Originally published Sunday, April 27, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Providing for future poses extra challenges
Parents of children with developmental disabilities often must jump extra hurdles in planning for their children's future.
Seattle Times staff reporter
Drawing up a will and divvying up assets are the usual ways parents plan for their children's futures. But parents of children with developmental disabilities often must go through a more elaborate process.
Unlike parents of typical children, parents of adults with disabilities feel added pressure to make sure that someone is watching over their loved one after they're gone. That can be an informal process, such as arranging with a sibling to take over. Or it can be more formal: appointing a legal guardian, which generally involves hiring a lawyer and going to court.
Leaving assets to people with disabilities can also be tricky. If a person with disabilities has more than $2,000 in assets, he or she could be disqualified from receiving key government benefits. Until the family inheritance is spent down, that person would find himself adrift, without access to many government services.
To get around that, families can form what are known as special-needs trusts, another process that generally requires a lawyer. The beneficiary can access money in the trust for things government programs don't cover — say, a plane trip to see a sibling, or new clothes — and still retain government benefits. Setting up and maintaining a trust, however, can cost thousands of dollars, depending on its size.
There are a number of pooled special-needs trusts, which combine the assets of numerous beneficiaries as a way to save on costs. The Arc of Washington has one such trust, known as the Life Opportunities Trust: www.arcwa.org.
Some parents want to go a step further in planning for their own deaths by ensuring their loved one has a social network that involves more than just caseworkers and the like.
"Some people might not have a single unpaid friend," said Jean Bateman, board president of LifeSPAN, a local organization that helps families set up circles of support around the person with disabilities.
Bateman said families should begin the process when their loved one is still young, in order to see their plan in action. LifeSPAN can help ensure the plan continues after their death: www.lifespan-wa.org.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Illegal workers quietly let go
Metro won't cut bus service after all
Jerry Large: Food-bank theft turns into a gift
Bumper to Bumper: How can the city let bridges go dark?
NEW - 01:26 AM
Tattoos at Mill Creek church pierce skin, soul

Raw Video | Real Salt Lake receives the MLS Cup trophy
Real Salt Lake is handed the 2009 MLS Cup trophy at Qwest Field, November 22, 2009.
nwjobs

Post a comment

Michelle Goodman blogs about work/life balance.
How to tell your office you're gravely ill
Post a comment
nwautos

Choosing a new sedan? Weigh the impact of your choice on your wallet and on the planet.
Post a comment
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Tugboat sinks at Seattle waterfront pier
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Snow piles up on Cascade slopes
- Woman stabbed by stranger in North Seattle
- Husky Men's Basketball Blog | Saturday's Pac-10 games in review
- Senate vote clears hurdle
239 - Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
134 - Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
127 - Palin excitement builds in Tri-Cities
123 - Tight Senate vote launches health care over hurdle
122 - Cutting through breast-cancer confusion
90 - Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle
82 - Game thread
70 - New York terror trials will restore faith in rule of law
62 - Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
54
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Washington state wines make annual best-of list
- Banff: powder, peaks & purity
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Protect yourself from baggage loss
- Northwest Living | On Whidbey, a unified home from multiple recycled parts
- Rediscovering Moab, 'the most beautiful place on Earth'





