Special needs planning protects benefits the family has worked to establish while ensuring resources supplement the beneficiary's life over a long horizon. For Village families, the planning often integrates with the parents' overall estate plan, with the trust functioning as a sub-trust within a revocable trust or as a standalone structure activated at death.
Trust types Village families use
A third-party special needs trust holds funds belonging to someone else, typically parents or grandparents. No Medicaid payback at death, remainder passes to whoever the family designates.
A first-party special needs trust holds funds belonging to the person with the disability. Generally must include a Medicaid payback at the beneficiary's death.
Coordinating with the family plan
- The parents' wills or trusts directing inheritance into the special needs trust rather than outright.
- Updated beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance.
- Coordinated planning for siblings to avoid imbalance.
- Letters of intent describing the beneficiary's day-to-day life, providers, and routines.
- Guardianship or supported decision-making documents where applicable.
What we draft
- Third-party special needs trusts (standalone or embedded in revocable trusts).
- First-party special needs trusts for beneficiaries with their own assets.
- Pooled trust arrangements when individual trusts aren't the right fit.
- Letters of intent and guidance documents.
- Updated parental estate plans coordinating with the trust.