Becoming an Adult: Legal and Financial Planning - YouTube

You know a lot of parents come to me and they say, "Now my child's 18 and everything is

going great and we're not experiencing any barriers to medical issues or financial issues."

There are other parents who say, "You know what? We're having some problems." They might

be problems in accessing financial information or health care information and they ask "where

do I turn?" At that point, obviously, would be to have them start speaking to an attorney.

I have a lot of families and they ask "What should I do? Should I just do nothing and

let my son or daughter be a self-advocate? Should we talk about health care power of

attorney, so I can be involved or guardianship?" As a parent, my answer is whatever it takes

to make sure that in my perspective, that my daughter is safe, that she's not taken

advantage of, that she's getting the care that she needs, those principles usually are

what guide families in deciding what it is that they feel might be best.

For looking at different means of assisting our adults with decision-making, it's important

to remember that we shouldn't be putting too many things in place when our ultimate goal

is to have our son or daughter be able to as self-determined as possible. Everyone makes

mistakes, you know we learn from them we grow from them and it's important for parents to

remember that we need also to allow our sons or daughters to make mistakes and learn and

grow from them as well. If the individual with the disability, when they turn 18 or

the age of majority in their state, would like to have the parent or other family members

assist them with either medical decision-making or financial decisions, they can actually

go to an attorney and have what are called Powers of Attorney drafted. A power of Attorney

is a legal document where someone could give a financial power to someone else to assist

them with their financial decision-making or a medical power to assist them with their

medical decision-making. An attorney would need to feel comfortable that the individual

who is signing these documents actually understood what it was that they were signing because

they are giving these powers to somoene else to assist them. As we know, we are our kids'

guardians until they're 18. But at the 18th birthday, guardianship is another option that

some families are looking at. They would like to continue being the guardian of their their

son or their daughter and perhaps also become guardian of the assets and they're two different

things. That process is inititated in a court. If I as a parent were looking to seek guardianship

over my son or daughter, or other family members, I would petition the court to become the guardian

of the person, or the assets. Keep in mind, if you do become the guardian of someone's

assets, there are financial accounting and a lot of responsibilities that the court is

looking to make sure you uphold, so the individual with a disability that a guardianship is granted

over is not taken advantage of in some financial or other way.

You should check with your state, if they have a health surrogacy law. What that means

is that oftentimes families get concerned if something were to happen to their child

medicallya nd they were not able to make the decision in the momebt, who would make the

deicison for them. A helath surrogacy law says that the next of kin can make the decision

in an emergency situation. And typically the next of kin order is a spouse, followed by

a parent and so if parents are worried about legal guardianship or power of attorney, it's

important to know that if there is a health surrogacy law in your state, and an emergency happens,

that you will be able to make the medical decisions for your child in that moment based

on your state's health surrogacy law. Government benefits are sometimes really tricky

for people to understand and they are more complicated because they can be very different

for a child who has a disability versus an adult who has a disability. A lot of parents

think that everything will kind of continue status quo when our children become adults

when it come to those typse of benefits, but that's not exactly the case. To qualify for

a needs-based government benefit, such as SSI which is Supplemental Security Income,

that's a monthly income from Social Security, and also Medicaid which is a health insurance

program for adults with disabilities, you have to pass certain tests. Not only do you have

to have a disability, but you also can't have more than $2,000 in your name, of countable

resources. A lot of people don't realize that. At that point, families come to me and they

are asking a lot of questions. Some of those questions revlove around "well, as a parent,

I'm planning on when I'm no longer here, leaving my estate if I have a spouse to my spouse first,

and then to be divided between any children I have. If I have a child with a disability,

and if in fact they might need government benefits such as SSI or Medicaid, and they

can't have more $2,000 then what do I do?" The answer to that question for a lot of

families could be to take a look at what's called a special needs turst. A special needs

trust is a specialized legal document that assists someone with a disbaility in protecting

any govenment benefits that they might need now or in the future. The money that goes

into a special needs trust is actually protected from being counted as an available resource when

it comes to applying for government benefits. Different states call these special needs trusts

different things. Some states will call them a supplemental needs trust. Some states will

call them a special needs trust. It's important to know that if you have one of these documents

established and you move to another state, it'd be a great idea to check with an attorney

that understands special needs trusts law, to make sure that it's valid in your state.

