Preservation of Needs-Based Benefits & Other Considerations
August 10, 2023
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC
Section 1: Introduction to Special Needs Trusts
Medicaid and SSI are income and asset sensitive public benefits, which require planning to preserve. In many states, one dollar of SSI benefits …
ABLE Accounts: Helping Clients on Public Benefits Make the Most of their Recovery
October 8, 2020
ABLE accounts, named for the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, have been around since 2014 but remain underutilized across the country despite offering a way for people with disabilities and public benefits to save money without …
Public Benefits Preservation: What Your Client Doesn’t Know will Hurt Them, and You!
April 9, 2020
By: Evelynn Passino
One of the many practice points rarely taught in law school: your client may lose public benefits as a result of a recovery, and you have a duty, as their attorney, to discuss benefit …
The Special Needs Trust: 3 Types
The Special Needs Trust (SNT) is designed to protect individuals with disabilities who are receiving money through a trust. The SNT is an effective tool because it places funds and other relevant assets in the control of a trustee to …
Protecting Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid Eligibility for Injury Victims: Special Needs Trusts
Introduction
The receipt of personal injury proceeds by someone who is disabled can cause ineligibility for means based tested government benefit programs. Medicaid[1] and SSI[2] are two such programs. However, there are planning devices that can be utilized …
What Sets SSNPT Apart?
Clients who receive needs based benefits such as Medicaid and SSI require special planning to protect eligibility for those public benefits. More and more frequently, a pooled special needs trust is being utilized to preserve eligibility given the ease with …
Distributions from Special Needs Trusts: In Kind Distributions, Credit Cards, Gift Cards, or Debit Cards
You are the trustee of a special needs trust. Your beneficiary (Beth) lives in public housing, receives SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and MA (Medical Assistance), and has just asked you for a $200 gift card to Target so that she …
Special Needs Trusts – The Differences
Special Needs Trusts – The Differences
By: Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC
A special needs trust is a trust that can be created pursuant to Federal law whose corpus or any assets held in the trust do not …
