Planning for Exceptional Children

The truth is one of the hardest things to think about for a parent, when considering an estate plan, is who will take care of my children? It doesn’t matter if you immediately know the answer, or if you have to struggle to identify someone. The real issue is often the very idea of you not being here to experience your children not only grow up, but even transition to adulthood and all of the many experiences and celebrations they will have over the course of their lives. The feeling is often amplified when you are the parent of a child with a disability, or disabilities. You worry about the impact of your absence on them, not only emotionally and mentally, but also what happens to their course of treatment? Will this person, or these people treat them with the love and kindness that you do? Will they regress and be able to recover from your absence? How will they care for themselves when you are no longer here? While you can never fully know the answers to most of your questions there is one you can plan for and feel confident in the answer. With a Supplemental Needs Trust, often called a Special Needs Trust, you can make arrangements for your child or children to inherit all of the resources you have prepared for them in a way that does not also impact their ability to receive things like SSI (Supplemental Security Income), or medicare or medicaid, both often provided by the government when the disability is permanent. The inheritance of even a small amount of income can vastly reduce or even eliminate the amount of benefit that may be available to them. These services are often worth millions, yes I said millions, of dollars. These resources may cover the cost of long term care, or things like ongoing occupational or physical therapy. A supplemental needs trust can be a great estate planning tool to protect the resources you leave them, and the ones you don’t.