These trust laws can vary from state to state and actually benefit programs for people with

disabilities can vary from state to state and even county to county. The money in a special

needs trust has to be spent solely for the person and it cannot replace any government

benfits that are out there. So for example, the special needs trust can pay for all the

things that government benefits is not already providing. I look at government benefits as

providing basic needs, food and shelter. The special needs trust is a way to help enhance

the life of someone who has a disability. A special needs trust can pay for things that

the individual enjoys. You know the social types of things that cost money to accomplish

that perhaps an SSI check or another benefit does not provide. Once that happens, when

you fund a special needs trust, you have to set up a separate account, keep an accounting

of that and make sure that the money is spent on the person with has a disability. Parents

ask me, "what exactly can I put into the special needs trust that I've just set up for my son

or daughter?" Well there are a lot of things that we might look at leaving behind. We might

have a home when we're gone that we want to leave to our children, retirement plans, they

can be left to a special needs trust; investments; savings accounts; those types of things. So

as you're working with professionals through the legal side with an attorney, through the

financial side with a special needs financial planner, it's important to make sure that

you're looking at all the different angles and how this can be done. There's no cookie

cutter solution, and if there was this would be real easy. The great thing is that families

can come up with very concise plans. I would strongly encourage parents doing this planning,

please make sure you are inlcuding the person with the disability who has a disability at

the center of this planning process. The outcome will be so much better. I think it would be

wise decision as families are getting all this information with the person they are planning

for and trying to sort out working with someone who is experiened in the legal side of this,

with the estate planner. They often call themselves elder law attorneys. They're working with Medicaid

and benefits and understand special needs planing and special need trusts. Also working

with financial professionals who understand the financial side of this and how to put

those things together, while an attorney can draw up trusts, it's important for families

to realize once you have these documents which are basically written instructions on how

to deal with your estate when you're gone, that your assets actually talk to them. For

example you go to work everyday and they give you some type of benefit, a life insurance

policy, retirement plan, you have to name beneficiaries for those things. If the beneficiary

is still listed a your son or daughter, and you have a trust that says you want these

to go to a special needs trust, they're not talking to one another. Beneficiary designation

on a life insurance policy or retirement plan they overide what your will or your trust

would say. So much of financial planning is confidential, you know no one wants to talk

about their assets or their estate. This type of planning is something that parents should

be sharing with everyone. If you have a power of attorney or you have a guardianhip, other

people should know that. Especially if you have a special needs trust, it's important

for other people to know that. This type of planning is very different in that we tell

people about it. We tell them we have a special needs trust. I'm not asking how much you have.

I'm not asking if you're going to leave anything to my daughter, but I'm saying that

if you as a parent have this document let people know because if their plan is they'd

like to include your son or daugther in their estate, this is the way they should look at

doing it. I strongly suggest that parent take a look

at creating what's called a Letter of Intent. The Letter of Intent is not a legal document.

The letter of intent is a document that describes the entire day from in the morning do you

wake up with a buzzer or the radio on the alarm clock to what is the process of getting ready

to get out of the house for that indivudial when they're going to work or going to school

or doing something else during the day, the medical issues that are in place, how do you

help someone with certain medical issues during the day, giving medication. But it's also

a lot of the quality of life stuff- this is what we enjoy doing as a family and we want

to makes sure that our son or daughter is still included in those things if we're not here

to help facilitate those. The Letter of Intent describes the waiting lists that we're on.

It describes maybe some of the medical things that we're looking at in the future. If I'm

not here to tell someone to be reminded of this, the letter of intent is a great way

to do that. The letter of intent should be shared not only with the person who said yes

I will be there to be the next advocate in line, but share it with other people. Don't

hide it away. If I'm no longer here, someone needs to know where my letter of intent is.

I need to review it with that person . We talk in acronmyns OT, PT, speech, all these

different things, we need to make sure as we have our letter of intent created and we're

sharing it with other advocates they actually understand what it is we're trying to communicate

to them. This is a document that should be created with the person that it's intended

to help and should be updated whenever something changes. In all these plans, keeping the person

who has a disbaility at the table, at the head of the table, in decision-making and understanding

what all the options are is the best way to go.