Estate Planning for a Special Needs Child Can Present Unique Challenges

Parents often face many challenges when preparing an estate plan, as they must consider how best to provide for their children after they are gone.

New York, NY (Law Firm Newswire) July 16, 2010 Parents of a child with special needs, though, are faced with several unique challenges. They will want to develop a plan that safeguards the quality of the child’s life, supplementing such government programs as SSI and Medicaid, without jeopardizing the child’s eligibility for such benefits.

Parents of a child with special needs child often struggle with how to treat all their children equitably.

This can be difficult, since a child with special needs child generally requires a great deal of financial support. As such, parents must also consider how to make sure there are sufficient funds available at their death to care for the child with special needs.

Finally, parents of a child with special needs must also consider the best way to provide for the proper management and distribution of an inheritance for that child, through a testamentary or inter-vivos third-party supplemental needs trust. A testamentary trust is one created under the terms of the parent’s will, while an inter-vivos trust is created by the parents during their lifetime.

Parents do not have to face these challenges alone. An experienced special needs attorney can help parents work through each of these issues.

Bernard Krooks is a New York Elder Law and New York Estate Planning lawyer with offices in White Plains, Fishkill, and New York, New York. To learn more, visit Littmankrooks.com.

Learn more about New York estate planning and New York elder law at http://www.littmankrooks.com.

Littman Krooks, LLP
655 Third Avenue, 20th Floor
New York, New York 10017
Call: (212) 490-2020

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