Special Needs Trusts continue to be Vital for People with Disabilities
The term “special needs trust” is used to refer to a trust that’s for benefit of a person with disabilities who depends on means-tested public benefits that have income limits or resource/asset limits. Sometimes these are “first party trusts” — created by the disabled person (over age 18) or his parent, grandparent, or guardian with court permission, or by a...
Adopting a child? Don’t forget to update your Will and estate plan!
The adoption of a child is an event filled with expectation, planning, longing, and finally, the excitement of completing the court proceeding that legalizes the adoption. So many things start to happen that it’s easy to lose sight of the need to protect the child in case of a tragedy. The way to do that is by preparing a Last Will and Testament that includes provisions for a Guardian as...
Ideas for transition plan for orphaned adult children with intellectual disabilities
There was a time when people who had developmental intellectual disabilities such as Down Syndrome rarely lived past their 20’s. With medical progress, many of these individuals will be blessed with a reasonably normal full life span. This presents major challenges for their parents or guardians, for the child could outlive the parent and lose that critical source of familiar lifestyle...