2023 Drafting special needs trusts for vulnerable clients

Recording available after original program date, 9/13/2023

Special Needs Trusts are designed to provide for the long-care of individuals who have physical or intellectual impairments and are unable to provide for themselves, whatever their age. SNTs are intended to preserve the beneficiary’s eligibility for public benefits – Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – while maximizing the private resources of the beneficiary’s family. Drafting distribution clauses and selecting the right trustee to make financial and health-care related decisions for the beneficiary are the essential steps in the planning process. This program will provide you with a practical guide to the types of SNTs, the situations in which each is most appropriate, preserving public benefit eligibility, distribution provisions, and trustee selection.

•    Planning and drafting issues with Special Needs Trusts.
•    Types of SNTs and eligibility standards.
•    Relationship of SNTs to public benefits – Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SSI.
•    Key considerations in drafting distribution clauses.
•    Choosing individual and institutional trustees, and the use of “pooled trusts”.
•    Administrative issues in SNTs.

Note: This material qualifies for self-study credit only. Pursuant to Regulation 15.04.5, a lawyer may receive up to six hours of self-study credit in a reporting year. Self-study programs do not qualify for ethics, elimination of bias or Kansas credit.