If you’ve decided to draft and execute a comprehensive estate plan, you’ll want to make sure that certain provisions are being made for the care of your disabled loved one and the management of their various special needs. Planning for your special needs child, sibling, or parent is critical to ensuring that they have access to the patient, effective advocates who will act tirelessly in service of their interests.
Special needs planning is a sensitive issue for many families. Concerns frequently go beyond legal and document drafting matters and may reflect anxieties relating to intrafamily conflict and fairness (i.e., one of your children may promise to take care of their special needs sibling, but you may want to go the extra step in securing care and funds for the special needs child). To productively navigate these concerns, you’ll want to work with experienced special needs attorney Daniel Chambers who has helped numerous clients develop comprehensive estate plans that account for special needs in the family.
Many clients don’t fully understand the need for legal, formalized special needs planning. For example, a client may believe that their special needs child is secure since another relative has informally promised to take over care of the special needs child in the event of that the client is rendered incapacitated or dead.
When planning for your special needs loved ones, however, you should not rely on informal promises of care. Circumstances change, often with unintended and unexpected consequences. For example, one of your relatives may promise to take care of your special needs child and to help pay for their education, but years down the line, that relative may experience any number of situations that affect their financial and emotional ability to take care of your special needs loved one: divorce, unemployment, business failure, injury, and illness, etc.
By executing formal mechanisms of special needs planning, such as a special needs trust to fund your loved one’s care, you can guarantee that your loved one will be provided with proper care even as circumstances in your family change over time.
When planning for your special needs loved one, you can utilize a number of different trust forms, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. These include, but are not necessarily limited, to:
Your special needs planning attorney will work with you to ensure that you set up a trust (or trusts) that makes sense given the circumstances.
Attorney Chambers has dedicated his career to helping clients successfully resolve their various family law and estate planning issues. He understands that special needs planning for your loved ones can be difficult and sometimes confusing, and is personally available to answer any questions or concerns you may have throughout the planning process. To discuss your concerns with a skilled Hoover, Alabama special needs planning lawyer, contact Daniel H. Chambers, Attorney-at-Law, PC, by calling 205-913-4057. You can also schedule your initial consultation by contacting Attorney Chambers online.
We have used Daniel Chambers for legal services on several occasions since 2007 with excellent results. He has assisted our family in each matter with a professional yet tenacious manner. He has always been upfront about possible outcomes and honest about how to appropriately deal with challenging situations. I have recommended him several times over and will continue to do so. He has been an incredible asset to have on our legal team and we have always been satisfied with the results.
Melissa Childers
All fields are required to send this form
See why you can trust this form - view our privacy policy
All fields are required to send this form
See why you can trust this form - view our privacy policy
