Planning For A Child With Special Needs

Published Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at: 7:00 AM EST

The daily demands of caring for a child with autism or another developmental disability are daunting enough without worrying about future care. That may be why, in a recent survey, 62% of parents with disabled children said they hadn’t established a plan for what would happen when the parents were no longer around. Moreover, about half of the surveyed parents said they planned to leave assets directly to the child, and 58% expected to designate the child as a beneficiary. Those decisions could make the child ineligible to receive public assistance, which could be crucial for the child’s long-term welfare.

A better approach may be to create a “special needs trust” that can be funded now or through your will. (The money often comes from life insurance death benefits.) Structured correctly, this irrevocable trust will enable a special needs child to receive public assistance benefits while the trust covers other expenses—including for travel, recreation, and rehabilitation—that aren’t fully paid for by government funds.

If the trust assets are used as a primary means of support, the disabled child may be disqualified from public assistance, just as would happen if the child received a direct bequest. To avoid problems, a special needs trust will have an independent trustee who controls distribution of trust assets but uses the money only to supplement government aid. A provision in the trust will typically prevent the trustee from using assets for “support, maintenance, welfare, and education” of the child.

Keep in mind, however, that laws governing trust language and operation may vary from state to state. In some states, for example, assets that remain in the trust after the disabled child’s death must be used to pay back the government for public assistance benefits. But that provision doesn’t limit the trust’s ability to help a living child.

A special needs trust, like any other estate planning vehicle, needs to be part of an overall estate plan. One wrinkle here is that money you move into this kind of trust doesn’t qualify for the annual gift tax exclusion ($14,000 in 2017) that otherwise limits tax liability on yearly gifts to individuals. Because of restrictions in the trust language of special needs trusts, transfers are classified as gifts of "future interest." That means parents who fund such a trust during their lifetimes will need to use all or part of their $5 million lifetime gift tax exclusion ($5.49 million for 2017). As a result, asset transfers to other children may be more costly.

Good advice from experienced experts can make sure your special needs trust accomplishes its goals without shortchanging other family members. We can work with your attorney to help you establish a trust that protects everyone’s interests.

Source: December 2008 study of 580 households by The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. and Harris Interactive??.

This article was written by a professional financial journalist for G.W. Sherwold and is not intended as legal or investment advice.

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