Special Needs Trust

If you are responsible for the care of a loved one with special needs, planning for the future carries a different kind of weight. Many clients with at least one disabled loved one ask us: A special needs trust (SNT) may serve as a partial answer to these questions. While it is not a cure-all for concerns about how a disabled loved one will get by once you have passed, it can go a long way towards providing them with financial stability and protection (including from themselves). The team at Chesapeake Wills & Trusts works with Maryland families who lose sleep over concerns such as these. We help them find a measure of peace with tangible, legally binding, and lasting solutions tailor-made to serve loved ones with disabilities. Simply put, a special needs trust is a legal structure designed to hold and facilitate the management of assets for a person with disabilities without disqualifying them from needs-based public benefits. In Maryland, those benefits often include Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid, which can be essential for healthcare, housing, and long-term support. Rather than leaving money directly to your loved one, you place assets into a trust managed by a trustee. The trustee uses trust funds to pay for approved supplemental expenses while preserving eligibility for public assistance.