Third-Party Special Needs Trusts are funded with the assets of someone other than the beneficiary. They are the most common and effective way for a parent to provide for a child who is a disabled person or other disabled loved ones, and they are not subject to the payback provision. Third-Party SNTs are typically established through a Revocable Living Trust or as a Stand-Alone Trust. It can also be established through a Will.
Benefits of a third party special needs trust include:
If you are in the Santa Barbara area, stop by the Santa Barbara Estate Planning and Elder Law firm and meet with one of our special needs planners. This is your life, don’t delay in making this aspect of your estate plan.
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Do you plan to have your special needs child use government assistance in the future? Assets might prevent a person with special needs from being eligible for long-term care if they were acquired due to a litigation award, settlement, gift, or inheritance. This may place undue strain on other family members.
A special needs trust can protect assets from probate and preserve the assets needed to improve the beneficiary’s quality of life while enabling the beneficiary, who has special needs, to continue to be eligible for needs-based public benefits. This legal issue is common for people of a certain age in the Santa Barbara area. A special needs lawyer at Santa Barbara Estate Planning and Elder Law can explain the rules and laws for creating a plan to maintain your benefits.
You have to plan ahead if you want to leave assets or money to a loved one who is a disabled person. If not, you can endanger your loved one’s eligibility for Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Going without government assistance may cripple your family member. You can prevent some of these issues by establishing a “special needs trust” (sometimes known as a “supplemental needs trust”) in your will.
Because SSI immediately qualifies a person for several other government programs, including Medi-Cal benefits, SSI is quite significant. It covers costs for health care, including hospital stays, outpatient care, doctor visits, lab work, X-rays, home health care, and nursing home care, to name a few. Additionally, it covers assistance for substance misuse, community mental health, and institutions for intermediate care for developmentally impaired people.
Contact your special needs trust attorney today and ask about preserving eligibility for government benefits through a special needs trust.
To ensure that the money is going to those in need, Medi-Cal and SSI include restrictions on how much participants can own. The cap on resources for an individual is $2,000 in 2020. Therefore, if a disabled child inherits more than $2,000 after losing a parent, they would no longer qualify for government assistance.
A disabled child can get an inheritance after their parents pass away and continue to receive SSI and Medi-Cal payments by setting up a third-party funded special needs trust. In addition to the essentials covered by Medi-Cal, assets included in the special needs trust may be used for the disabled person’s health, maintenance, education, and assistance in Santa Barbara. An experienced estate planning special needs trust attorney will know exactly what to do to help you.
Schedule a planning session with us, visit us, and let’s talk about your estate plan for your life or your child’s life. Your child with disabilities is in good hands with us. The Santa Barbara Estate Planning and Elder Law Firm will help preserve their benefits and ensure they have a good life after you’re gone.
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My husband and I had a fantastic experience working with Santa Barbara Estate Planning and Elder Law. Julianna Malis was helpful, friendly, knowledgeable and made it easy for us to create our estate plan. Could not recommend them more highly!
Julianna was easy to work with, answered all my questions and delivered my Estate Planning documents on the timeline that we discussed at our first meeting. I plan to use her services in the future.
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