The Dolls, who are approaching retirement, are concerned about what is going to happen to Karen when her parents are gone. We want to provide for our kids but we're not sure how to do that. Nothing is guaranteed. It is estimated that 2.8 percent of American adults have a severe mental illness, and between 1.5 and 3 percent have a developmental disability such as mental retardation.
Many disabled adults live at home with their aging parents.
They may also receive health care coverage under Medicare, Medicaid, or, in Tennessee, TennCare. Special Needs Planning Elder law attorneys, who regularly deal with issues of disability, often counsel aging parents on planning for a disabled adult child. With a supplemental needs trust, parents can set aside funds to be held and administered by, for instance, another child as trustee, for the benefit of the disabled child. The trustee's discretion to make distributions is strictly limited, however, only for needs that are not met by public benefits. Because neither the parent nor the trustee has a legal duty to support the disabled child, the government cannot compel the trustee to make distributions for the child's benefit.