"If antone reads this and can add why or that do it yourself wills and trusts are not good enough for our kids, that would be great!!!!"
I worked as a legal secretary for over 10 years. I had 3 lawyers I worked for, one of which his specialty was will, trusts, estate work. I can tell you from experience that when wills and trusts are not set up correctly for ones specific situation the mess it can cause for the one left behind
My boss had done our wills but when Chris was born he found a lawyer that specialized in special needs trusts and told me to go to him as he was just not qualified in this area and believe me he was one very qualified attorney but wanted Chris to be protected and that really is a special area.
A basic will sure anyone can do, I did my sisters will had it signed witnessed and such without any lawyer, just me taking care of it. Sad to say it came into play way sooner then any of us would have ever thought but it really was a simply will. So yea for a very simple will an on line will would be just fine.
One thing that the trust does is K, I am not sure I can explain in writing real well. Example is if and when both Colin and I pass, our estate is broken into shares. Christopher actually getting a bit more of the shares that would go into our family trust. When Chris turns 18 he qualifies for SSI, Medicare and such. One getting SSI can only have so much money in their name and believe me its a ridiculously low number they allow you have. Anywho any money that is left to our family trust no matter how much will in no way affect his benefits, KWIM. The trust is set up so that say Kodi moves to CA lets say one day, she as Trustee to the trust can use the money in the trust for any thing he may need or want that can not be covered by his SSI. So lets just say she wants to fly him out there to visit her but didn't have the money to do that she can use it from the trust fund. Say Chris wanted to continue skiing and his SSI was not enough to cover that, it could be taken out of the trust for him. Any money in the trust fund that is left will go to Kodi if anything ever happen to Chris.
It basically protects the one with the special needs from losing any services that are entitled to and still having money left to them, KWIM If you have money in your name then basically that will have to be used up first before they can receive benefits.
Any money he receives as gifts can be put in the trust fund and not take away from him receiving services, KWIM
Say your parents want to leave something in their wills to their grandchildren any money for the one with special needs should be left to the family trust NOT in the child's name.
We had our wills and trust fund done before Chris was a year old LOLOL hey its the legal eagle in me
At that time which was many moons back the attorney advised us that basically we should have at min. 600,000 or so to cover the trust for Christopher's future. Probably more now would be my guess the way things are today. That would include value of house, saving accounts, bonds, stocks... you know all that makes up the value of your estate.
We are actually going to change it a bit and honestly I would only go to one that has full knowledge of Special Needs Trusts.
Once you have the wills and family trust set up you should get a Tax ID number and then go to your bank to set up the account. Honestly the account does not have to have any great amount of money in it, until the day that it will be needed.
Hmmm hope I was not to confusing and made some kind of sense for you
CC~