What Is A Special Needs Trust Attorney?
There is a saying that parenting is the toughest job you will ever love. If you have a child, then it is one of your greatest goals to give your child the best quality of life that you can offer. This doesn’t change if you are the parent of a child with special needs. However, the steps that you take to achieve this goal may be different and more challenging. If you have a special needs child who will need a lifetime of special care, then you must plan for your child’s quality of life even after you are gone. A Special Needs Trust Attorney can help you do this by creating a special needs trust.
What Is A Special Needs Trust?
A special needs trust, sometimes known as a supplemental needs trust, is a legal tool which ensures that your child will continue to have enough financial resources after you pass. It is important to have a special needs trust so that the financial resources that you leave to your special needs child will not jeopardize his eligibility to receive Social Security, Medicaid, or other certain types of government funding. With the cost of health care, you don’t want to lose Medicaid benefits for your special needs child. Maneuvering through government programs can be a tricky process.
How Does A Special Needs Trust Work?
If you leave an inheritance directly to your special needs child via your Will or Trust, he or she may be disqualified from certain government assistance, and would more likely need to spend down the inheritance in order to re-qualify. A properly drafted special needs trust is meant to avoid the direct inheritance of assets by your special needs child from you. Instead, this trust receives the asset on behalf of your special needs child and then the Trust is administered by a trustee of your choosing, according to statutory guidelines as well as those you can include. With a special needs trust your child can still inherit, but the inheritance won’t cause your child to lose the much needed government benefits. You can rest assured that your child will keep his Medicaid benefits to ensure a continuum of healthcare.
A special needs trust can be incorporated into a will or revocable living trust, or created as a separate document. Either way, a special needs trust is an important tool for the parents of a special needs child to ensure quality of life and care in the future.
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