when we talk about special needs

planning we’re talking about planning

for the care and needs of family members

or loved ones who have disabilities

in Illinois and in New York there are

robust government programs under the

Medicaid Department that provide a lot

of really great services for family

members and loved ones who have

disabilities so these Services include

day programs Career Training Residential

Care lots of really great things that

can help someone who has a disability

live their most independent

healthiest happiest most comfortable

life with as much dignity as possible in

order to become eligible for those

programs

folks who have disabilities have to have

under a certain threshold of assets

so what we do is in Special Needs

planning for anyone who has property in

excess of that threshold we can use

something called a Special Needs Trust

to transfer those assets into an

irrevocable trust so that they won’t be

taken into consideration when Medicaid

is determining whether or not someone

with a disability is eligible for

benefit for benefits under those

programs or not