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Home / Special Needs Planning / What Is a Supplemental Needs Trust?

What Is a Supplemental Needs Trust?

Special Needs Planning, Trusts

You have a number of choices to make when you are planning your estate. There are various different vehicles of asset transfer that can be utilized. When you act in an informed manner, you can be certain that all of your loved ones are provided for appropriately. With this in mind, we would like to look at the value of supplemental needs trusts in this post.

Protecting Government Benefits

If you have someone with a disability on your inheritance list, you must take measured steps. A high percentage of people with special needs are enrolled in the Medi-Cal program. Medi-Cal is a government health insurance program that is jointly administered by the federal government along with each individual state.

Our firm practices in the state of California. The Medi-Cal program is called Medi-Cal in California.

Medi-Cal is a program that is available to people who can demonstrate significant financial need. There are income and asset parameters. Once you are deemed eligible for Medi-Cal, that eligibility is not necessarily permanent. If your financial status was to change, your eligibility could be suspended.

This is why you must be careful about leaving an inheritance to someone who is enrolled in the Medi-Cal program. It should be noted that many people who have disabilities are receiving income from the Supplemental Security Income program. This is also a need-based benefit.

You could choose to create a supplemental needs trust to leave an inheritance for the benefit of a person with a disability who is enrolled in the Medi-Cal program. With this type of trust, you name a trustee to administer the trust and you fund the trust with monetary assets. The trustee will manage the investments that are made by the trust.

The beneficiary of the supplemental needs trust is going to be the heir who is enrolled in the Medi-Cal program. We would like to emphasize the fact that the beneficiary cannot directly handle assets that have been conveyed into the trust.

Medi-Cal and Supplemental Security Income do not necessarily pay for all possible needs. The trustee can use the assets that have been placed into the trust to satisfy the supplemental needs of the beneficiary. These would be needs that are not met by Medi-Cal and Supplemental Security Income.

Special Needs Planning Report

We have prepared a highly informative report that examines the subject of special needs planning. This particular report looks at special needs planning for the benefit of minor children.

This valuable  report is available to our readers free of charge. If you would like to obtain some in-depth information about special needs planning, download your copy of the report.

You can obtain access through this link: Free Special Needs Planning Report.

We also invite you to register for one of our free Special Needs Trust Workshops.  For more information and to register, follow this link:  Free Seminars and Workshops.

 

Litherland, Kennedy & Associates, APC, Attorneys at Law
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