(The folowing is part of a discussion, taken from a listserv, or electronic bulletin board, concerning the effect of distributions from special needs trusts to pay home expenses on eligibility for public benefits) Question: Mother and her disabled daughter own their home equally as tenants in common.  Daughter receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. As.. read more →

In a published decision, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, ruled that a trial court erred when it applied the doctrine of probable intent to create testamentary special needs trusts for two disabled children of a woman who died prior to finalizing her estate planning documents. In the Matter of the Trusts to.. read more →

    Here are my selections for the top ten (10) New Jersey cases involving Special Needs Trusts / Disability Planning decided in 2009 and 2010. For those cases I previously blogged about,  a link to the blog post as well as the case is included below. (1)     Special Needs Trust Can Be Established Only.. read more →

A self-settled special needs trust is exempt from being counted as a “resource,” for purposes of determining eligibility for public benefits, pursuant to section (d)(4)(a) of 42 U.S.C. §1396p. (For this reason, this type of trust is sometimes referred to as a “(d)(4)(a) trust.”) Pursuant to this federal law, as amended on August 10, 1993.. read more →

Thomas Saccone is a retired Newark, NJ firefighter. He and his wife’s only son, Anthony, suffers from severe mental disabilities. Tom is a long-standing estate planning client of my law firm. Tom has shown himself to be a devoted husband and father who is relentless in his efforts to plan his estate in order to.. read more →

I don’t usually blog about the Social Security cases my law firm handles, although we represent many applicants for Social Security and SSI disability benefits each year. It’s time I remedied that oversight. My firm recently handled a very interesting and complex case for a disabled client which involved the termination of the disability benefits.. read more →

Many third-party and self-settled special needs trusts (SNTs) contain “termination on ineligibility and distribute to family members” clauses. These clauses, called “early termination provisions”, are common trust provisions. When used in special needs trusts, the “early termination provisions” cause the trust to terminate before the death of the disabled beneficiary in order to prevent the.. read more →

A growing number of my elder law clients have asked me whether the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) considers assets transferred to various types of revocable and irrevocable trusts in determining eligibility for Improved Pension and Aid and Attendance benefits. The answer depends in large part upon the type of trust into which assets are.. read more →

The following list contains some of the most frequently encountered issues faced by parents of a child with special needs who wish to arrange a secure future for their disabled child through estate planning. Don’t disinherit the child with special needs. Carefully consider the division of assets among all of the children. Understand the differences.. read more →

In J.C. v. Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services and the Ocean County Board of Social Services, ____ N.J. Super. ____ (App. Div. 2010), petitioner was determined to be totally disabled due to a work place injury by a workers’ compensation (WC) court in New Jersey, and awarded $308 per week in WC benefits… read more →

In Matter of Jennings v. Commissioner, N.Y.S. Dept. of Social Services, a New York appellate court case, the petitioner, Mattie Lou Hammond established a third-party Special Needs Trust for the benefit of her disabled adult son.  She deposited all of her income into the Special Needs Trust. Mrs. Hammond’s income consisted of social security and.. read more →

2009 was an exciting year of litigation in the elder and disability law arena, producing a bumper crop of significant decisions from the administrative forum, as well as state and federal courts. In stark contrast with years past, New Jersey lawyers are now in the forefront of the effort to expand legal protections to greater.. read more →

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that helps aged, blind and disabled people with very low income and resources pay for food, clothing and shelter. In other words, SSI is a government program based upon financial need. SSI is often confused with Social Security Disability benefits (SSD). Although both programs are administered through.. read more →

Special needs trusts (also known as “supplemental needs” trusts) allow a disabled beneficiary to receive gifts, lawsuit settlements, or other funds and yet not lose his or her eligibility for certain government programs. Such trusts are drafted so that the funds will not be considered to belong to the beneficiary in determining eligibility for public.. read more →

Limited public funds available for the disabled in New Jersey has forced government agencies to prioritize recipient needs, resulting in rules which impose severe restrictions on expenditures, like the “one computer per recipient lifetime” regulation highlighted in the following case. In Pichardo v. N.J. Department of Human Services (App. Div., October 1, 2009), Julia Pichardo.. read more →

On June 22, 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a federal district court’s ruling in Wong v. Daines, 582 F.Supp. 2d 475 (2008), holding that income received by an institutionalized person and then placed into a special needs trust is countable in determining the extent of Medicaid benefits to.. read more →

In a ruling seen as a major setback for disabled individuals and their families, on September 1, 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit granted summary judgment in favor of the State of New Mexico, affirming a denial of Medicaid benefits and holding that the State could consider a special needs trust.. read more →

In a probate case entitled In the Matter of the Estate of Rose Rappaport, 866 N.Y.S.2d 483 (Sur. Ct. Nassau County, September 29, 2008), the decedent was survived by four adult children, one of whom was disabled.  A guardian ad litem was appointed for the child with a disability.  A trust was created under Article.. read more →

As reported on my blog, Judge John Malone, Presiding  Judge of the Chancery Division of the Superior Court in Union County, entered an Order authorizing the Administrator of an intestate estate, i.e., an estate of a decedent who died without a will, to establish a Special Needs Trust, often referred to as a Supplemental Benefits.. read more →

In a 2007 U.S. Bankruptcy case from the District of Minnesota, a bankruptcy trustee unsuccessfully attempted to avoid the transfer of a disabled woman’s inheritance into a special needs trust established for the disabled woman. The debtor in Schultz v. Sullivan, 368 B.R. 832 (D. Minn. 2007), was a disabled adult receiving benefits under a.. read more →

A Rhode Island court removed the co-trustees of a special needs trust established for the co-trustees’ son after the parents, who were getting divorced, commingled trust funds with their own bank accounts and spent trust funds on alcohol and their own rent and groceries. Matthew Goodness was born with cerebral palsy and received a deferred.. read more →

As discussed below, a self-settled special needs trust is a device used to protect funds belonging to a disabled person resulting from, for example, a tort action. An estate planning tool with similar features but important differences may be used to protect a disabled child’s inheritance from a parent: the testamentary supplemental benefits trust. Special.. read more →

It is well known that the vast majority of America’s 2.6 million children with special needs will need costly care long after their parents have passed away. However, a new study from Hartford Financial Services has found that three in five (62%) parents of children with special needs have no plan to cover the cost.. read more →

In the ec-v-division-of-medical-assistance-and-heath-services case, the petitioner E.C. was a 67 year old physically and developmentally disabled woman who resided in a nursing home. Both of her parents were deceased. The parents had established testamentary trusts in both of their wills for the benefit of E.C. and her two brothers. The trusts gave discretion to the trustees.. read more →

For a number of years now, elder law attorneys in New Jersey have often achieved success in court applications seeking to reform a support trust established under the will of the parents or relatives of a disabled adult child so that the amended support trust met the statutory requirements of a special needs trust (“SNT”)… read more →