Special Needs Planning | Austin, TX | Easthampton, MA | Denville, NJ

Medicaid waivers and developmental disabilities

Posted on January 31, 2019 by Pamela

If you have a child with a developmental disability or other special needs disability, you need to know about Medicaid waivers. Very broadly speaking, a waiver is a program available to persons with a disability and other specific qualifications (depending on the type of waiver) that provides supports and services intended to help the person continue living in a community setting rather than a nursing home or institutional setting.

Waivers may be available to people who don’t otherwise qualify for regular medicaid because their income or assets are above the limit. They may also be available as additional support for people who are already receiving Medicaid.

Medicaid is a federal program, but each state administers the program, makes some of the rules, and kicks in some of the money to pay for it. This means each state handles waivers differently.

Our firm has clients in three different states. Here’s what you need to know for each state.

Massachusetts: The Massachusetts waiver program is administered by the Department of Disability Services. The majority of waivers are for persons age 18 or over, but there are some waiver services for children. You must submit an application to DDS for services. This application is in addition to your Medicaid (MassHealth) application. Placement in waiver programs occurs during the open enrollment period each year.

Information on applications and available Medicaid waivers in Masschusetts is here: https://www.mass.gov/orgs/department-of-developmental-services

New Hampshire: New Hampshire has several waivers covering both children and adults. The application process is integrated into the Medicaid application at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, here: https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dfa/apply.htm There is sometimes a waiting list for waivers, but it is typically less than a year and may be far shorter.

Texas: Texas has a number of different waiver programs that serve both children and adults. Children who do not otherwise qualify for Medicaid due to family resources may qualify for one or more of the waivers. Texas has very long waiting lists for most of its waiver programs, however, several as long as ten years. It is recommended that all persons with a developmental disability have their name placed on the “interest list” which allows them to apply for the waiver as spots come open. This means you can place your child on the interest list without knowing whether they will actually qualify for it or not at the time they come to the top of the waiting list. If they no longer need the waiver when a spot is open, you can simply decline to apply. Two different state agencies handle waivers and each has their own interest list, so you must get on all that may apply to your child. You can find the information you need to get on these lists here: https://www.navigatelifetexas.org/en/insurance-financial-help/texas-medicaid-waiver-programs-for-children-with-disabilities

Medicaid and the waiver programs are critical benefits for persons with serious disabilities that prevent them from supporting and caring for themselves. Parents should seek out and obtain any relevant government benefits such as these as part of their complete plan for their child’s lifetime. These benefit programs generally provide the foundation of care that can then be supplemented by the resources of the parents. For more information on leaving money or assets to care for your child with a disability without endangering their eligibility for Medicaid and waiver programs, give us a call at 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) or email at legal@gmail.com.

4 Things to Know About ABLE Accounts

Posted on January 25, 2019 by Pamela

ABLE accounts are a relatively new tool that people with disabilities and their families have to use in planning for adulthood. ABLE is an acronym for Achieving a Better Life Experience and the basic idea is that it allows the accumulation and spending of money in the name of the disabled person without causing the loss or reduction of SSI (social security) and medicaid benefits. Before the ABLE accounts, this was not possible.

ABLE accounts do NOT replace the need for special needs trusts and other planning tools, but they do some very useful things for some circumstances. Here are a few basic things you should know about ABLE Accounts:

ABLE accounts are the ONLY way an individual can accumulate money in their own name and still receive all the SSI and Medicaid benefits they would otherwise be eligible for. However, there are limits to the amounts of money – currently up to $15,000 per year and $100,000 total can be accumulated without causing a benefits disruption. The yearly amount may fluctuate from year to year.
ABLE accounts are only available to individuals whose disability occurred prior to their 26th birthday. This means all individuals with a developmental disability such as cerebral palsy, autism, or Down Syndrome are eligible, as well as individuals whose disability was the result of an accident or medical malpractice or illness, as long as it occurred prior to age 26.
Funds in an ABLE account may be able to pay for some things without causing an SSI reduction that would occur if funds from a special needs trust or another source were used. This means that even people who are not capable of handling an account themselves, may benefit from having one. This is a benefit that should be discussed with your attorney to see if using an ABLE account in conjunction with other tools may be useful. This also may be a benefit that future legislative changes could eliminate, so if you are using an ABLE account for this purpose you will need to keep a close eye on legal and regulatory changes.
Any funds being held in an ABLE account that remain at the time of the individual’s death are subject to claim by Medicaid. It may still be a good idea to accumulate money, but in many cases it may be better to avoid using the ABLE account merely as a savings account because of the possibility of it eventually going to Medicaid rather than designated beneficiaries.

