Special Needs Trusts: Plans and Considerations
Answers For Elders
Thursday, January 16, 2025 - 15 minutes
Elder law attorney Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk more about special needs trusts, comparing first party special needs trusts and third party special needs trusts.
Andrea provides an example of a third party special needs trust: "Let's say I am a parent of a disabled child, and my disabled child does not have assets. Maybe they're on Medicaid, maybe I support them, but they don't have their own money. I might draft a will, and in my will give my two healthy kids their distribution outright, and then for my disabled child, I in my will might create a special needs trust, using my money for that disabled child because that money never belonged to that disabled child. It was my money and I'm putting it in a trust for that child. That would allow that child to continue accessing Medicaid, continue accessing long term care, continuing accessing Social Security without having to spend that money down.
"Now, that's one use of the special needs trusts. But as an elder law attorney, we most frequently use them when we have a married couple, and sometimes we even use them when they're both healthy, but we almost always use them if we have a married couple, and one spouse is incapacitated."
Learn more:
* Andrea Lee: https://www.waltar.com/andrealee/
* Legacy Estate Planning: https://www.waltar.com/
* Legacy Estate Planning podcasts: https://answersforelders.com/tag/legacy-estate-planning/
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