One of the most difficult aspects of my job is working with couples who have adult children with special needs. In many cases, that adult child is receiving government benefits as a result of a physical or mental disability. It takes very careful planning to ensure that any adult child receiving government benefits does not suddenly become disqualified if he/she were to inherit something.
Inheriting when you have special needs can jeopardize your government benefits
About a year ago, I was meeting with a retired farmer and his wife about putting together their wills. This couple had thought about having their wills prepared for several years but hadn’t decided on what to do with their adult son’s situation. They had been told that the government benefits that their adult son was receiving would be jeopardized if he was to somehow inherit something from his parents. In this case, their son was receiving SSI and they were unsure as to what their options were from an estate planning perspective.
Creating conditional inheritance provisions in your will can avoid inheritance problems
To combat this issue, we approached it from an angle that allowed this adult son (who was still living with his parents) to be given the benefit of an inheritance on condition that he would otherwise not be disqualified from continuing to receive government benefits. If his government benefits were somehow negatively affected by receiving an inheritance, such inheritance would bypass him and be designated to other family members where it could do the most good. The couple also learned that if they did not do anything (i.e. prepare a will or trust), it would be likely their son would inherit from them and the result could be quite harmful to his benefits status. Thus, having a will in place made great sense.
With careful attention to detail, the language in your will or trust can allow you the most flexibility when dealing with if or how an adult child with special needs can inherit from you.
Recent Comments