Contact Walk-In Wills today for help with will and trust creation, probate, long-term care planning, and other essential estate planning needs.
If you have a loved one with special needs, you probably have quite a few questions about the future. For instance, how will your family member care for themselves after you’re gone? And how will they access essential financial support when you can no longer provide it?
Walk-In Wills provides reliable legal services for estate planning, including the creation of trusts. We can also help clients in Mesa, AZ and surrounding areas, such as Casa Grande and Apache Junction, develop a special needs trust to ensure optimum peace of mind.
Because disabled individuals are usually unable to earn a living, a special needs trust ensures they have the funds to cover living expenses. However, these estate planning tools also offer another crucial benefit.
Most disabled people receive assistance from agencies or organizations, often in the form of financial support and health insurance. These agencies typically establish an income threshold, which stipulates that a person cannot possess an excess of assets.
Because assets held in a trust are owned by the trust and not the recipient, they don’t count towards the income threshold. As a result, the disabled person can have greater financial stability while also ensuring essential benefits remain accessible.
Special needs trusts can be a first-party or third-party trust. A first-party trust is created by the person in need of assistance, who funds the trust with their own assets to prevent their disability benefits from being affected. This is often the case with people who become disabled as adults.
On the other hand, a third-party trust is funded by others on behalf of a disabled person. In this instance, the caregiver would create the trust and fund it, although funds can be provided from others as well. When the caregiver dies, the trust retains the funds, and a trustee disperses them on behalf of the disabled person.
When it comes to something as important as ensuring your loved one is properly cared for after you’re gone, you need a law firm with the right experience and knowledge. Our estate planning attorneys at Walk-In Wills provide each client with the benefit of more than 20 years of experience. We also strive to make the process as low-stress as possible.
