Melissa Negrin-Wiener on Kids With Special Needs

Melissa Negrin-Wiener’s insights were recently featured in a Barrons article titled:

Kids With Special Needs Deserve Benefits. A Trust Protects Them.

Melissa shares her insights on third-party supplemental trusts and first-party special needs trusts:

Financial advisors and estate planners recommend parents set up third-party supplemental needs trusts, says Melissa Negrin-Wiener, senior partner at Cona Elder Law. In a third-party trust, the disabled individual never has access to the money directly, allowing a trustee to designate a beneficiary if there are any leftover funds after the individual dies.

A first-party supplemental needs trust is used for money the child received outright, such as money from a lawsuit or an improperly planned inheritance. Money in these trusts can also be used for the individual without immediately impacting their governmental benefits, but these are “payback trusts,” Negrin-Wiener explains. At the person’s death, that means Medicaid can claw back the benefits it has paid for this individual over his or her lifetime before remaining funds go to other beneficiaries.

To read the full article visit Barrons or MSN.