Jul 8, 2011 Posted by Jolene on Jul 8, 2011 in Adult Child Issues, Featured Articles | 1 comment

Five Facts About Special Needs Trusts

Writing a last will and testament may not at the top of your parenting to do list. But if you’re the parent of a child with special needs, it should be. That fact became increasingly clear as I researched my new book Different Dream Parenting.

The Importance of a Special Needs Trust

In fact, their importance became so clear that one of the chapters in the new book addresses the issue. But Different Dream Parenting doesn’t come out until October 1, 2011. And some families need the information today. So for now, check out this article from the online version of the Dedham Transcript, published in Needham, Massachussets.

Five Special Needs Trust Facts

Here are the five facts about special needs trusts fleshed out in the article by Suzanne R. Sayward:

1. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid are needs-based governmental benefits.
2. Receipt of assets by an SSI or Medicaid beneficiary can cause a loss of those benefits.
3. A parent can leave assets in trust for the benefit of a child who receives SSI and Medicaid.
4. A Special Needs Trust funded with assets owned by the person with disabilities is a ‘self-settled’ Special Needs Trust.
5. A self-settled Special Needs Trust must include a pay-back provision; a third party Special Needs Trust need not include a pay-back provision.

To read the entire article, go to www.dailynewstranscript.com/opinions.

How About You?

Have you created a special needs trust for your child? Do you have advice for other parents as they create one for their child, too? If so, leave a comment. Your experience could benefit others.

Thanks,
Jolene

 

One Response to “Five Facts About Special Needs Trusts”

1. Nancy Woleslagle says:

   July 9, 2011 at 1:33 pm

   Yes, we have just finished creating a special needs trust and a family trust. My advice find a lawyer that specializes in this area. It is worth the money to protect your children and their benefits. Another piece of advice, word the document so that it will cover additional children. You may decide to have more or adopt. That way you do not have to create and pay for another trust. The are very lengthy documents.
   We also created a family trust because we could not save money for our other “normal” children or ourselves and still receive SSI/Medicaid. It can work the same way for as the special needs trust. You can also continue to add more money to either kind of trust.
   The same lawyer handled our wills. This can be helpful because they know all the details of the trust and can make sure the documents compliment each other should something happen to both my husband and I.
   It is a relatively easy process and we have not spent more than 8 hours working on it including the time with the lawyer.