12325 State Hwy. 55
Plymouth, MN 55441
Phone: (763) 231-2700
Fax: (763) 231-2010
Blog
TWLS Talks
Tags
academics ann rooney ASL Ben Lurie Brain Gym celebrations class classrooms community Connections cooking core academics Day in the Life donations exercise FAQ financial planning individualized therapy JK Martial Arts learning disabilities life skills literacy music therapy News Possible Dreams Read Across America reading resources Ruth Cracraft schedule sensory integration social skills sonday system special education special needs Special Persons Day spelling tactile learning Teacher Spotlight Touch Money tour TWLS virtual tour weekly highlights yogaArchives
Tips on Financial Planning for Your Special Needs Child
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
A few weeks ago, The Whole Learning School hosted a seminar by Maura Steblay, Licensed Parent Educator, MAEd and Melissa Morris, SpecialCare planner on financial planning. Here’s seven useful tips from their talk for both new parents of special needs children and those wanting to help them plan for the unexpected but exciting future:
1)Create a holistic plan for your child’s academic and social progression. Many parents start out in a “survival mode” where they feel like they can’t do more than take things one year at a time. This means that they might hit important milestones unprepared. Plan out every year until your special needs child hits 16, and then begin to lay out their transition to legal adulthood at 18.
2) Account for milestones in your own life – how will your caretaking plans change when you hit 65 and retire? What if you die?
3)Write a Letter of Intent. This isn’t a legal document, but rather essentially an “instruction manual” for your child. If you have to go away on business or for medical reasons, whoever is taking care of your child can read your Letter of Intent and know what they need. Make a note of your child’s favorite story, favorite place, allergies, disliked foods, essential therapies, and so on. Many parents make it a video or a scrapbook rather than a letter, but any way of getting the information across to a temporary caretaker can be a huge help to your child.
3)If you have the resources, set up a trust for your child – this avoids taxation and provides you some degree of control over how the funds are distributed and your child is cared for when you’re no longer around. Check with an attorney about Special Needs and Supplemental Needs Trusts.
4)Keep your will up to date. It’s recommended that you revisit your will at least every 3-5 years to account for any changes in your circumstances as well as in your child’s guardianship arrangements. It’s easy to put off designating a guardian or a conservator – the manager of your estate on your child’s behalf – but if you don’t, it has to be figured out in court afterwards. After you’ve chosen, come back to the will regularly; the perfect caretaker for your 2 year old might not do so well with your teenager. Not only that, but guardians’ circumstances sometimes change. What happens if you designate a couple as caretakers and they divorce? Your child may not end up with the person you preferred, and the resources you intended for their support may be used up trying to resolve the issue in court.
5)Set up multiple people to be conservators, responsible for your child’s finances after your death. It’s often good to have two or three conservators (potentially including a trust company) so they can monitor each other’s use of the money. Many banks have trust companies, but they are often unresponsive. Your trust company should be willing to disburse funds for the child when they are needed or when they would be beneficial, for example for the child to take a vacation or buy new clothes.
6)Prepare for the transition to adulthood. If you will need to remain your child’s guardian after age 18, it’s a lot easier to arrange that before they turn 18. While they are still a child, you are considered the best able to judge what would be best going forwards, but after 18, you must prove their incapacity in court – something that can be both time-consuming and emotionally draining. Without guardianship, you are sometimes unable even to gain access to their medical history to help them with their decisions going forward – so arrange it well ahead of time.
7)Always ask. The law and best practices for taking good care of your child through good times and bad can be complex. Don’t be afraid to talk to an attorney or financial planner to help sort out what to do and when. However, make sure any attorney or planner is experienced in the law around special needs children and their care; many are not. You can ask them how many similar cases they work with in a year or what their area of expertise is.
Hello. Cool post. There’s an issue with the site in internet explorer, and you might want to test this… The browser is the marketplace chief and a large element of other folks will miss your wonderful writing due to this dilemma.