What will happen to your son or daughter when you are no longer alive or are no longer able to play the critical role you play?
Who can your child turn to for help in making decisions, obtaining appropriate health care, paying for supports and things they want?
Service Coordination can help you think about resources and options and develop a personalized plan for your family member’s future.
Did you know …???
• There are many options for providing support to a person after a parent is gone – a wide spectrum ranging from hiring staff to help a person living his own home to receiving full residential services through a residential provider of services.
• There are a number of ways that medical decisions can be made by and for people with disabilities without the need for a guardian.
• If you don’t have a Will or have a standard Will without a properly drafted Special Needs Trust, your child will inherit a portion of your estate - and even a small inheritance can disqualify him from important public benefits like Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid, job assistance and residential and day services.
• If you disinherit your child, public benefits (Supplemental Security Income) currently provide a maximum of only $623 per month – hardly enough to meet basic needs, much less supplemental supports and other items your child may want or need.
• A properly designed Special Needs Trust, created by a lawyer with expertise in the area, can pay for supplemental items your child may want or need and that are not covered by public benefits -- things like visits to family, vacations, medical care, assistive technology and other equipment not paid for by insurance, summer camp, special classes or lessons, etc.
• There is a way to document information that will be necessary for your child to continue to receive benefits, and to possibly access additional supports, called a Letter of Intent.
Futures Planning is an ongoing process that helps you to:
• Envision a full life and future for your family member with a disability when you are no longer alive or able to play the critical role you do now.
• Identify the people, resources and services necessary to make that life a reality.
• Appropriately document the plan for implementation.
Futures Planning requires legal planning, financial planning and life planning.
In partnership with The Arc of Frederick County, Service Coordination has developed Futures Planning Training for families. We will provide information and resources to help you to think about and to organize your planning for your family’s future.
Please call your local Service Coordination office for training information.
Additional Resources:
• Service Coordination’s Futures and Estate Planning Packet: www.servicecoordinationinc.org/factsheets/, Click on “Futures and Estate Planning Packet” or ask your Service Coordinator for a copy of the packet. Includes Fact Sheets on Topics Like:
• What is Futures Planning or Special Needs Planning?
• Why Plan?
• Letters of Intent: What is a Letter of Intent? Why Should You Have One?
• Legal Planning – More Information
• Choosing an Attorney (Fact Sheet includes an Attorney Resource List)
• What’s Involved in Futures Planning by Parents and other Relatives?
• Third-Party Special Needs Trusts
• Legal Tools for Handling Money Belonging to a Person with a Disability
• Letters of Intent
• Why Use Alternatives to Guardianship?• The Arc of the United States: Future Planning: Making Financial Arrangements with a Trust: www.thearc.org/NetCommunity/Document.Doc?&id=156
• “Planning Now” Futures Planning Guide published by the MD Developmental Disabilities Council; available for download at: www.md-council.org/publications/planning_now.html