -- choosing among competing instruments, drafting original document language, or advising on legal effect -- is. Because HCA publishes no fill-in Income Diversion Trust form, drafting a compliant trust from the requirements below means producing an original legal document from scratch, which falls on the attorney side of that line for most people. This guide never drafts or reviews your trust language -- it tells you what New Mexico's regulation requires the finished document to contain, so an attorney engagement is efficient and so you can check what they draft against the same list.
-
Name a trustee
New Mexico's Income Diversion Trust regulation, 8.281.510.11(C) NMAC, does not itself name who may or may not serve as trustee.
-
Open the dedicated trust bank account
Open a dedicated bank account titled to the trust once it is signed. Branches commonly hesitate to open this account type, so know what to say before you go.
-
Fund the trust in the same calendar month
Deposit enough of the applicant's income into the trust account to bring remaining countable income below $2,982 — in the same calendar month you want coverage to start. HCA does not back-date, so the month you fund is the earliest month eligibility can begin.
-
Distribute monthly and keep records
Each month the trustee pays out only the allowed items and keeps records. Staying inside HCA's rules each month is what keeps benefits from being pulled.
The two steps families get stuck on are opening the bank account in New Mexico and funding the trust before the calendar month closes — see how long setting up a New Mexico Miller Trust takes for the timing rules.
What your New Mexico trust must contain
New Mexico does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form. New Mexico's Health Care Authority (HCA) publishes no fill-in Income Diversion Trust instrument -- the only web-findable candidate document (a 2011 "overview" from a legal-aid nonprofit, not a state agency) is not an official form and is no longer even live. The governing rule, 8.281.510.11(C) NMAC ("Trust Standards" -- Recognized Medicaid Trusts -- Income Diversion Trusts), part of a longer Part 510 that also covers special needs trusts and non-profit pooled trusts, sets out in prose what a compliant Income Diversion Trust must do. These trusts are sometimes called "Maxwell v. Heim income diversion trusts" in New Mexico, after the 1993 litigation settlement that established the mechanism -- trusts executed on or after August 11, 1993 no longer require court approval. The checklist below is drawn directly from that regulation, read in full from the primary source, so you or your attorney can draft -- or verify a draft against -- a trust that satisfies what New Mexico requires.
Before you go to the New Mexico bank
Most wasted trips are a bank-procedure problem, not a trust problem. This free one-pager has the questions to ask on the phone before you drive to a branch — emailed now. We'll also send 4 short follow-ups over the next 3 weeks (why most denials are paperwork not eligibility, the trustee role, when to call an attorney) — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.