Estate Planning In New York Involving a Child With A Disability

What could be any more troubling than thinking about life for our loved ones after our demise? Add to this task the specter of what might be needed for a son or daughter with a disability after we will no longer be available to act as that individual's advocate/protector.

Over the past several years, there has been considerable effort/training devoted to the need for parents of children with developmental disabilities to provide for their children's future. In fact, this attention to future planning has heightened to somewhat of a frenzy. Increasingly, providers and government officials have stressed the importance of future planning as a means to supplement what might be a depletion of services for individuals with a disability. Questions like these have arisen: What do you plan to do with your house, insurance, and assets? What will be the size of your "nest egg" for the child with the disability? It may be hard to even contemplate such questions when there are daily concerns about paying bills and meeting present needs.

Wills, trusts, and guardianship are the mainstay of such future plans. However, with the plethora of information available and the passage of Chapter 433 of the New York State Laws of 1993, there is still an inertia on the part of parents to "make the plan."