Special Needs Trusts: Inheritance & Lifetime Gifting

Transfers to third-party Special Needs Trusts by way of inheritance or lifetime gifting are efficient ways to fund third-party Special Needs Trusts.  This chapter of Fundamentals of Special Needs Trusts provides details of how parents, grandparents, siblings and others can direct an inheritance to a Special Needs Trust.  The chapter also discusses the tax implications of both inheritance and gifting.  College 529 plans are often funded in this manner because one of the major advantages of using 529 plans is that the donor is not restricted to the annual gift exclusion amount and can stack up to five years of gifts. This chapter explores the maximum amount that can be contributed to a 529 and proper methods for distributions to and from a 529 plan.

Please click on the link at the top of the post to view or download the extended excerpt as well as the Table of Contents for Fundamentals of Special Needs Trusts.

This free download is part of Fundamentals of Special Needs Trusts, which places special needs trusts in the arsenal of tools available to an attorney to help his senior clients and those who have disabilities. It helps the practitioner to understand how she can draft a trust, using the person's own funds or the funds of another, to provide goods and services for those clients that will enhance their everyday existence.

Fundamentals of Special Needs Trusts provides practitioners with analysis of the law, authoritative advice, practice notes, checklists, and forms. It begins with a discussion of the history of special needs trusts, discusses ethical issues, explains the various types of special needs trusts and how to draft, fund, and administer those trusts, how and when to terminate them, and the relevant tax considerations.

It is a reasonably priced desk manual that is available at the LexisNexis Store and is the product of highly experienced practitioners.