Establishing a special needs trust (SNT) is crucial to helping ensure that a child with a serious long-term disability or medical condition receives the best possible care and quality of life while you’re alive and after you’re gone. These trusts can be established for young children or adult children who can’t care for themselves.
An SNT serves a couple of key purposes. It can allow the beneficiary to receive the government benefits to which they’re entitled while still letting their parents and other loved ones provide for their comfort as much as possible.
Further, the SNT is used to designate the person (and at least one alternate) who will become the child’s legal guardian should their current guardian die or become unable to care for them. That person or someone else needs to take over as the trustee in that case.
Another important part of establishing an SNT isn’t legally required but highly recommended. It’s a letter of intent (LOI) that provides guidance to the designated guardian if they have to take over the child’s care.
What should you include in your LOI?
It can be hard to know how much information to include – especially if your designated guardian doesn’t see your child often. You’ll want to address immediate things they need to know as well as more long-term issues and goals.
The content of the LOI will depend on what kind of condition your child has and what they need help with. This LOI is especially critical if your child isn’t verbal or has cognitive issues that prevent them from making their needs clearly known.
One way to tackle it is to consider what you’d need to explain to someone who was taking care of your child for a few days. For example, it’s important for them to know what your child can and can’t do as well as what skills they’re working on.
It’s also important for them to know what your child enjoys doing, places they like to go and whom they enjoy visiting with. It’s just as important to know about what might trigger them (noises, certain medications, etc.)
An LOI isn’t a one-and-done document. You’ll likely update it regularly, so it’s smart to keep it handy on your computer. However, you also want to at least reference it in your SNT documents and ensure that the right people can access it if needed. Having experienced legal guidance can help you ensure that your SNT is established and modified as necessary for the maximum benefit of your child.