Many persons are interested in setting up a trust, because the beneficiaries to whom they want to leave money or assets have special needs. Other times, it may be the persons setting up the trust themselves that may have unusual circumstances. At The Piatchek Law Firm, LLC we regularly assist clients who have special circumstances, considerations, or needs.
Perhaps our discussion should start with a basic description of Trusts in general. Basically, a trust is created when someone (a grantor) has an asset, and wants that asset to be held for a specific person (a beneficiary), and wants that asset to be held for the beneficiary by a third person (a trustee) for safekeeping. Or put another way, anytime someone is holding on to something given to them, for the benefit of a third party, a trust is created.
What if the person doing the giving has unusual circumstances? What if the proposed beneficiary has special needs, such as a disability? What if the beneficiary is receiving some type of government benefits, which a gift might interfere with? In these and many other cases, seeing an attorney is a must.
Special Needs Trusts. A qualified Estate Planning Attorney or Elder Law Attorney can help you with many of these situations, often by creating a "Special Needs Trust", also known as a "Supplemental Needs Trust". These special types of trusts are utilized when a proposed beneficiary is disabled or receiving government benefits. A Special Needs Trust may allow the beneficiary to retain eligibility for government benefits, while still receiving some income, or use of some property, to supplement their lifestyle. There are many technical considerations in these types of trusts, and you should only undertake the creation of such a trust with the help of a qualified attorney.
Medicaid Planning. Nowadays, a lot of folks have questions about how to pay for a potential nursing home stay. At The Piatchek Law Firm, LLC, we assist clients with their questions about nursing facilities, how to pay for such facilities, and the Medicaid and MOHealthNet questions that are inevitably looming in the background.
Asset Protection. Often, trusts are set up in an attempt to avoid potential problems such as taxation, bankruptcy, creditors, or even divorce. These problems sometimes belong to the person setting up the trust; other times, trusts are set up to help avoid these problems for a beneficiary of the trust. Various ways of titling assets, as well as different types of trusts, may be utilized to mitigate many types of problems, preferably before the problems arise.
