Frequently, in my guardianship/conservatorship practice, I have the task of helping clients with the creation of Special Needs Trusts (SNTs) for the benefit of persons with disabilities. Such trusts help preserve an inheritance or financial windfall for an individual receiving governmental welfare entitlements, such as Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid. The Omnibus Budgetary Rehabilitation Act of 1993 (OBRA ‘93) profoundly redefined the concept of the Special Needs Trust, and its inter-workings with welfare entitlement programs.

Special Needs Trusts serve to raise the very quality of life of welfare entitlement recipients who might otherwise be doomed to a far more meager existence as dictated by these programs’ income and resource caps. Not only would some of life’s more basic amenities be denied, but more critically, essential services would simply not be met; such as dental care and other types of medical care not covered under Medicaid, and which the recipient could never afford, but for the resources available in the Special Needs Trust. As long as the trustee is able to pay for these goods and services directly to third party venders, the reduction of the SSI recipient’s monthly SSI payment will not be reduced beyond a set maximum value. Hence, the recipient’s valuable Medicaid coverage will not be lost.

I am available to help people with special needs establish these Special Needs Trusts. Please call me to dicusss your situation.