Purposes
for Use of a Special Needs Trust
by
Herbert D. Hinkle, Esq. and Ira Fingles, Esq.
Hinkle
& Fingles, Attorneys at Law
2651 Main Street
Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648
(609) 896-4200 or (215) 860-2100
Frequently,
we have written about special needs trusts. Actually,
we prefer the term “a trust with limitations,”
because many of the so-called “special needs
trusts” that we have seen over the years are
unsuited for their intended purposes: protection of
a person with a disability and preservation of eligibility
for services.
Today,
we would like to address some of the purposes for
which such trusts can be used. The authors have drafted
more than 3,000 such trusts. Here are some thoughts:
First, it is important not to duplicate services available
through government programs, but the trustee should
be authorized to weigh the comparative quality of
what is available. For instance, many physicians will
not accept Medicaid. Also, Medicaid might only pay
for a stainless steel tooth cap and not a porcelain
one. Thus, the trustee must be allowed to spend money
on quality medical and dental care. The trust should
be explicit on this point.
The
trustee should be allowed to pay for vacations, day
trips and the like with or without the company of
a friend or companion. But equally important, the
trustee should be authorized to pay for costs incurred
by others when visiting or handling the affairs of
the person with a disability. We do not want a spouse
on the West Coast complaining that his wife is dipping
into personal savings to pay for a trip to visit her
brother in the East. Similarly, the trust can pay
for people to monitor the care provided to a person
with a disability. In other words, a family member
can hire someone or an organization to be his/her
eyes and ears.
The
trustee should have the option of purchasing real
estate in which the person with a disability will
live. (Obviously, in some cases, the disabilities
are too profound for that to be feasible.) The trust
must provide that the person with a disability will
be charged rent. In one case, HUD paid rent to a trust
to offset the rental costs incurred by the person
with a disability. Also, the trust should have the
flexibility to pay for modifications to the home of
a family member with whom the person with a disability
might live.
For
some people, an automobile might be important. The
trust should have the capacity to pay for transportation
(but never own a vehicle), and equally important,
to pay for the insurance and maintenance of the vehicle.
In future columns, we will discuss this topic further.
______
Hinkle,
Fingles, & Prior maintains a multi-state law practice
with offices in Lawrenceville, Marlton, and Florham
Park, New Jersey, and Yardley, and Plymouth Meeting,
Pennsylvania. They lecture and write frequently on
topics of law, aging, disability and estate planning
and are available
to speak to groups in New Jersey
and Pennsylvania at no charge.
Comments
and suggestions for future articles should be mailed
to: Hinkle, Fingles & Prior, Attorneys at Law,
2651 Main Street, Suite A, Lawrenceville, New Jersey
08648-1012.
Copyright
2007 Herbert D. Hinkle. All rights reserved.
