It is ideal to begin planning the moment you are aware that your child may have any form of permanent disability. Early planning is vital because you need to save enough money for two generations, you and your child. The specifics of your plan will depend on many factors, including the life expectancy of you and your child, your child’s future earning potential, and your child’s housing and care needs.

The Down Syndrome Association of Central Florida’s Step Up for Down Syndrome (Photo credit: ~Rich Johnson~)

The first step in planning for a special needs child is to calculate a monthly budget of the child’s costs. Then, extrapolate the costs over the child’s expected lifetime using a rational rate of inflation. Consider this amount the amount of money you will have to amass and save for your child. After you have determined what this figure is, determine what types of financial mechanisms, such as investments and insurance policies, you can utilize in order to amass this amount. Once you have done this preliminary research, speak with an estate planning attorney about crafting an estate plan that will meet your child’s expected needs.

The post Estate Planning for Special Needs Children: How to Get Started appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

One tip the article provided for providing for the long-term care of a special needs child is to set up a special needs trust. These trusts are particularly helpful if the child is under the age of 65, and the parent(s) anticipate requiring long-term care. Through a special needs trust, the parents are able to qualify for Medi-Cal coverage through sheltering their assets in a trust for their special needs child.

It is also important to consider whether the inheritance you plan to provide your special-needs child with does not disqualify them from their needed coverage. To avoid this, some parents choose to leave all their assets to their other children, who can then provide necessary funds and care to the special needs child. A decision to do this should be made carefully, however, to avoid serious problems. For example, if the child who inherited the special needs child’s share were to get divorced or pass away, the money meant for the special needs child could end up with the spouse or children of the spouse who inherited it.

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Structuring an estate plan with a special needs child as a beneficiary takes special consideration. Because a direct inheritance could disrupt that child’s public benefits, “some parents simply leave another child all their assets in their will. If there are three children, they might leave two-thirds to the child who lives closest to the one with special needs.”

Unfortunately this particular strategy is rife with possible dangers. The heir may be tempted to use his special needs sibling’s money for his own purposes, or could decide he’s simply tired of being a caretaker. Even worse, the heir could pass away unexpectedly, in which case the entire inheritance would go to the heir’s spouse or children, with nothing left for the special needs child.

The article gives a number of suggestions for safe and reliable ways to leave your special needs child an inheritance, including leaving property to your child in a Qualified Personal Residence Trust, setting up a housing collective, and the tried-and-true option of a Special Needs Trust. But we know that each family is going to have different needs and goals, and there isn’t one solution that will work across the board.

If you have a special needs child your very best course of action is to contact a knowledgeable and experienced attorney to help you understand your options and choose the one that will best protect your child.

The post Leaving an Inheritance to a Special Needs Child appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

Such comprehensive planning, with no real end in sight, can be a huge challenge, as Larry and Patti Altman, parents of a son with spina bifida, well know. As this article by Kara McGuire portrays, the Altmans have been diligent about planning for their own future, the future of their special needs son Josh, and the futures of their other two sons Zach and Max. Although they have always had to take the initiative, the Altmans have not been without help; including the help of an attorney in creating a special needs trust to ensure that Josh’s ability to receive government assistance will never be jeopardized.

The Altmans taken all of the right steps, but the planning and thinking ahead still continues, and may continue indefinitely. Says Altman, “Parents of special-needs children think about their mortality more than parents that don’t have a special-needs child because you do so much for that child and you wonder ‘Who would do this stuff if I’m not here?’ “

The post Plan Ahead to Secure the Future of Your Special Needs Child appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

Special needs trusts are not yet well-known, but they are gaining attention among attorneys, financial advisors, and in the mainstream media. In fact, we recently found this very helpful article about special needs trusts on an online news source. The article explains that a special needs trust can help by paying for things to improve quality of life that the government will not generally pay for; things such as cultural events, travel to stay in touch with family, computer and media equipment and books.

The article mentions parents setting up special needs trusts for their young children, but a special needs trust does not have to be so limited. It is true that it must be established by a parent or grandparent, but a special needs trust is not limited to just minor children. It can be established for an adult of any age, and anybody can contribute to the trust.

A special needs trust can mean the difference between living an enriched life and barely getting by. If you have someone in your life with special needs, inquire about a special needs trust as a way to leave an inheritance, it could make a world of difference.

