Ssi & Medicaid Planning
Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid are both means-tested: eligibility depends on staying under strict limits on income and countable assets — commonly just $2,000 in resources for an individual. For a family planning around a loved one with a disability, that threshold isn’t an abstraction; it’s the line between benefits continuing uninterrupted and benefits being suspended the day a well-meaning relative’s gift or inheritance arrives.
Effective planning in this area is coordination work as much as legal drafting: aligning estate planning documents, trust structures, and even the family’s everyday financial decisions so that support for a loved one enhances their life without ever pushing them over an eligibility line that took years to qualify under.
SPECIAL NEEDS TRUST PLANNING
COORDINATED PLANNING
Wills, trusts, and beneficiary designations across the whole family need to route any inheritance for the beneficiary into a properly structured trust rather than to the individual directly.
Structuring the settlement into a first-party special needs trust before funds are disbursed preserves eligibility that would otherwise be lost the moment the settlement is paid directly.
Grandparents and other relatives often want to help directly, without realizing a check or gift given outright can jeopardize benefits; coordinating these contributions through the trust protects both the gift's intent and the beneficiary's eligibility.
As a child with a disability turns eighteen, eligibility rules for SSI shift from being based on parental income to the individual's own resources — a transition that often opens new planning opportunities and requires its own review.
ONGOING PLAN MAINTENANCE
A WORD ON DIY WILLS
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