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This article examines the unique planning requirements of families with children, grandchildren or other family members (such as parents) with special needs. There are many misconceptions in this area that result in costly mistakes in planning for these special needs beneficiaries. It is therefore incumbent upon us – the client’s advisors – to ensure that [...]
In a private letter ruling recently, the IRS addressed the issue of transferring an inherited IRA into a Special Needs Trust. The law around taxation of inherited IRAs and the interaction with trusts has been unpredictable and fast-moving for several years now.Fortunately, this private letter ruling indicates the direction the IRS is headed on two [...]
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the complete list of U.S. nursing homes that have failed to meet safety and quality standards for care.The list, which identifies 131 “Special Focus Facilities” that require additional oversight, follows the release in November 2007 of a list of 54 such facilities. At that [...]
A New York trial court recently approved a trustee’s petition to reform his deceased father’s trust in order to protect his disabled sister’s Medicaid benefits. In Matter of Newman (2008 NY Slip Op 50127, Jan. 22, 2008). When he died in 1988, William Newman established a trust in his will for his disabled daughter. The [...]
Special Needs Estate Planning focuses on the need to provide for the special needs of our loved ones with disabilities when we are no longer there to organize and advocate on their behalf. It is essential that we start planning now for the coordination of the legal, financial, and care components that will provide for [...]
Supplemental Needs Trusts, also called a special needs trust, is a trust in the United States that is designed to provide benefits to, and protect the assets of, physically disabled or mentally disabled persons and still allow such persons to be qualified for and receive governmental health care benefits, especially long-term nursing care benefits, under [...]
Families with special needs children must exercise extra care in making their estate plans. This is true whether their special needs child is still a minor or now an adult, and particularly so when the child is – or in the foreseeable future will be — receiving needs-based public benefits such as SSI or Medicaid. [...]
There are obviously many important considerations to ponder when designing an estate plan for a beneficiary who has special needs. But the most important issue in the planning process is picking the person or persons who will be in charge of managing the special needs trust. This person is known as the “trustee” and he/she [...]
Consider the attorney’s:Education, Certifications and Memberships e.g. Special Needs Alliance (SNA); National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA); American College of Trust & Estate Counsel (ACTEC); American Bar Association (ABA); and State Bar AssociationsTime/experience in trust, estate, and disability practiceCommunity InvolvementArticles written (commitment to educating the consumer evident?)Presentations made (especially to peers)Educational programs recently attended [...]