In planning for individuals with disabilities, advisors will find themselves wrestling with the often irreconcilable rules of the tax and public benefit financing systems. Yet there may be some planning options that will allow the best of both worlds.

Much has changed in the emerging area of planning for the disabled. Law schools now routinely offer courses that address the numerous specialized needs of people who are disabled. As a consequence, the number of lawyers focusing on elder law, disability planning, and government benefits planning has increased dramatically.

There are many legal, tax and personal issues to be addressed in establishing the trust's terms; the tax adviser must anticipate the income and estate tax consequences.

Supplemental Needs Trusts, also called a special needs trust, is a trust in the United States that is designed to provide benefits to, and protect the assets of, physically disabled or mentally disabled persons and still allow such persons to be qualified for and receive governmental health care benefits, especially long-term nursing care benefits, under the Medicaid welfare program.

Special Needs Trusts are basically arrangements where funds can be invested for a recipient of SSI or Medicaid without loosing eligibility. The Social Security Administration describes a valid Special Needs Trust as "a trust in which the trustee has full discretion as to the time, purpose and amount of all distributions." If the beneficiary has no discretion over the distributions, the trust is not counted for SSI eligibility.

Since most special needs trusts are established to provide supplementary assistance, they are generally quite small by bank standards. Ideally, it would be nice to have a local bank manage the trust resources, while taking a personal interest in the individual with the disability.

Social Security Program Rules Home Page, it contains the full text of the Social Security Act, as amended, and selected provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Legislative and Regulatory Affairs (ODCLRA) serves as the focal point for all legislative activity in SSA. This page has been designed to provide visitors to our website with accurate, useful, and current information about SSA's legislative program, legislative research, and other matters pertaining to the flow of information between SSA and Congress.

A special needs trust- sometimes called a "supplemental needs trust"- provides for the needs of a disabled person without disqualifying him or her from benefits received from government programs such as Social Security and Medicaid. A special needs trust makes it possible to appoint a trustee to maintain assets and retain or qualify for public assistance benefits.

Should the government continue to subsidize someone who has "money?" On one hand, the standard government programs such as SSI and Medicaid were established to help persons who are elderly or who are disabled and living at the poverty level. On the other hand, government benefit programs are paid for out of tax dollars, and eligible individuals are entitled to receive these benefits.

A special needs trust is created to ensure that beneficiaries who are disabled or mentally ill can enjoy the use of property which is intended to be held for their benefit. In addition to personal planning reasons for such a trust (the person may lack the mental capacity to handle their financial affairs) there may be fiscal advantages to the use of a trust. Such trusts may also avoid beneficiaries losing access to essential government benefits.

A special needs trust allows a person with medical expenses to maintain public benefit by putting away money from a lawsuit settlement into the trust to supplement what public benefits do not cover, such as housing or attendant care.

Supplemental Needs Trust (“SNT”) enables a person with a disability to maintain eligibility for government benefits ‐‐ Medicaid and SSI. The purpose of the SNT is to enhance the quality of life for the disabled person, by permitting the trust to pay for expenses not paid for by Medicaid and/or SSI.

The characterization of income for trusts is the same as the characterization of income for individual taxpayers. Thus, income from interest, rents, and royalties is taxed as ordinary income.

Under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(A), a Disabled Individual’s Trust will not be counted as a Medicaid asset even when it is funded with the applicant’s own assets.

The purpose of the Academy of Special Needs Planners is to assist special needs attorneys in providing the highest quality service and advice to individuals with special needs and to their families. In addition to providing its member attorneys with up-to-date information on legal developments nationwide and a forum for exchanging best practices, the Academy provides information to consumers through this web site and its monthly e-mail newsletter.

Because Special Needs Trusts protect eligibility for public assistance programs such as SSI and Medicaid, they present very special and unique administrative problems. The Center for Special Needs Trust Administration, Inc. (the Center) is a Florida not-for-profit corporation that offers a special solution to this problem by offering specialized administrative services for Special Needs Trusts.

The Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities is a Coalition of national consumer, advocacy, provider and professional organizations headquartered in Washington, D.C. Since 1973, the CCD has advocated on behalf of people of all ages with physical and mental disabilities and their families. CCD has worked to achieve federal legislation and regulations that assure that the 54 million children and adults with disabilities are fully integrated into the mainstream of society.

DRA is a non-profit legal center whose mission is to ensure dignity, equality, and opportunity for people with all types of disabilities throughout the United States and worldwide.

The National Special Needs Network is a coast-to-coast affiliation of independent Special Needs Professionals dedicated to providing the finest and most complete special needs support services in America.

The Special Needs Alliance (SNA) is a national, not for profit organization of attorneys dedicated to the practice of disability and public benefits law. Individuals with disabilities, their families and their advisors rely on the SNA to connect them with nearby attorneys who focus their practices in the disability law arena.

Articles written by attorneys and experts worldwide discussing legal aspects related to Estate Planning including: estate and trust, inheritance law, personal property, probate, wills.

The law of trusts and estates is generally considered the body of law which governs the management of personal affairs and the disposition of property of an individual in anticipation of the event of such person's incapacity or death. Many trusts are created as an alternative to or in conjunction with a will and other elements of estate planning. State law establishes the framework for determining the validity and limits for both.

Personal property law cuts across many of the subjects involved in law. Fundamental issues of possession, rights and obligations are dealt with differently in each jurisdiction. These different rights and obligations are reflected in the laws relating to particular types of property.