Special Needs Planning
The Special Needs Practice Group provides legal counsel and support in creating a comprehensive plan for families of individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities and mental health disorders. Our attorneys can help families achieve their goals including maintaining a disabled individual’s eligibility for government benefits, protecting and managing assets and inheritances for the disabled individual while ensuring he/she is cared for in the manner and standard the family envisions when they are unable to care for their loved one themselves. Such plans may consist of wills, health care proxies, powers of attorney, life insurance trusts, family trusts, credit shelter trusts as well as third party supplemental needs trusts and first party Medicaid payback trusts.
We provide consultation services for families in order to better understand the eligibility and application processes of government and private benefits for individuals with special needs, including SSI, MassHealth, Childhood Disability Benefits (formerly called “DAC” benefits), Medicare, public housing vouchers and ABLE accounts. Our attorneys will review and advise families relative to private funding sources, including child support, and their potential impact on government benefits. We can help families formulate a plan to maintain eligibility for services and to plan for the future.
Fletcher Tilton’s Special Needs Practice Group provides advocacy services for individuals who are applying for or receiving services through the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services. We represent individuals on eligibility and domicile appeals, priority of services appeals and in the ISP process.
Special Needs Planning Resource Library
- How Work Affects SSI, SSDI and CDB Eligibility
- DDS Application and Appeals Process: Getting to Eligibility
- Guardianship and Alternatives
- Government Benefits for Persons Who Are Disabled
- A Comparison Between First and Third Party Special Needs Trusts and ABLE Act
- Worried About Losing Your Home to the Costs of Long-Term Care?
- Understanding Special Needs Planning
- Intellectual Disability Policy as Developed, Expressed, and Evaluated in AAIDD/The Arc Joint Statements: The Role of Organization Position Statements
