Legally Protect & Financially Provide for Your Child With Special Needs

April is Autism Awareness Month. 

It’s important, for example, to be careful about the way you leave financial resources for your child with special needs so that you don’t inadvertently jeopardize any public assistance or government benefits to which your child might otherwise be entitled to help cover the costs of his or her ongoing healthcare, education, living expenses, and general support.  The way to do this is to establish a Supplemental Needs Trust (also referred to as a Special Needs Trust ) for your child to receive the money you give or leave him or her so that money works specifically to supplement existing and potential future government benefits for your child. 

With a Supplemental Needs Trust you can also help insulate your child’s resources from potential claims by creditors for debts and from lawsuits.  If your child has special needs that are not as readily visible on the surface, as with mental health disorders like dyslexia, sequencing disorder, sensory processing disorder, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, you can also create a special kind of trust to help continue the care for and responsibly provide financially for your child.

You can also choose whom you want to be in charge of managing your child’s money, whom you want to love, nurture, and care for your child on a daily basis, and whom you want to advocate for and manage the appropriate care for your child.  You can provide welcome background information and guidance to each of them to help ensure continuity of quality care for your child with special needs as well as minimize the stress on your other child or children and extended members of your family.