When you have medical needs because of a disability, having your own assets in Michigan can sometimes ironically become a liability. While you may have enough to take care of things right now, that amount of income may quickly be depleted due to the high costs of your care, and when you need help later, it may not be accessible. Not only that, you may be currently ineligible for many services that are essential to your well-being. Our team at Bingham Legal Group PC understands when a special needs trust is the right option, and the avenues that have recently become available to you.
WealthManagement.com explains that the way the system has worked in the past, you would need a parent or guardian to be involved in setting up your SNT, even though the assets are your own and not theirs. If you are independent and do not have someone to fulfill that role, you would have had to get permission from the court to create this type of self-settled trust on your own. At the end of 2016, this issue was corrected through the 21st Century Cures Act with the addition of just two words: the individual.
This inclusion directly allows you to be in control of your own self-settled SNT. When the trust is set up using funds belonging to a parent or other guardian, it is known as a third-party SNT, and these have different rules and regulations. More information about estate planning tools such as trusts is available on our web page.