Santa Clarita and Los Angeles Estate Planning and Living Trusts Attorney Robert Mansour

Special Needs Trusts

..............................................................................................................

A Special Needs Trust is a special trust developed to manage resources while maintaining the individual's eligibility for public assistance benefits. If someone receiving public benefits inherits money, they can lose those public benefits. Instead, money can flow into the special needs trust and won't count against the recipient. In some cases, this trust is also called a "Supplemental Needs Trust."

While government agencies recognize special needs trusts, they have imposed some very stringent rules and regulations upon them. One wrong word or phrase can make the difference between an inheritance that really benefits the person with a disability and one that causes the person to lose access to a wide range of needed services and assistance.

A Special Needs Trust:

is established by the family (persons other than the person with the disability);
is managed by a trustee (and successor trustees) other than the person with the disability;
gives the trustee the absolute discretion to provide whatever assistance is required;
should never give the person with the disability more income or resources than permitted by the government;
must be used for supplementary purposes only; it should add to the things provided by the government benefit program, not supplant (replace) them;
defines what it means by supplementary/special needs in general terms, as well as in specific terms related to the unique needs of the person with the disability;
determines who should receive the remainder (what is left over) of the trust after the individual with the disability dies;
protects the trust against creditors or government agencies trying to obtain funds to pay for debts of the person or the family.