Wednesday, June 01, 2005

"What's a special-needs trust, Doc?"

From a recent Forbes article on planning for special-needs children:
Parents are aware of the need to make plans, but 66% say there is little financial planning information available that focuses on children with special needs. Surprisingly, 85% parents turn to their doctor for financial advice.
Should trust business-development programs give more attention to this market segment?

If not, why?

1 comment:

Jim Gust said...

One difficulty with special needs trusts is that the laws are quite complicated and vary from state to state. It is dangerously easy to make a misstatement, so a reticence by trust officers to get into the subject is understandable. A consultation with a lawyer specialist is in order.

Plus, there are some delicate "political" issues here.

Still, if one plans to create a special needs trust, isn't a corporate fiduciary ideal? Or are trust departments wary of these types of trusts?