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Special Needs Trusts
Leaving money directly to someone with a disability can affect their access to Medicaid, SSI, and other programs. A Special Needs Trust allows you to provide for them without putting those benefits at risk.
The article explains why disinheriting a child with special needs can create risks and how a Special Needs Trust may preserve Medicaid and SSI eligibility while holding an inheritance.
- Rania Combs
Answers parents' questions about using a special needs trust to supplement a child's care while preserving eligibility for SSI and Medicaid, including trustee, funding, and trust-type decisions.
- Rania Combs
The article explains how the 2016 Special Needs Trust Fairness Act allows mentally competent individuals with disabilities to create first-party special needs trusts for their own benefit while preserving potential Medicaid and SSI eligibility.
- Rania Combs
This article presents ten estate planning tips to help parents of children with special needs protect benefits, coordinate a Special Needs Trust, and plan for future care and decision-making.
- Rania Combs
The article explains how the Special Needs Alliance Guidebook for Special Needs Trustees helps trustees administer trusts, protect benefit eligibility, maintain records, and communicate with beneficiaries and caregivers.
- Rania Combs
This article explains how a Letter of Intent helps future caregivers understand a child with special needs, including medical care, routines, preferences, and long-term support plans.
- Rania Combs
The article explains how a traditional or online Letter of Intent can help parents of children with special needs organize essential care information for future caregivers.
- Rania Combs
A pooled special needs trust is a nonprofit-established trust that manages beneficiaries’ assets in separate sub-accounts while pooling funds for investment and administration.
- Rania Combs
This article explains how first-party and third-party Special Needs Trusts differ in funding, establishment, age limits, Medicaid pay-back requirements, and control of remaining assets.
- Rania Combs
A stand-alone special needs trust can accept gifts for a child while preserving eligibility for means-tested benefits, but a Will is still needed to direct the parent’s assets to the trust at death.
- Rania Combs
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Topics
- Estate Planning122
- Wills62
- Probate and Estate Administration46
- Powers of Attorney46
- Intestacy34
- Gift and Estate Tax32
- Trusts28
- Newsworthy25
- Choosing a Guardian25
- Wacky Wills22
- Odds and Ends17
- The Risk of DIY Planning16
- Special Needs Trusts13
- Transfer on Death Deeds13
- Retirement and End of Life Planning13
- Incapacity11
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