• It shelters income and resources that might otherwise interfere with eligibility for government programs such as Social Security and Medicaid. 
• A Special Needs Trust can enhance quality of life over and above what the basic benefits programs can do. Simply stated. it maximizes financial resources.

 

 

Considerations concerning Family Assets:

• The cost of long-term care in a nursing home for a person with a head injury can be astronomical. 
• It may be possible through a Guardianship or Power of Attorney or other legal device for the assignment of assets between spouses for the purpose of qualifying for State supported long-term care. 
• Such devices avoid the unpleasant alternatives of either divorce or family bankruptcy in an effort to avoid expending all of the family assets on nursing home care. 
• An attorney can advise you whether such a plan in proper in your situation.

 

 

Estate Planning:

• Parents or spouse should set up a trust in their wills. In a trust, one person (the trustee) administers property for the benefit of another, person (the beneficiary) according to the directions of the person or persons who created the trust. 
• If the trust is properly written, the beneficiary is not considered the owner of the assets and therefore, the State may not collect the assets for care rendered in the past or compel the use of the assets for the cost of future care. 
• Usually, family members are appointed trustees. Certain agencies such as the Foundation for the Handicapped will agree to act as primary trustee or successor to a family trustee.

• If at the time of the injury, there was a trust in existence involving the injured person (the beneficiary), or the beneficiary had executed a power of attorney, these documents should be examined an attorney to determine their effect on the person's future.

• Cash
• CD's
• Mutual Funds
• Retirement Funds
• Life Insurance Policies
• Injury settlements

      Contributions:

• The Trust, not the individual must to be listed as the beneficiary of  policies 401K's or other contributions.

• All the money contributed is after tax
• Anyone can give money to the trust, not just family
• The money does not grow tax deferred
• Money is taken out is taxed at a higher rate