The most useful tool available to provide future financial security for persons with disabilities is the trust. A trust can be created by the parents, grandparents, or siblings of a person who is disabled. It is designed to control the distribution of property before or after the death of the creator of the trust and after the death of the individual for whose benefit the trust was created.
Trusts can be very flexible in meeting the needs of the individual, yet specific at the same time.
A properly drafted trust will provide additional opportunities for the individual with a disability without making them ineligible for government benefits or exposing the assets to collection by state agencies who have provided services to the individual. Anyone can create a trust. Most often trusts for individuals with disabilities are created by a parent or other relative. The person who creates the trust decides who the trustee will be and sets guidelines by which the trust will be held and managed. The Trust itself is a legal instrument that splits or separates responsibilities of ownership from the benefits of the asset.