Estate Planning for Families with a Family Member with Special Needs.

For most families, estate planning is a way to insure that their assets are passed along to the people most dear to them.  However, one in ten families has a family member with special needs.  For these families, estate planning takes on an additional, and more critical layer of planning.  The estate plan must be carefully drafted to insure that the special needs family member’s current governmental benefits are preserved.  Likewise, the estate plan must look to the future when the family includes a minor child with special needs.

distributions under a typical living trust could be deemed a resource resulting in the loss of governmental benefits.  This would put the special needs family member in a position of having to pay for benefits which would otherwise be provided by the government.  The special need family member would then be a worse position had they never received any distribution under the trust.

A carefully drafted special needs trust could preserve the distribution to the special needs family member, to be used to supplement his or her needs, without jeopardizing governmental benefits.  For a consultation about special needs trust, please contact me.