Not all states currently have ABLE accounts, but you do not have to open an account in the state in which you live. You can find great information on the specifics of currently available accounts on the ABLE National Resource Center website.

For more information generally on planning for the future of a child with special needs, you can read our articles here and here, or call our office for a short, free consult. You can reach us toll free at 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668). We serve families in Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Hampshire.

Special needs trusts and other scary things

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Pamela

Can you guess what the hardest part of doing special needs planning is?

Getting started. Hands down, the number one thing that keeps people from doing their plan is never getting started.

Is the thought of calling an attorney intimidating/scary/expensive/overwhelming?

Here’s how we can help you get over that and start your plan – talk to us on the phone for 15 minutes and you’ll see just how nice and helpful we can be. Tell us a little about your family and we’ll walk through what we can do for you. We guarantee that you will learn something new when you talk to us.

Schedule your free, no strings attached phone introduction now – you can even drink coffee while we talk!
https://calendly.com/parkercounsel

We have attorneys in Central Texas, the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, Northern New Jersey, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire that can work with you to design a plan that will provide all the supports needed to care for your child with a disability once you are no longer able to do so. We will help you figure out the seemingly impossible task of caring for a child for many years after you are no longer around.

So click the calendar link above and take advantage of this free, personal introduction to our firm and what we can do for you. We guarantee you’ll learn something you didn’t know before.

The worst family emergency may be the one that happens to you

Posted on January 11, 2019 by Pamela

How well would your family function if a medical emergency happened to you? As special needs parents, we tend to focus on preparing for emergencies that might happen to our kids, and it’s fair to say that’s a good thing to do. But in reality, there is probably a far greater probability of serious consequences happening if the primary caretaker in the family has an emergency and no preparation has been done.

Who knows your child’s routine?
Who knows how to contact medical providers – and has the authority to talk to them?
Who has access to your appointment calendar?
Who can access your bills and bank accounts to make sure the mortgage and the health insurance premium is paid?
Who can authorize medical care for you – and who can authorize visitors to the hospital?
Who can speak to your child’s teachers and therapists?
Who knows how to spend your child’s benefits and to keep track of expenses for reporting purposes?
Who knows how to find your child’s special needs trust?
Is it clear who will become your child’s guardian if you can’t continue – or will family members be fighting over it?
Will your child’s social security and medicaid benefits continue without interruption if your medical emergency becomes a death?

Americans are chronically underprepared for incapacity and death – less than half of adults have a will. Lack of planning creates unnecessary expense and chaos – but when you are also the caretaker of a special needs child or adult, that lack of planning can create immediate and serious problems for that child who is dependent on you for care.

Estate and incapacity planning for families with special needs members requires very specific tools, and requires thinking through more scenarios than other families. Attorneys at Parker Counsel special needs law firm know how to put together a plan that will meet your family’s specialized needs and we will work with you prepare for the worst of times with the least disruption to your child with disabilities.

Parker Counsel Legal Services serves families in Central Texas, Western Massachusetts, Northern New Jersey, and the New Hampshire Seacoast with special needs estate planning, special needs trusts, and guardianships. Contact us for a consultation at 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) or legal@parkercounsel.com

People and Money – How to Prepare for Lifelong Care for Your Special Needs Child

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Parker Counsel

It’s overwhelming to think about, we know. But we have a system and can walk you through the four key areas of planning that will create a system to care for your child no matter what the future may bring. We will help you, step by step, put together a community of caregivers, maximize financial supports, create transition tools, and nail it all down with the proper legal documents.

