Medicaid lawyers can provide help to parents of disabled children in protecting the benefits that their children may come to depend on throughout their lifetimes. If your child has special needs, you should work with an experienced attorney at Frank & Kraft to understand the rules for your child receiving benefits and to make sure you have a plan in place to provide for your child after you are gone without putting your child’s vital services at risk.
Frank & Kraft has helped many parents to make comprehensive plans to ensure that their children will have the highest possible quality of life even after their parents are no longer there to provide help and support. You never know when something could happen to you, so working with an experienced attorney now to get your plans in place is a smart course of action so you’ll have the peace of mind of knowing that your kids are cared for. Just give us a call today to talk with compassionate and knowledgeable Medicaid lawyers to find out how our firm can help you.
Why Parents of Disabled Children Should Talk with Medicaid Lawyers
If you have a disabled child, your son or daughter may be unable to work as an adult or may earn a limited income. You will likely want to leave behind an inheritance to make sure there is enough money to care for your child and to provide your special needs child with the highest quality of life possible. However, your child will likely also come to depend upon one or more means-tested government benefits programs as an adult as a result of his or her disability. For example, your child may receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to provide him or her with a monthly income.
Your child may also receive Medicaid to pay for healthcare costs. Medicaid benefits can be vitally important because if your child loses these benefits, getting covered by a private insurer could be very expensive and the coverage that the private insurance policy offers may not be nearly as comprehensive as the coverage available through Medicaid. For example, private insurance typically will not pay for long-term care at home or nursing home and it may have higher copays and coinsurance costs than your child would be responsible for paying under Medicaid.
The loss of Medicaid, SSI, or other means tested benefits could cause your child’s quality of life to decrease dramatically. But, if you provide a large inheritance without making an Medicaid plan, this loss is likely inevitable because the assets you transfer to your child could put your child over the limit on allowable resources that he or she may own while still getting Medicaid and SSI.
You can make sure that your child is able to receive an inheritance to pay for things government benefits won’t cover, while still keeping Medicaid and other means-tested benefits, if you work with Frank & Kraft. Our Medicaid lawyers will assist you in the use of a legal tool called a special needs trust or a supplemental needs trust. When you make this type of trust and you transfer assets into it, the wealth that you put into the trust does not count for purposes of determining if your child is eligible for Medicaid, SSI, or other benefits.
There are some limits on what the trust assets can be used for, and you’ll need to name a trustee who has a fiduciary duty to manage the trust assets appropriately and use them in accordance with your instructions to provide for your child. Still, making a special needs trust is often the best course of action, so you should talk with Medicaid lawyers to find out if this is a step that you should take to provide for a disabled child in your life.
Getting Help from Medicaid Lawyers
Medicaid lawyers at Frank & Kraft will assist you in the creation of a special needs trust so your child has assets necessary to have the highest quality of life. With the assistance of our legal team, you can protect the inheritance you provide to your child and ensure your child continues receiving essential benefits. We can also help you with other aspects of legacy planning and estate planning with the needs of your children and other loved ones in mind.
To find out more about how our firm can help you, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at 317-684-1100 or contact us online to get personalized advice on all of your Medicaid planning needs.
Mr. Kraft assists clients primarily in the areas of estate planning and administration, Medicaid planning, federal and state taxation, real estate and corporate law, bringing the added perspective of an accounting background to his work.
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