Special needs trusts
Subtitle: protect your child's financial future
By: Kevin Urbatsch & Michele Fuller
Contributors: Fuller, Michele, author
Edition: 6th edition.
Publisher: NOLO
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 284
ISBN-13: 9781413321425
Subjects: Personal Finance; Estate planning; Children with disabilities; Trusts and trustees; Parents of children with disabilities; Legal status, laws
Description: Create a trust that provides financial security for a loved one with special needs without jeopardizing government benefits. The sixth edition provides eligibility requirements for government benefits, current resources, and a new perspective on when to make a trust independently and when to seek an attorney's help.
Notes: "Sixth edition -- April 2015"--Title page verso.

Previous edition by Stephen Elias & Kevin Urbatsch, 2013.

Includes index.
Table of contents: title: Your legal companion for special needs trusts. 1. Planning for a loved one with special needs : Why you may want to make a special needs trust ; How a special needs trust can help ; Who can benefit from a special needs trust ; Who can set up a special needs trust ; Alternatives to a special needs trust ; How a special needs trust works: nuts and bolts; title: 2. Who can benefit from a special needs trust : Someone with a permanent or severe disability who is unable to earn a living ; Someone who may get better ; Someone who may need a special needs trust later ; Someone who is eligible for Medicare or SSDI ; Someone who needs assistance managing an inheritance; title: 3. How trust funds can (and cannot) be used : SSI income and resource limits: an overview ; Assets in the special needs trust ; What special needs trust funds can be used for ; Gifts of cash ; Payments for food or shelter ; Gifts of food or shelter from other sources ; What the trustee should not pay for: countable assets; title: 4. Getting money into a special needs trust : What assets to put into a special needs trust ; How much money will your loved one need? ; How to leave money to a special needs trust ; Don't commingle the beneficiary's property with trust property; title: 5. The trustee's job : The trustee's basic duties ; Working with a guardian or conservator ; Investing trust property ; Spending trust money for the beneficiary ; Managing a remainder beneficiary's property ; Preserving eligibility for SSI and Medicaid ; Paying taxes ; Going to court ; Letter to trustee; title: 6. Choosing trustees : An overview of your options ; Signing up for a pooled trust ; Picking the ideal trustee ; Naming the initial trustee ; Naming successor trustees ; Naming cotrustees ; Naming a professional or corporate trustee ; Using a trust protector or trust advisory committee; title: 7. Joining a pooled trust : An overview of pooled trusts ; Can you use a pooled trust? ; How pooled trusts work ; Joining a pooled trust ; What happens when the trust ends; title: 8. Creating your special needs trust : Drafting the trust document ; Making the trust legal and effective ; Keeping the special needs trust up to date ; Sample special needs trust; title: 9. Finalizing and funding your special needs trust : Making your trust legal ; Taxes ; Opening the trust's deposit account ; Incorporating the trust into your estate plan; title: 10. Where to get more help : Lawyers ; Paralegals ; Certified financial planners ; SSA and Medicaid personnel ; Keeping up to date ; Books; title: Appendixes. A. Pooled trusts; title: B. Letter to trustee : Managing a special needs trust ; Documenting the authority of successor trustees; title: C. Sample beneficiary information letter; title: D. Using the eForms : Using the RTFs ; List of forms.