If you have a child with a disability, you may rightly be concerned about how to continue caring for the child after he or she is an adult. At the Bingham Legal Group PC, we understand the questions that you and other Detroit residents with special-needs children may have. One particularly pressing question is how to ensure your child is taken care of after you have passed away.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a special needs trust may be an effective form of planning for the future of your loved one. This type of trust enables you to address your child’s unique and changing needs, while still allowing him or her to collect government benefits. On the other hand, if you simply leave your estate to your loved one in a will, this could disqualify him or her from government benefits necessary for survival.

How can you design a special needs trust that takes your adult child’s requirements into consideration? First off, you may designate yourself as the trustee while you are still alive. This would allow you to use the funds set aside in the trust to care for your special needs child. You would also want to name someone as trustee for after you pass. The special needs trust could be used on expenses for your child’s clothing, caregiving, travel, personal items, pet care, furnishings and more. You could personalize the terms of the trust to make it as restrictive or permissive as you wish. For example, you might have specific requirements for your adult child, such as spending a certain portion of the trust’s funds on hygiene items, clothing, etc. You might give your child a cash allowance each month to be spent however he or she wishes. The beauty of special needs trusts is how flexible they are.

To learn more about how a special needs trust can help care for your disabled loved one, visit our page on trusts.