Start with a free phone conversation. Find out what you need to know. Find out how we can help. Find out how to put your plan together. Step by step. It’s easier than it seems. Call us (833) RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) , schedule a short information call at calendly , or email legal@parkercounsel.com

Four reasons your special needs child will never be neglected

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Pamela

Special needs parents worry. I say it a lot because it’s true. They worry about the day to day, they worry about money for therapies and equipment, they worry about school resources, they worry about finding good people to help care for their child, they worry about the future, and most of all, in the back of their mind where they shove the worries they don’t want to have to think about, they worry about their child being abandoned, neglected, and abused. They worry about the very thing that happened to 35 poor residents of a Chicago-area residential home this week. You can read the story here. But the upshot is that a worst case scenario happened and the owners of this residence simply locked the doors and left the residents alone. Abandoned, neglected and abused in the purest sense of those words.

The good news is that you have the power to eliminate that risk for your child if you plan properly. Even though your child will probably outlive you, you can still take care of your child long after you have left this earth. If you do what you need to do, there is every reason to believe that your child will never be one of the forgotten.

Imagine yourself having just completed all the the Four Keys to Special Needs Planning. Here are the four reasons your special needs child will never be neglected:

People are involved with your child. You have created a community of caregivers who have a way to stay updated on your child, have been asked to participate in your child’s life in whatever way they like, have been given specific permission to communicate with the “official” guardian and trustee for your child, and, most importantly, have been made to feel like they are a part of the group who is responsible for caring for your child.
Money is available for your child. You have made sure that your child will remain eligible for government benefits and that all other financial resources that may be available for your child are found, maximized, and properly managed.
You have left instructions and details. You have left all the information anyone might need to be able to both care for you child and also to make important decisions about their life and care in a way that is important to you and that takes into account all your child’s strengths and preferences. You have made sure that this information is accessible and available at short notice whenever needed.
The force of law is on your side. You have been to a lawyer and have gotten all the paperwork, court orders, and legal mumbo jumbo you need to ensure that your plans are carried out the way you intended.

It’s a big project. It will take you some time and it will take some money to complete this project, but it is within your reach. If you haven’t gotten our Special Needs Planning Blueprint yet, click here to request your free copy – Blueprint.

You are not the only person who can care for your child

Posted on November 27, 2017 by Parker Counsel

My heart is breaking again. Several times a year, every year, I see stories such as this one – an aging or ill parent caring for a disabled child, has become isolated and hopeless that anyone will ever be able to properly take over the care of their child, and ultimately sees only one way out: to leave this world together with their child.

The latest story ended in even more tragedy than most of these stories. A mother facing cancer tried to end her life and her daughter’s life, but the mother did not die. The mother was found before death and saved, only to face criminal charges in the death of her daughter. Convicted and facing prison two years later, she was able to try again and this time succeeded in ending her life, as well.

You can read the story in the Chicago Tribune here.

Although it is easy for parents to tell themselves that they would never do such a thing, far too many parents face their child’s adulthood without adequate support and planning and cause untold stress for themselves during their own lifetime, as well as needless stress and chaos for their family after they die. And yes, a few become so overwhelmed that they make what they have convinced themselves is the best choice for their child.

Please don’t wait to learn about what you can do to prepare for the time when you are no longer able to personally care for you child. There are choices. There are safe choices. There are happy choices. But the longer you wait, the fewer choices you have.

Start here –Four Keys to Special Needs Planning – or simply call us for an appointment to sit and talk about your situation and how to put together a plan that will make sure your child is safe and secure until the natural end of their life.

Parker Counsel special needs law firm is available by phone: 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668), by email: legal@parkercounsel.com, or schedule a short informational call with Calendly.

The System: Four Keys to Special Needs Planning

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Parker Counsel

Here’s a brief explanation of the Fearless Family Four Keys System to Special Needs Planning:

If your child with a developmental or other type of disability is not going to be able to care for their own personal and financial needs in adulthood, you will need to set up a system that can ensure they are cared for to the end of their life. That involves preparation in four key areas.

