Special Needs Trusts

The risks of designing your own special needs plan, without the guidance of a professional, far outweigh the potential rewards of cutting costs. Here’s what’s at stake.

An exception to the SECURE Act's otherwise stringent rules about distributions from inherited IRAs potentially changes longstanding advice about leaving retirement funds to a special needs trust. ...

A recent felony charge against the mother of a special needs child in Minnesota offers a good reason why professional oversight of a special needs trust may be a good idea.  ...

Some special needs trusts may be eligible for considerable tax savings. Here's how.

Special Needs 101

If your child has special needs, a standard estate plan -- will, trust, power of attorney, and health care proxy -- may not be adequate for your family. Here are three must-have documents...

Special Needs 101

Third-party special needs trusts, as the name implies, are funded with assets that never belonged to the trust beneficiary, and they provide several advantages over the other two types of special needs trusts.

Special Needs 101

Because beneficiaries of programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid must be quite poor to qualify, they can lose their benefits when they come into an inheritance, receive money in their own names from an accident settlement, or merely...

Special Needs 101

A special needs trust is set up for a person with special needs to supplement any benefits the person with special needs may receive from government programs. A properly drafted special needs trust will allow the beneficiary to receive government...

Special Needs 101

One of the most commonly asked questions about special needs trusts is what can the trusts pay for without affecting the beneficiary's public assistance?...

Special Needs 101