An El Monte Special Needs Trust is an appropriate choice for families who want to ensure that they provide for their special needs children. While it may be tempting to leave money for children through a will or in a bank account, this could actually ruin a special needs child’s finances for years. This is because the government sees new money coming into a bank account as the child’s assets and will hold those against the child when determining whether he or she should receive supplemental income.
Legal Counsel in Handling El Monte Special Needs Trusts
There are a few tips to make the running of the trust go smoothly and to ensure that the child is protected legally as much as possible. First, the trust will need to have a trustee over it who will disburse the money. The trustee cannot be the child and should instead be someone that the family trusts. If there are no close family or friends that can become the trustee, a court can set up a disinterested third party as trustee.
However, the trustee will need to be careful how he or she uses the money in the El Monte Special Needs Trust. The money should never be given as cash to the special needs individual because this would be seen as income or liquid assets by the government. Instead, the money should be used to pay bills, purchase a home or car, pay for a vacation or provide another service or product that the special needs individual needs. While the money should be used for the individual, it should never be given as cash.