A special needs trust (or supplemental needs trust) will protect the
income from counting against SSI, Medicare and Medicaid.  The catch is
that the person for whom the trust has been created cannot have any
direct control over it; the trustees determine how to spend the money
(which is partly why it works the way it does). However, done
properly, a special needs trust has a lot of flexibility.  The other
catch is that when the person for whom the trust is created dies the
trust may have to repay Medicaid benefits received during the persons
lifetime.  Do a Google on "special needs trust" if you want to dig
into the details...

On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 1:02 PM, Virginia Perry<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> One note of caution: some trust funds do count against SSI. It's tricky. Jeff & I have looked into this for Daniel. To set up a special needs trust that won't affect SSI, you have to go through a lawyer. It looks like it costs about $3000. When you set it up, you have to define the parameters and pick your administrators, etc.
>
>
>
> Virginia
>
>> Date: Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:33:43 -0700
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: SSI donation issues?
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> if they are kept in a special needs trust fund, and only used for things that mary needs, ssi cannot touch that, and cannot say that you (mary) was overpaid.
>>
>>

-- 
Peter Hunsberger

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