Special needs planning involves parents or caregivers who are interested in ensuring quality of life, advocacy and services to a child or individual with special needs. The planning itself is two-fold: First, parents and caregivers will want to be sure that they can use their own assets to provide resources and services and to ensure that such resources are appropriately handled after death. Second, for individuals with special needs, inheritances, like other resources, can have an adverse impact on needs-based or financially-based public benefits. Therefore, special needs planning also incorporates planning for those types of benefits as well.
A properly drafted special needs plan has two primary goals: (1) preservation of resources and (2) ensuring quality of life. The foundation of such planning includes a Will or Revocable Trust, a Special Needs Trust, and in some cases, Guardianship.
If you do not have a Will, Wisconsin Statutes will determine the beneficiaries who receive your property (the Laws of Intestacy). If you have a child with special needs who is receiving public benefits, you may not want that child to receive your property directly. Instead, you can set up a Special Needs Trust in your Will for your child with special needs ensuring that public benefits will remain intact after your death. If you have been court appointed as legal guardian for your adult child, you can also nominate a successor guardian in your Will.
As an alternative to your Will, you can execute a Revocable Trust, which is a trust that provides for distribution of your assets upon death. Unlike a Will, if the Revocable Trust is properly funded, it will allow you to avoid probate procedures. You can also provide for the distribution of assets to a Special Needs Trust within your Revocable Trust.
A Special Needs Trust is a trust arrangement whereby income and assets are preserved and used for the beneficiary without interfering with or jeopardizing the beneficiary’s eligibility for Medicaid, SSI, and other needs-based government benefits. Assets are held and managed by a Trustee, who distributes the assets in accordance with the instructions in the Trust document.
A Special Needs Trust created under a Will or Revocable Trust is called a third-party trust. A third-party trust is one created and funded with assets owned by someone other than the beneficiary. A third-party trust can also be created and funded prior to death and is called a living trust, or inter vivos trust. Under 42 USC 1396p (d)(4)(A), third-party trusts are not subject to a Medicaid lien.
All Special Needs Trusts provide that funds held in the trust are not to be placed under the control of the beneficiary, and most provide specifically that disbursements from the trust are not to be made to the beneficiary but are to be in the form of payments to vendors. The Special Needs Trust must also be irrevocable. The trust also provides what is to be done with any funds remaining after the death of the beneficiary. Unlike Special Needs Trusts established with a disabled individual’s assets (self-settled trusts), a third-party trust contains no requirement to pay back benefits paid to the beneficiary during his or her lifetime. It is important not to commingle the assets of a third-party trust with a self-settled trust because of this distinction.
Special Needs Trusts involve complex estate planning concepts. It is important that you work with someone who is familiar with different types of Special Needs Trusts, the various options for establishing such trusts, and public benefits planning to ensure that your assets are properly managed and that your loved one maintains necessary benefits following your death.