Your Challenge
Means-tested government benefits like SSI limit single recipients to having $2,000 in income and countable resources. For many people with disabilities who rely on these benefits, money you might receive from an inheritance, legal settlement, or GoFundMe campaign can actually add stress, since it can result in reduced monthly checks, or losing SSI and other benefits altogether.
Our Solution
1st Party Special Needs Trusts provide you with a safe and legal way to invest, keep your private funds, and continue receiving government benefits.
If you’re wondering how that works… a Trust is a legal entity that can own assets under the fiduciary oversight of a Trustee. After you put your funds into a Special Needs Trust, the money technically belongs to the trust, and not you. Your Trustee has sole discretion on how funds are spend. You are the Beneficiary of your Trust, the funds in it must legally be used to benefit only you.
A Special Needs Trust…
- …is a financial instrument to insure that a person with a disability is either able to become eligible for or keep eligibility for vital government benefits.
- …is the legal “owner” of the funds put into it. The trust is overseen by our JLA Trustee to ensure they are spent for your best benefit.
- …can be spent on necessities like rent, food, and caregiving services and other medical expenses, but also on things like vacations, electronics, clothes, and more.
- …is irrevocable. This means that any funds you put into the trust stay in the trust and cannot be taken out and recombined with other money you have (even if you stop receiving government benefits). It’s important to go with an organization and Trustee you trust.