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Special Needs

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Dying Without an Estate Plan with a Special Needs Child

Q: How can parents dying without an estate plan impact a special needs child?

Estate administration can be difficult in cases where people die without a will.

Even when people have been told for 30 years by a trusted estate planning attorney all the reasons why they should have a will (and maybe even trust), and even when they expressed an understanding of the need for these legal documents, people still often never get around to it. That’s what Aretha Franklin’s family attorney reportedly said was the reason the “Queen of Soul” died without a will.


Read more . . .


Monday, May 15, 2017

Financial Steps for Special Needs Planning


Q: What kind of financial planning should I have if I have a special needs child?

While estate planning is important for all parents to safeguard the futures of their children, special needs planning is vitally important for the parents of special needs children.
Read more . . .


Saturday, April 15, 2017

ABLE Accounts for the Disabled


Can a disabled person and their family save money without jeopardizing their government disability benefits?

Special needs planning in Illinois just became a bit easier for some disabled people and their families.

Until recently, government benefit programs for the disabled such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) have limited the recipient’s total personal assets to $2000. With such a low total assets cap, and with the devastating penalty of suspending government benefits for exceeding that $2000 limit, disabled recipients and their families weren’t able to save money for a rainy day or any of the disabled person’s supplemental needs.
Read more . . .


Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Special Needs Trusts for People Without Special Needs?

Would it surprise you if your professional advisor recommended “special needs” planning when you don’t have any special needs children or grandchildren? It’s important to think about what might happen to your loved ones after you’re gone, that would impact your estate plan. We try to plan for unforeseen financial circumstances, and thus build into our plans some creditor protections for our beneficiaries whenever possible. The same type of preventive planning can be done to protect loved ones in a tragedy that leads to physical and/or mental disability. Consider what happened with the estate plan of John and Elizabeth.

John and Elizabeth had three children: John Jr., Michelle, and Jerry. Their estate planning attorney prepared a living trust that passed their estate in equal shares to the children in trust. At John and Elizabeth's death, the estate, which was estimated at $2,100,000 after taxes and expenses, would be divided among the children   $700,000 to each of their trusts, which they were free to spend as needed.

The trusts for the children provide that if John Jr., Michelle, or Jerry passes away, anything that’s left in their trust will be distributed to their own children. All three of John and Elizabeth's children had children of their own, and everyone in the extended family was in good health.

One day John, Elizabeth, and Jerry were traveling together and were involved in a terrible automobile accident. John and Elizabeth were killed, and Jerry was injured so badly that he was no longer able to care for himself.

The person named as his guardian immediately sought help for Jerry's medical expenses from Medicaid or other means-based government programs. They were shocked to learn that Jerry’s entire inheritance of $700,000 would have to be spent on medical expenses before Medicaid would assist him. As an alternative, the guardian learned that the assets could be placed in a special kind of trust to be used for Jerry's benefit. But at Jerry's death, that trust must reimburse Medicaid for what was spent for care during his life. The result in either case is that little or nothing will be left for Jerry’s children.

This result could have been avoided by creating a special needs trust. A special needs trust is specially designed to hold the inheritance of a beneficiary, and to be used for needs above and beyond those covered by government programs. These trusts contain instructions that allow the Trustee to meet the needs of the beneficiary, but prohibit the Trustee from providing for those needs if already covered by Medicaid or other programs. It also prohibits the Trustee from using the assets to reimburse any government program after the beneficiary’s death.

John and Elizabeth could have included instructions in their living trust that if one of their children were disabled, their share of the inheritance would pass to a special needs trust which could be used at the discretion of the Trustee. The result in Jerry’s case would be that his needs would be met during his lifetime, and anything left over at the time of Jerry's death could be passed on to his children.




Thomas J. Hansen, LTD. assists clients in Park Ridge, Cook County, IL as well as Niles, Des Plaines, Glenview, Norridge, and Rosemont.



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