Estate Planning

As 2019 drew to a close, Congress passed a spending bill that includes significant changes to retirement savings accounts. For families with special needs members, these changes will have an impact on estate planning.

You may be thinking about setting up a trust. Before you commit to a plan, make sure you understand the differences between the two basic types of trusts: a revocable living trust and an irrevocable trust.

Among the many challenges for families is making sure there will always be enough money to provide lifetime care for special needs children.  One solution is to fund a special needs trust with life insurance.

A good special needs plan involves many key players, including a guardian, a health care proxy, an executor, a trustee and possibly a trust protector.  It’s a good idea to review these selections on a regular basis, because change is inevitable.

When parents ponder how to provide for their child with special needs, they sometimes forget one of the key advantages of a special needs trust. Members of the family and friends can make gifts once it has been set up.

If you have funds in an IRA that will be distributed to a special needs trust upon your death, it is usually best to stretch these distributions out over as long a period as possible for income tax purposes.

According to court documents, legendary singer Aretha Franklin did not have a will when she died, meaning there are no specific protections for a son with special needs.

Administrator-managed prepaid debit cards offer beneficiaries of special needs trusts greater independence, but up till now such cards existed in a regulatory gray area.

Guardianship hearings are typically little more than a formality for parents of children with special needs who cannot live independently once they reach age 18. But this was not the case for Texas parents Christy and Mark Zartler.