Protecting the Recovery – Preservation of Needs-Based Benefits & Other Considerations
August 10, 2023
By Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC
Section 1: Introduction to Special Needs Trusts
Medicaid and SSI are income and asset sensitive public benefits, which require planning to preserve. In many states, one dollar of SSI benefits …
How to Use a Special Needs Trust to Preserve Benefits Eligibility for Disabled Injury Victims
November 4, 2020
John Doe was a laborer since age eighteen, but when he was thirty, he was severely injured and became paralyzed. John didn’t have health insurance at the time of his accident, and the hospital applied for Medicaid …
ABLE Accounts: Helping Clients on Public Benefits Make the Most of their Recovery
October 8, 2020
ABLE accounts, named for the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, have been around since 2014 but remain underutilized across the country despite offering a way for people with disabilities and public benefits to save money without …
Public Benefits Preservation: What Your Client Doesn’t Know will Hurt Them, and You!
April 9, 2020
By: Evelynn Passino
One of the many practice points rarely taught in law school: your client may lose public benefits as a result of a recovery, and you have a duty, as their attorney, to discuss benefit …
The Special Needs Trust: 3 Types
The Special Needs Trust (SNT) is designed to protect individuals with disabilities who are receiving money through a trust. The SNT is an effective tool because it places funds and other relevant assets in the control of a trustee to …
Protecting Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid Eligibility for Injury Victims: Special Needs Trusts
Introduction
The receipt of personal injury proceeds by someone who is disabled can cause ineligibility for means based tested government benefit programs. Medicaid[1] and SSI[2] are two such programs. However, there are planning devices that can be utilized …
What Sets SSNPT Apart?
Clients who receive needs based benefits such as Medicaid and SSI require special planning to protect eligibility for those public benefits. More and more frequently, a pooled special needs trust is being utilized to preserve eligibility given the ease with …
Distributions from Special Needs Trusts: In Kind Distributions, Credit Cards, Gift Cards, or Debit Cards
You are the trustee of a special needs trust. Your beneficiary (Beth) lives in public housing, receives SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and MA (Medical Assistance), and has just asked you for a $200 gift card to Target so that she …
Special Needs Trusts – The Differences
Special Needs Trusts – The Differences
By: Jason D. Lazarus, J.D., LL.M., MSCC, CSSC
A special needs trust is a trust that can be created pursuant to Federal law whose corpus or any assets held in the trust do not …
From Roger Baron – 5th Affirms Constructive Trust for ERISA plan of PI Proceeds Placed into SNT
Reprinted with Permission from Roger Baron
The personal injury attorney in ACS Recovery Services v. Griffin had been successful in sheltering a settlement fund from a lien assertion made by ACS Recovery Services. The federal magistrate held that the reimbursement …
