Arcare special needs trust options ease burden on families

Navigating services for a loved one with disabilities can be exhausting and time-consuming. How many of the following scenarios sound familiar?

  • Searching online brings up thousands of blog posts, scholarly articles, websites, and even YouTube videos dedicated to discussing the maze of disability services.
  • Spending hours a day for months filling out applications for a disability determination, services and supports to protect your loved one.
  • After receiving an eligibility determination from the state, some states, including Kansas and Missouri, often have a waitlist of 2-3 years for waiver services.

Nothing about the process seems to move quickly. So what do you do when something such as an unexpected inheritance, backpay from Social Security, or proceeds from a personal injury settlement threatens your loved one’s eligibility for services due to excess resources?

Arcare provides options

Arcare has developed its trust services to help you or your loved one with disability preserve the financial resources required to meet their needs without jeopardizing eligibility for government-provided supplemental benefits.

The Arcare Trust I and Trust II programs ensure individuals with disability can access the financial resources needed for daily life beyond food, shelter, and basic medical care while preserving eligibility for public benefits. Arcare handles the paperwork and disbursement of funds while delivering personalized service and attention to clients. This frees family members from the overwhelming responsibility of being a money manager or trustee.

Arcare offers two types of special needs trusts (SNT).

Arcare Trust I

The Arcare Trust I is a third-party special needs trust for parents and family members who want to provide for a person with special needs. In this situation, Arcare holds, protects and administers “inherited” money for the individual with a disability in a professional, caring and cost-effective manner.

Here are just some of the benefits of this type of trust:

  • The grantor(s) can name the remainder beneficiary.
  • It is cost-effective and less complex than a private third-party special needs trust.
  • The trust can be set up now or deferred until funds are distributed under an estate plan.
  • The beneficiary maintains eligibility for public benefits while benefiting from the assets in the trust.

Arcare Trust II

The Arcare Trust II is a self-settled special needs trust. This type of trust is for clients who have excess funds from a settlement, inheritance, back disability payment, or other special circumstance while receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid and/or other public benefits. Instead of going into a spend-down situation, these funds can be placed into the Arcare Trust II.

Here are just some of the benefits of this type of trust:

  • The individual with disability can be the grantor and beneficiary.
  • The individual can continue receiving SSI, Medicaid, and other benefits while retaining their own savings, inheritance, personal injury settlement, back payment from Social Security, or other financial award.
  • The trustee provides money management for those who would not otherwise be able to handle a significant sum of money or who would be vulnerable to exploitation.
  • The trustee helps enhance the beneficiary’s quality of life beyond what would usually be possible for those on public benefits.

Serving thousands of beneficiaries since 1996

Arcare’s trust program has been operating since 1996 and currently has more than 1,000 beneficiaries enrolled. We provide regulation, understanding, fiscal oversight, and management to create an affordable trust option for you and your loved one’s needs.

If you have questions, would like more information about Arcare’s trust programs or would like to enroll in one of the trust options, call us today at 913.648.0233 to speak to our Trust Department. We are here to help.

National Business Institute training on special needs trusts

Arcare presents NBI workshop on special needs trusts

Special Needs Trusts expertise is at the heart of how our Arcare staff helps families ensure their loved ones with disability can maintain financial independence without jeopardizing eligibility for important benefits. Because of our team’s familiarity with the issues surrounding creating, funding and maintaining these trusts, we are often asked to participate in trainings and workshops about these planning tools.

Yesterday, Lynn Carter and Barb Helm joined board member Emily Donaldson and strategic partner Stacey Janssen in co-presenting at a National Business Institute (NBI) workshop titled “Protect Your Clients Assets Amidst Changing Healthcare Policy” in Kansas City. The focus of this seminar was on how Special Needs Trusts and private health insurance may be impacted under the ACA, and how that may affect decisions about care for individuals with disabilities. This one-day seminar provided attending legal professionals with continuing education credits and information about how to help clients make sound decisions in establishing special needs trusts.

The agenda for the workshop was broken down into the following categories:

  1. What Is a Special Needs Trust and Does Your Client Need One?
  2. Drafting the SNT – Sample Provisions Review and Analysis
  3. Protecting Eligibility for Public Benefits
  4. Special Needs and the Affordable Care Act
  5. Ethical Considerations

In addition to the attorneys who attended, other participants included paralegals, home care professionals, nursing home administrators, accountants, financial planners and other professionals working with disabled clients. At the conclusion of the workshop, attendees gave all presenters rave reviews for their knowledge and insight on the topics at hand.

Arcare Provides Pooled Trusts Testimony

Arcare provides expert testimony on pooled trusts in Iowa

On February 24, Arcare served as an expert on pooled trusts in front of the Iowa Legislature. Our testimony was in support of a new law that would basically negate Section 633C.2 of the existing Iowa law regulating medical assistance trusts.

633C.2 Disposition of medical assistance special needs trusts.
Regardless of the terms of a medical assistance special needs trust, any income received or asset added to the trust during a one-month period shall be expended as provided for medical assistance income trusts under section 633C.3, on a monthly basis, during the life of the beneficiary. Any increase in income or principal retained in the trust from a previous month may be expended, during the life of the beneficiary, only for reasonable and necessary expenses of the trust, not to exceed ten dollars per month without court approval, for special needs of the beneficiary attributable to the beneficiary’s disability and approved by the district court, for medical care or services that would otherwise be covered by medical assistance under chapter 249A, or to reimburse the state for medical assistance paid on behalf of the beneficiary.

This restrictive clause hinders persons with disability to benefit from distributions currently allowed through special needs trusts by federal regulation.

To view the complete testimony, click here.