Special Needs Attorney
Joseph McHugh, our Special Needs Trust Attorney has over 30 years of experience in helping families in the planning and care for their loved ones with special needs that need public benefits.
Special Needs Planning Services are available for disabled persons that need to maintain their Public Benefits (so that they qualify or KEEP Medi-CAL & SSI) if they are to receive inheritance money that could disqualify them for being over assets. This gives disabled children or adults to have a better quality of life with the money in a Special Needs Trust.
Current Living Trust with Special Needs Trust:
A little-known fact in special needs planning… We also can create a revocable living trust that has a Special Needs Trust buried in this living trust. It will say that when the grantor dies, the share of the estate will go to the disabled loved one and be held in a special needs trust. There is no need to set up a totally different Special Needs Trust.
This is a cost-effective planning tool to protecting disabled children once you are gone. You are paying for one family trust…not a Living Trust and a Special Needs Trust. In many cases we deal with families that do not have extra money to set up a separate Special Needs Trust but want to protect the disabled child after they are gone.
Putting the Special Needs Trust language in a living trust can be done for parents, grandparents or anyone else that wants to leave money to the disabled child. If you already have a trust, we can “Restate” the specific existing trust to add the legal language to ensure the special needs trust will be created during trust administration after the death of the grantor. Many of our families were so grateful that we offered this option.
These are two types of Special Needs Trusts in California:
1st Party Special Needs Trusts for persons under the age of 65 years old:
New laws allow a person to set up their own Special Needs Trust to put an inheritance or settlement into, which will prevent loss of Medi-CAL.
3rd Party Special Needs Trusts:
Trusts are set up by parents with special needs children to get inheritance or gifts and remain on Medi-CAL and other government benefits.
For more information on how we can help call us today at (818) 241-4238
Special Needs Planning Services
A Special Needs Trust can provide for the supplement needs of a person with a disability without losing or reducing their benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medi-Cal, In-Home Support Services (IHSS), and HUD housing assistance. Assets in an SNT won’t be counted toward the SSI, Medi-Cal and IHSS asset limit of $2000 for an individual.
After a thorough review of the best strategies for your special needs situation and our fees for the scope of work, we will structure a comprehensive plan created specifically to give you (or your loved one) the best care possible, while protecting your assets and government benefits.
Our Law Firm is centrally located in Burbank (Southern California); however, our Elder Law Lawyer, Joe McHugh and his wife Kathy McHugh, Legal Triage Director serve many clients throughout the state using Zoom, emails and FedEx to accomplish the setup of each trust.
Many clients never have to leave their home and just need a mobile notary to come to your home to notarize the trust documents. Then the trustee goes to the bank and sets up the trust account for the funds to be deposited. Then the funds are available for the trustee to begin to pay for things for the beneficiary.
We are very proud of the many personal and professional referrals and internet ratings we receive from happy clients and colleagues. Please contact our office today to schedule a free phone consultation.
Call for consultation: (818) 241-4238. Or you can submit this form to request a consultation.