Ruder Ware's Elder Law Team Recognizes National Special Needs Law Month - Part 2
Have you heard the terms “special” needs trust and “supplemental” needs trust and wondered what the difference is? The simple answer is that there’s no difference. Whether supplemental or special, these trusts serve the...more
Trusts serve a variety of tax, asset protection and estate planning purposes for families, and over the years different types of trusts have evolved to best serve families’ planning needs and objectives. Each type of trust...more
Individuals with a disability or special needs (hereafter, the “individual”) frequently have a team of people providing them the care and assistance they require. For families managing this care team, there is an...more
Choosing the right person to serve as trustee of a special needs trust (SNT) is a key task when creating such a trust. It may also prove to be one of the most challenging. Trustees are responsible for the following: ...more
For individuals with disabilities, an inheritance or settlement can jeopardize a their government benefits, such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). A special needs trust (SNT) can help the individual remain...more
People often assume that if their estate isn’t taxable, they don’t need to have an estate plan. In 2023, a Massachusetts estate tax return must be filed if the value of the deceased person’s gross estate exceeds $1 million. A...more
On January 30, 2023, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an opinion in In re Eva Marie Hanson Living Trust addressing the ability of an attorney-in-fact to amend a revocable trust on behalf of an incapacitated trust...more
In a recent Michigan Court of Appeals case, In re Special Needs Trust for the benefit of Talonda Moss, Docket No 357836, 2022 WL 2760235 (Mich Ct App Jul 14 2022), the court ruled on whether a trust created for a disabled...more
If you have a child or another loved one with special needs, it’s only natural to worry about their future. How can you make sure their financial needs are taken care of without jeopardizing their public assistance payments?...more
A family with a disabled child faces difficult planning challenges. For many years, the most effective estate and financial planning tool for parents of a disabled child was a special needs trust (SNT). This trust type...more
One of the most important decisions a special needs trust's donor (the person who supplies the funds for the trust) makes is the choice of a trustee for the trust. A trustee typically manages the day-to-day operations of the...more
By their very nature, special needs trusts (SNTs) are usually designed to terminate, or at least radically change, when the trust's primary beneficiary dies. But terminating a special needs trust is not as simple as merely...more
You have completed and executed your plan for your special needs child. Everyone you’ve selected to serve—your guardian, your trustee, your health care proxy, your executor, and possibly a trust protector as well—has signed...more
If you are in the process of setting up a special needs trust, you must appoint a trustee. This is one of the most important decisions you’ll make about the trust. The trustee must have the necessary expertise to manage the...more
Parents want their children to be taken care of after they die. But children with disabilities have increased financial and care needs, so ensuring their long-term welfare can be tricky. Proper planning by parents is...more
For some people with disabilities, homeownership may present a uniquely empowering opportunity. But for many others, purchasing a home through a special needs trust may be in the beneficiary’s best interests. Homeownership...more
What do chocolate cake, purple hair dye, Lorrie Morgan, and Alexa have in common? On first or even second glance, most of you would find nothing that these random things have in common, unless you know a gentleman named Doug....more
Choosing the right person to serve as trustee of a special needs trust is one of the most important and difficult issues in creating the trust. A trustee typically manages the day-to-day operations of the trust, often making...more
The beneficiary of a special needs trust can never control or access trust funds – that is the job of the trustee. A common fear among beneficiaries or their families is that the trustee may not do what’s in the beneficiary’s...more
It is common for a parent to want to be named as trustee of a special needs trust benefitting her child, especially when the parent is the one creating or funding the trust. There are many reasons why this makes sense. It...more
Estate planning for families who have children with special needs is similar to estate planning for families who do not have special needs children. From an estate tax perspective, the considerations do not differ. The key,...more
When serving as the trustee of a special needs trust, it is crucial to be careful when making distributions for the benefit of the trust beneficiary. This is particularly true if the beneficiary receives Supplemental...more
President Obama just signed a new law that allows First Party Special Needs Trusts to be established by mentally competent individuals for their own benefit. This is a major “fix” to the current law which only allows First...more
Trustees of special needs trusts have a duty to properly manage the funds in their care. However, most trustees, especially non-professional ones, are not sophisticated investors and they should not be directly managing the...more
If you are considering taking on the responsibility of serving as the trustee of a special needs trust, you will probably have questions about the trustee's role. Trustees of special needs trusts have many important...more