Planning services

Special Needs Trusts

A Special Needs Trust protects your child’s eligibility for means-tested government benefits while still allowing family, a settlement, or you to provide for things those benefits don’t cover.

A mother and her daughter, who uses a wheelchair, playing together in their living room

Having one drafted is only half the job — a trust that’s never funded, or funded without a plan behind it, may not do what your family expects when the time comes.

We coordinate with your estate planning attorney on the structure, then build the investment and funding strategy around what the trust is actually projected to need over your child’s lifetime.

What we look at

The four questions behind every trust

  1. Structure

    First-party or third-party, and which one your situation calls for — drafted by your attorney, coordinated with us.

  2. Trustee

    Who serves, who follows them, and what happens if a family trustee can no longer act.

  3. Funding

    What fills the trust, and when: insurance, retirement assets, a settlement, or contributions from family.

  4. Investment plan

    What the trust is projected to need across your child’s lifetime, and how it is invested toward that.

Worth knowing

A trust that is drafted but never funded cannot do the work it was written to do. Funding is where we spend most of our time.

Three generations laughing while arranging flowers in a kitchen A parent holding a child’s hand
Related services
Trust Funding Government Benefits Letter of Intent

Let’s talk about what your trust needs to hold — and how to get there.

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION See all planning services →