Pooled Special Needs Trusts: An Important Tool to Protect Clients & Preserve Public Benefits

If your client has a disability, or has a loved one with a disability, this impacts representation in a variety of areas, including estate planning, family law, and personal injury law. The complexity of planning for the future and navigating public benefits creates unique challenges. Attorneys must act carefully to safeguard the person's eligibility for public benefits and to supplement those benefits to improve their quality of life.

A pooled special needs trust (PSNT) is an effective option to provide for individuals with a disability while protecting their eligibility for means-tested government benefits. This program presented by Ben Tiefenback, Counsel and Director of Client Services at Commonwealth Community Trust, will discuss the basics of PSNTs and how attorneys in a variety of practice areas can use them to protect their clients. 

Learning Objectives: 

1. Define Pooled Special Needs Trusts (PSNTs): Understand the fundamental aspects of PSNTs, including the differences between standalone and pooled trusts, and the structure and joining process of a pooled trust

2. Identify Eligibility for Special Needs Trusts: Learn which clients are eligible for PSNTs by exploring the intricacies of means-tested and entitlement public benefits such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and Medicare

3. Compare Standalone vs. Pooled Special Needs Trusts: Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of standalone versus pooled trusts, focusing on aspects such as governing law, funding sources, remainder policies, and implications for means-tested benefits

4. Navigate the Administration of Pooled Special Needs Trusts: Gain skills in evaluating PSNTs and understanding their administration as it relates to your clients, including understanding the roles and responsibilities in disbursement decision-making, the implications of the sole benefit rule, and identifying common traps that could jeopardize a client's public benefits

5. Integrate PSNTs with ABLE Accounts: Discuss the intersection between PSNTs and ABLE accounts, including eligibility requirements, disbursement rules, and strategic considerations for using both tools to enhance the financial well-being of clients with disabilities