Special Needs Trusts
Special Needs Trusts - a specialty of San Diego Elder Law Center
You can provide, with the implementation of a Special Needs Trust, for a disabled loved one who is receiving public benefits without jeopardizing their eligibility. Give yourself peace-of-mind knowing that your disabled family member is being cared for the way you wanted.
A Special Needs Trust is created to ensure that beneficiaries who are developmentally disabled or mentally ill can enjoy the use of property which is intended to be held for their benefit. In addition to personal planning reasons for such a trust (the person may lack the mental capacity to handle their financial affairs) there may be fiscal advantages to the use of a trust. Such trusts may also avoid beneficiaries losing access to essential government benefits.
Leaving assets, whether through gift, will or a trust, to a beneficiary receiving means-tested public benefits, will in most cases simply cause them to forfeit their eligibility in the benefits program. In some cases, if the bequest or gift is of sufficient size to more than compensate for a lifetime of benefits, this may be the desired goal. In most cases, however, such a bequest will simply cause a few years of ineligibility until the gifted funds are exhausted.
We handle “first party,” “third party” and “litigation” Special Needs Trusts. Our familiarity with public benefit programs allows us to structure your Special Needs Trust to supplement your loved one’s benefits, rather than replace them. We also provide ongoing services for trustee’s administering Special Needs Trusts. It is important that a special needs trust trustee does not distribute funds in a fashion causing ineligibility of the family member receiving the public benefits. We can help see that they do not fall into any such traps.
Click HERE for the Special Needs Trusts Q&A page
We at San Diego Elder Law Center help Senior Citizens in matters of special needs trusts, conservatorship, estate planning, Medi-Cal, disabilities, power of attorney, probate, and more.
We are in San Diego, California
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Elder Law is the area of the law which impacts the lives of older Americans and their families. Elder law addresses elder care planning issues, including access to appropriate medical and personal care, coordinating private and public resources to finance the cost of care, income assistance benefits, taxation, conservatorship, general estate planning, estate and trust administration issues (e.g. wills, trusts, and probate), counseling and planning for incapacity with medical directives and other alternative decision making documents, as well as for possible long-term care planning concerns, such as home health care, nursing home care, and hospice care.
Philip P. Lindsley, JD, CELA
Certified Elder Law Attorney
(619) 235-4357
Copyright 2007
Website written by Mark Buckles