KEY ONE: Build a Community of Caregivers

Your child will need more than one person, more than a guardian, to help them through life. People have different roles and purposes in your child’s life and all need to be welcomed and “in the loop” on your child on a regular basis. Be sure to give everyone permission to talk to each other and speak up about your child.

KEY TWO: Financial Supports

Government benefits are the cornerstone for adults who have been disabled since childhood. SSI cash benefits from social security along with Medicaid will give your child access to a variety of supports designed to allow them to remain living in the community. Parents and other family members can also provide substantial amounts of money to supplement the government benefits through inheritance, life insurance, and pension benefits, but ONLY if its done the right way.

KEY THREE: Transition Tools

At various points in your child’s life there will be transitions from one caregiver to another. You must provide the information needed to make that transition a smooth one. Everything from lists of doctors and medications to contact information for family and friends to the parent’s priorities for the individual’s life should be written down and made easily accessible to anyone who cares for your child.

KEY FOUR: Legal Documents

The best made plans will only work as you intend if you provide the legal documents needed to enforce the plan. Court sanctioned guardians, special needs trusts with well chosen trustees, designations of agents and other legal planning tools are a must in order to ensure that your plan can work properly.

Parker Counsel special needs law firm can help get you started on this system. Reach us by phone: 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) by email: legal@parkercounsel.com or schedule a short informational call at Calendly.

When love looks like dropping a potato sack

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Parker Counsel

Worry weighs a lot

There is no reason to carry around a 15 pound bag of potatoes everywhere you go. Unless you are headed home from the grocery store or are on your way to a cookout, you don’t need the bag of potatoes until its time to use them. And if you don’t plan to cook potatoes, why in the world would you carry the bag around at all?

And yet, we parents of special needs children, we parents of children that we know will never be able to fully support themselves or fully care for themselves, we choose to carry around a bag of potatoes simply because we don’t know how to put it down.

So what is the bag of potatoes we are carrying? It’s the worry about our child’s future. It’s the worry about who will care for them, who will watch over them, who will pay for them – and who will love them the way we do when we are gone. That’s our own special bag of potatoes. And the burden of carrying it saps energy and strength that could be much better spent elsewhere.

It takes effort but its worth it

There are things you can do to prepare your child for life when you are no longer around. But first you have to know what they are, then you have to have some idea of how to do them, and then you have to prioritize it enough so that taking those actions you need to prepare your plan can bust through the already overloaded days that special needs parents have – hands on care, driving to school, to therapy, calling insurance companies, supervising, cleaning up after, trying to make a buck, and oh yes, washing your own hair every now and then and trying to get a little sleep at least every few days.

Your time is already completely taken up with getting through each day. But that is precisely why it is so important to hit overdrive for a little while and take care of your planning for the future. When you do that, you will actually free up the mental energy you have assigned to worrying about the future. When you worry less, your body has less stress, and you actually feel better. All the things that accompany stress and worry, like tense muscles, stomach and intestinal problems, low energy, more illnesses, will be relieved a bit. Thinking about the future is not your only source of worry, but having seen the physical relief play out on our clients the moment they sign all their planning documents, it is probably more of a worry than you have acknowledged to yourself.

Interdisciplinary problems need interdisciplinary approaches

I have to confess here, that as a mom of two special needs children of my own, these are the same planning things that I had to make myself do. My kids were teenagers before I shifted my law practice into this area, so I actually was exactly like all of you when my kids were young. I didn’t know very much about what I needed to do, but I did know I needed to do something. I wasn’t exactly sure how to best find out what that something was. Estate planning had to be involved, right? So I chose a law firm and made an appointment and had a consultation and filled out some paperwork and signed some documents. But at the end of it I knew barely more than I had known going into it because the lawyers didn’t really talk to me. I explained my situation and they asked a few questions and that was about it. They did the legal actions they knew to do and that’s all that was dealt with. It had nothing to do with planning for my child, it had only to do with writing a will and a trust.

