my brothers and trusts - it is messy

November 30, 2011

Terrie and

I did not mean to imply we have not seen lawyers. In the 13 year journey since

my Mom passed away we have seen 7 lawyers. The first 3 were not special needs

lawyers and 2 gave us very bad advice. Then we discovered SibNet and started

learning about things such as special needs trusts and we have met with 4 more

lawyers including you Terrie and another person in your firm recently. The

situation with my my brothers is too long to explain in a post but in a

nutshell, the trust benefits other family members in addition to my brothers and

also hold real estate which would not be easy to sell right now. In addition to

that they both have annuities from a malpractice settlement. I think this is

called a court structured settlement. MetLife says it can not be put into a

special needs trust, this may or may not be true. When the brother's lost their

places at Pioneer Center due to a HUD audit we began looking into once again if

there was a way to make then Medicaid eligible and after spending some time and

money looking into it we found that it would depend both on the judge and also

whether or not the annuity could go into a trust. We could not accomplish all

of this in time for the brothers next move and could possibly end up spending

more money that could be used to care for them and find out we could not do it

anyway. Dissolving the trust would also negatively impact my sister who has

already essentially given up most of her former life, including her job to care

for my brothers. There is more but perhaps that gives you a better picture. We

have benefited from the advice of your and the other special needs lawyers and

at least now are not doing things that are illegal. BTW neither judge has

recommended we change what we are doing. We have not given up on trying again

but given what is going on politically with threats to Medicaid and the real

estate market we will wait awhile. It should not be this complicated. Thanks

Nora

December 1, 2011

Nora

Thanks for sharing your story...it is certainly complicated and it highlights

how important it is for families to talk and plan before there is a need to

switch guardianship (think about Letters of Intent...put it all in writing..)

AND most importantly, it is critical to talk to the most experienced attorneys

in this field to make sure that the financial picture is one that will best help

sustain a quality life for our loved ones who have disabilities.

Ellen

Ellen Garber Bronfeld

egskb@...

Recommended Posts