Special Needs Trusts

Leaving a child with special needs out of your estate plan is almost always the wrong way to help the child.

A law passed in 2014 allows people with disabilities who became disabled before they turned 26 to set aside up to $18,000 a year (as of 2024) in tax-free savings accounts without affecting their eligibility for government benefits.  ...

An estimated 20 percent of military-connected children have special needs. Under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, military members can designate their child's special needs trust as the beneficiary of their Survivor Benefit Plan.

Here are seven questions to ask before accepting appointment as a trustee of a special needs trust.

Unfortunately, too many trustees of special needs trusts or those who oversee funds for people with special needs don't even know that they have a duty to account for the funds they manage, let alone perform that duty correctly.

Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) introduced the Special Needs Trust Fairness Act of 2013, a bill that would allow people with disabilities to create first-party special needs trusts to hold their assets without interfering with their access to Supplemental Security Income...

In a recent New York case, an institutional trustee has been ordered to pay back a special needs trust almost $180,000 for its failure to make certain that the beneficiary qualified for available public benefits.

If you are taking on the responsibility of serving as the trustee of a special needs trust you will need a "go-to" reference guide that you can refer to. For most trustees, the 2020 edition of Managing a Special Needs Trust:...

When your family has more than one child with special needs, do you need more than one special needs trust? Most families with multiple children with special needs are stretched financially. Is this affordable? ...