Context Matters

Think of it this way: if you or your loved has a cough, you go to the doctor, you get a diagnosis and you get a treatment of some kind. Simple response to simple problem. But imagine you or loved one – and some of you have been in this very situation – has several symptoms. Say, a cough, a limp, and an intestinal pain. But the doctor you go to only deals with coughs and doesn’t even have an interest in the limp or the pain. So you go to a doctor that treats limps, but she doesn’t want to know what the cough doctor said, it doesn’t have anything to do with her. And then you go to a doctor for the intestinal pain who says nothing is showing up on the tests, you must be ok, and you ask if the cough and limp could be related and the doctor says go ask the cough and limp doctor. You can’t get anyone to look at the entire problem, they are only willing to look at one individual body part for a problem that may or may not be related to the other problems but you can’t even find out because none of the doctors will consider the possibility.

This is what it is like to try and plan for a special needs child when you don’t have the right information because the situation hasn’t been looked at as a whole, interconnected puzzle. In isolation, you may have a series of good steps, but they may or may not all work together because no one has actually stood back and looked at the whole picture before starting to guide you through making a plan.

We see living people

This is why I built a law firm whose mission is to help special needs families. I didn’t create an estate planning firm, although we do that. I didn’t create a trusts firm, although we do that, too. Our firm does a lot of individual things, but they are all in service to what we really do: Planning for special needs families. Or, as I like to say, our firm specializes in putting down potato sacks.

You may not know how you can possibly prepare for your child’s needs long into the future, but we do. Let us help. Download the Special Needs Planning Blueprint on this page, attend one of our online workshops or Q&A sessions on the Four Keys to Special Needs Planning, or go ahead and schedule a personal consultation. Whatever it takes, we will show you how to get there.

Parker Counsel Legal Services can help you understand how to use special needs trusts and ABLE accounts together in a well designed plan to provide for the future needs of your child with a special need. We serve families in Texas, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Hampshire. Contact us for a consultation at 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) or legal@parkercounsel.com or schedule a short informational phone call at Calendly.

The Basics of Special Needs Trusts

Posted on July 14, 2017 by Parker Counsel

What is a Special Needs Trust? Special needs trusts (SNT) are a tool that lets families provide money to take care of their adult kids without preventing them from receiving medicaid and services from related government programs.

Why do you need an SNT? Medicaid benefits are available to people who 1) have a disability, 2) have very low income, and 3) have very few assets. To qualify for medicaid, an individual cannot make more than approximately $1300 a month (specific amounts can be found on the social security website) and cannot have assets totaling more than $2000 (there are some items that are exempt from inclusion in the asset determination, like a home and a vehicle used for transportation). If a parent is able to provide some money to make a good life for their child either through gift, inheritance or life insurance, the SNT is the way to do it. Without the SNT, whatever money the parent leaves the child will have to be spent on basic care before government benefits can be used.

How does the SNT work? Money or property the parent wants to make available to the child is put in the trust. Most families use the trust to hold inheritance money, or they obtain life insurance that will be paid to the trust. A trustee is appointed to spend the money on the child in accordance with the wishes of the parents or at the trustees discretion. In order for the SNT to work for preserving medicaid eligibility, the money is to be used only for things that are NOT covered by government benefits, and cannot be paid directly to the child .

What happens to the money in the SNT if the child dies? There are actually two types of SNT’s. The first is created by parents or grandparents for the benefit of the child and funded with their own money and money from any person other than the child. Money left in the trust upon the death of the child is distributed to beneficiaries who were named in the trust itself at the time it was created. Commonly, remaining money is left either to siblings or their children, or to a charity.

The other type of SNT is one that is created with money that actually belongs to the person with the disability. These trusts are common when the disability is the result of an accident and there is a lawsuit or damages paid to the individual. These may also be created if a parent dies and leaves money outright to the child without creating an SNT first. For these trusts, the money is used during the lifetime of the individual in the same way as for a trust created with other people’s money, and the individual may also receive government benefits. But upon death, any money in the trust must first be used to repay the state for benefits received by the individual.

If you need to set up a special needs trust for your own child or grandchild, we are happy to help you out. Parker Counsel special needs law firm can be reached by phone: 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) email: legal@parkercounsel.com or schedule a short informational phone call at Calendly.