Special Needs Planning

"Your child deserves to live their best life: not only to be secure in the necessities, but to be free to pursue their unique interests and passions in a way that brings joy and fulfillment."

A Bright Future

Do you have a plan for your family’s future?

Families with special needs children face particular obstacles when planning for the future. Your child deserves to live their best life: not only to be secure in the necessities, but to be free to pursue their unique interests and passions in a way that brings joy and fulfillment. Striving for your child’s bright future is what any parent does, but for special needs children many tough planning decisions must be made amid a complicated and often-changing landscape of laws. It can feel overwhelming and leave you uncertain about what’s next.

Nicole understands these challenges. She brings over 25 years of experience to her law practice and is a member of the Academy of Special Needs Planners. With Nicole as your guide, you’ll:

  • Ensure that your loved one’s financial needs are met, by creating the most helpful trusts and other accounts in order to minimize tax burdens and protect government program benefits.
  • Lay out which living arrangements, occupational activities, and medical care directives will best help your loved one to live their most fulfilling life.
  • Make sure that the right people are entrusted with guardianship, power of attorney, healthcare proxy, and other important decision-making powers once you are no longer able to make those determinations.
  • Receive ongoing personalized attention to make sure that your plan keeps up with any changes in regulations or your circumstances.

The path to a happier and more secure future starts with proactive life planning, instead of leaving things up to the state later on. Schedule a call now, and let Nicole help you transform uncertainty into peace of mind.

Estate Planning Areas

As a caregiver of a child with special needs, establishing comprehensive legal and financial frameworks isn’t just about securing your child’s future: it’s also about protecting your own well-being. When thoughtful planning structures and appropriate resources are in place, the resulting peace of mind significantly reduces your stress levels. This improvement directly enhances your quality of life and, by extension, strengthens your capacity to provide attentive, consistent care for your child both now and in the years ahead.

A cornerstone of effective planning involves designating a guardian—and multiple alternates—who will make decisions for your child if you become unable to do so. Without these explicit designations, courts will step in to appoint guardians according to legal standards that may not align with your child’s specific needs and preferences. Beyond guardianship, it’s crucial to recognize that a simple will often falls short of providing adequate protection. Leaving assets directly to your child or another caregiver creates vulnerability to creditors or taxation, and can disrupt eligibility for essential government benefits. Instead, specialized vehicles like Special Needs Trusts or ABLE accounts offer more robust protection while preserving benefit eligibility.

Nicole appreciates that thorough planning requires a multidimensional approach. Working with our office and financial planners will help ensure that your insurance coverage, investment strategies, and budgeting approaches are optimized for your family’s particular circumstances. Simultaneously, navigating the complex landscape of government programs—including SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, and potentially Section 8 Housing—requires specialized knowledge to maximize available support. Perhaps most subtly but critically important, caregivers should understand how their own retirement and benefit decisions  might impact their child’s eligibility and support systems. Just as airline safety demonstrations instruct you to secure your own oxygen mask before helping others, caregivers must address their own estate planning needs—directing inheritances to properly structured trusts rather than directly to their child and coordinating with extended family members who may be including your child in their estate plans—to create the best possible care arrangements to help your child live the most fulfilling life.

For many families, the most useful financial structure to establish is a Special Needs Trust (SNT). This account allows a special needs individual to preserve and grow assets such as gifts or an inheritance, maintaining their financial security and enhancing their quality of life without compromising eligibility for government benefits. The flexibility and protection offered by an SNT make it particularly valuable for long-term planning, as it can be tailored to address the specific needs and circumstances of the beneficiary throughout their lifetime, with no maximum balance limit to worry about. A third-party SNT is established and funded by family members or others for the benefit of the person with special needs, while a first-party SNT holds the beneficiary’s own assets, such as those received from a legal settlement or an inheritance that was initially left directly to the individual.

When establishing an SNT, you’ll need to appoint trustees who will manage the assets and make distributions. Initially, you may serve as the primary trustee yourself, but successor trustees should also be designated to take over when you are no longer able to fulfill the role. Some families also choose to appoint co-trustees, often financial or legal professionals who can handle complex compliance requirements and distribution decisions in exchange for a fee. SNT funds are protected from government reclamation after the special needs individual’s passing and instead may be left to a designated remainder beneficiary, ensuring that the family’s hard work and generosity continues to benefit loved ones for generations.

An Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account can also be useful, as it may cover a wider range of expenses than an SNT allows, including housing and basic living expenses. Its growth and distributions are tax-free, and it can be funded by both the beneficiary and other parties. However, an individual’s ABLE account may only reach a balance of $100,000 before affecting eligibility for some government programs. It also may have a maximum allowable balance as set by state law (currently $400,000 in Massachusetts). An ABLE account also cannot be created for anyone whose disability was established after age 26. Lastly, in most states (including Massachusetts), when the individual passes away the remaining funds in the account will go to Medicaid, toward full reimbursement of any services received from the program.

Young siblings of children with special needs may experience a range of conflicting feelings, as they witness their parents devoting significant time, energy, and resources to their special needs brother or sister. Love and protectiveness may live alongside occasional resentment, guilt, or feelings of being overlooked. The experience can be both challenging and enriching, as illustrated by the remarkable story of this teenager who created a comic book series inspired by her life with her special needs brother.

As children grow and families transition into planning for the future, clarity becomes essential for everyone’s well-being. While parents might consider the seemingly straightforward option of leaving their entire estate to one child, with the understanding they’ll care for their special needs sibling, this approach often creates unintended complications. Without proper legal structures, such arrangements can jeopardize government benefits, create tax burdens, expose assets to creditors, or strain family relationships during difficult times. Instead, thoughtful estate planning that clearly defines responsibilities and establishes appropriate financial vehicles can provide peace of mind for the entire family. By establishing these boundaries and supports early, siblings of individuals with special needs can approach their adult lives with confidence, knowing exactly what role they’ll play in their sibling’s future care, without sacrificing their own life goals and financial security.