Ruder Ware's Elder Law Team Recognizes National Special Needs Law Month - Part 2
In Richey v. Brouse, the settlor created a special needs trust for her son, who had a mental disability and a seizure disorder that required day-to-day care. No. 03-23-00544-CV, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 8842 (Tex. App.—Austin...more
Managing a Special Needs Trust (SNT) comes with tremendous responsibility. Trustees are not only tasked with safeguarding the financial future of a beneficiary with special needs, but they must also ensure that trust assets...more
Looking for a way to stop family arguments over politics? Well, who isn’t. A quick way to derail a familial political scuffle: Quietly announce that you want to talk about your will. The silence should be automatic. It’s...more
Trusts serve a variety of tax, asset protection and estate planning purposes for families, and over the years different types of trusts have evolved to best serve families’ planning needs and objectives. Each type of trust...more
Individuals with a disability or special needs (hereafter, the “individual”) frequently have a team of people providing them the care and assistance they require. For families managing this care team, there is an...more
People often assume that if their estate isn’t taxable, they don’t need to have an estate plan. In 2023, a Massachusetts estate tax return must be filed if the value of the deceased person’s gross estate exceeds $1 million. A...more
On January 30, 2023, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued an opinion in In re Eva Marie Hanson Living Trust addressing the ability of an attorney-in-fact to amend a revocable trust on behalf of an incapacitated trust...more
President Obama just signed a new law that allows First Party Special Needs Trusts to be established by mentally competent individuals for their own benefit. This is a major “fix” to the current law which only allows First...more
So you have been asked to serve as the trustee of a friend or family member's special needs trust. While your selection is a great honor, it is also a great responsibility. Here are seven questions to ask before saying...more
Imagine how you would feel if you walked into your bank, asked for a summary of your account activity and the bank told you that it had no idea how much money was in your account or how it had been spent. Of course, this...more