Excerpt from Windels Marx: (click for entire article)
I was recently re-visiting an article about estate planning for families with special needs children that appeared in October 2008 in the Wall Street Journal entitled "An Estate Plan Built for Special Needs." The article, like so many others, highlights the statistics: that more than 41 million Americans, or almost 15% of Americans age 5 or over have some type of disability, according to 2007 census data. With so many disabled children, whether the disability is a learning disability, an autistic spectrum disorder, mental retardation, cerebral palsy or some other disability, what do parents do to be sure their children are taken care of after they are gone? What do parents do to lessen their anxiety about the future of their children? How do parents make sure that their special needs children will not become a financial burden on their other children or relatives?
Fortunately, parents can take some simple steps to make sure that their special needs children have both financial and personal security after their deaths. As a trusts and estates attorney who specializes in this area of the law, I often prepare "Supplemental Needs Trusts" for families with children with special needs. These trusts are designed to provide for "extras" for the special needs child, while still allowing him or her to qualify for available government benefits, such as Medicaid and SSI. For instance, the trust can pay for medical or dental care not covered by Medicaid, entertainment, vacations and so forth. The trusts can be created in the Wills of the parents or grandparents, in which case they come into existence after the parent or grandparent passes away.
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