The post The Best Way to Help the Special People in Your Life appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

What if there was a way that you could not only keep a record of all details, regimens and instructions, but also an easy way to update and communicate that information to any and all caregivers when anything changed? And would it be too much to ask to have this record somehow linked to all the latest research, resources and best-practice recommendations? Apparently it is not too much to ask, because this is exactly what the new online service, CareGiver360®, claims to provide.

CareGiver360® is the brainchild of Ken Ziel, father of a special needs son, who worried about what kind of life his son would have if anything were to happen to Ken. After much research, Ken started CareGiver360®, “an easy to use, interactive Web service that lets you create a secure Personalized Care Guide to help you manage the care of your loved one. CareGiver360® provides a wealth of caregiving resources through its searchable online library. You can draw upon this valuable resource to supplement your personal experience to create a customized, comprehensive care guide.”

CareGiver360® is a fairly new tool, but it sounds so good one has to wonder why nobody came up with the idea before. We would love to provide our clients and readers with helpful reviews, so if you’ve used the service please leave a comment letting us know how it worked for you. And we ought to mention that the service isn’t free, but at just under $10/month it’s probably not going to break the bank either.

The post New Website May Help Caregivers Breathe a Sigh of Relief appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

Many of our clients have children and grandchildren with special needs, and know that a basic estate plan does not have what it takes to protect and provide for those special needs after our clients have gone. If you have a child or a grandchild you would like to provide for, please contact our office to find out which may be the best tool for your family.

The post Providing for the Special Heroes in Your Life appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

This is something that parents of severely autistic children do need to worry about and plan for. What do you do when your child needs you as much at 50 as she did at 5?

The article “ADVICE: Planning for an Autistic Child’s Adult Years” focuses on that very question, and provides help and answers to parents who are trying to make a smooth transition from caring for an autistic child to caring for an autistic adult. This author makes a number of excellent financial recommendations, including signing up for government benefits, looking into long term care insurance, and creating a Special Needs Trust.

“If you have significant assets, consult a financial planner or estate lawyer who can help you set up a Supplemental Needs or Special Needs Trust that will specifically address how your child can benefit from your bequeathal without compromising any governmental aid.”

This sentence is probably the best advice you can get, but the phrase “significant assets” is a little misleading. Special Needs or Supplemental Needs trusts are not just for the wealthy. If you have a house you have “significant assets”. If you have life insurance policies for yourself or your spouse you have “significant assets”. When you’re talking about government benefits, “significant assets” is any amount that will make your child ineligible for those benefits, which can be as little as $2,000!

We know you want to provide for your special needs child at any age. Call our office and let us help.

The post Autistic Adults: When Your Child Needs You as Much at 50 as She Did at 5 appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

There are many contributing factors to this shocking figure, but one of the main reasons the article gives is that “people with serious mental illness tend to be low on the socioeconomic totem pole and don’t often get the best available health care.”

The real tragedy in this scenario is that it doesn’t have to be this way. With the right planning—either by the individual in question or by loving friends and family—someone with a serious mental illness could still have access to the best medical care. And a special needs trust complete with provisions for an advocate or an advisory committee will provide the beneficiary with further protection; someone to ensure that his or her needs are being met, and any ailments are taken seriously by medical professionals.

With enough education and planning, perhaps we can improve the situations of those with mental illnesses… and change that shocking mortality rate as well.

The post Are There No Prisons? Are There No Workhouses? appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.

After Sarah Palin’s speech in Pennsylvania on October 24, there seems to be some confusion over how each candidate’s tax policies would harm or benefit people with special needs. CNN has published a helpful article which briefly discusses the proposed tax plans of both Barack Obama and John McCain, specifically how each would impact a person or family with a special needs trust.

For all the political maneuvering going on at this time, the fact that the concerns of special needs families are being discussed at all is promising. Especially considering that the discussion is taking place in a forum that is likely to reach so many people. Because what is just as concerning as the effects of taxes on special needs trust owners is the huge numbers of people out there with special needs who don’t have trusts all, and whose futures and finances are unprotected.

We hope that this very public discussion will bring awareness to those people who need it, whose families and children would benefit from the protection of a special needs trust.  You can’t worry about the effects of taxes on your trust unless you have a trust.  And once you have a special needs trust you have an advantage and protection that can’t be matched.

The post Special Needs Awareness Is A Benefit To All appeared first on Desert Law Group | Kimberly T. Lee.