A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) is a type of irrevocable trust that can help protect assets from being counted towards an individual's Medicaid eligibility requirements. A Medicaid asset protection trust can be a useful planning tool to preserve assets from long-term care costs and to avoid probate. A Medicaid asset protection trust may be appropriate for someone who does not qualify for long-term care insurance or who does not want to purchase long-term care insurance and pay an expensive premium indefinitely. A Medicaid asset protection trust is a vehicle that can hold assets that a person wants to protect from long term care costs outside of their legal ownership.