financial Gordon Homes, CFP
Con s iderat i o n s for S ucce sso r Caregi v i n g Who will continue caring after my loved one with special needs when I am no longer able to?
benefits, assuring the vision and quality of life you have in mind for your loved one with special needs.
This is a critical question many caregivers caring for a loved one with special needs will need to anticipate and plan for. The role of a successor caregiver is vital. Planning and considerations can be put into place in advance to help make the transition to the successor caregiver successful.
Next phase of successor caregiver You may have established a life care plan, but additional and important consideration will also be your vision for successor caregivers. Caregiving can be stressful, often taking a toll emotionally as well as economically. Many successor caregivers will have to balance the needs of their family as well as the responsibilities of the individual with special needs. It is imperative for successor caregivers to have all the available information and resources in place to assist them. In addition to administrating funds out of a special needs trust or ABLE account for the individual with special needs you may want to consider additional trusts.
Person-centered life care planning with integrated legal and financial planning Following a person-centered life care planning process keeps the person with special needs as the primary focus and develops a life care plan that helps enable that person to obtain the best quality of life possible. A life care plan is a coordinated and integrated program of social, medical, financial, and legal strategies for people with disabilities and their families. A life care plan continually changes to adapt to the needs of the individual throughout his or her life and is integrated with the broader family planning. A life care plan should integrate estate, legal and financial planning with government
30 Special Needs Living • April 2022
• A caregiver trust can be set up to alleviate some of the financial aspects of providing care by the caregiver and cover some items a special needs trust might not be able to. • A legacy trust is an irrevocable trust which allows you to remove assets from your primary estate into the trust, which acts like a secondary estate. • A spendthrift trust allows for a beneficiary to receive funds incrementally (this would not necessarily be a good option for an individual on resource tested government benefits).
