• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Zimmer Law Firm logo Zimmer Law Firm
  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning
    • Legacy Wealth Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Young Adult Protection Plan
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Zimmer Law Firm

Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys

513.721.1513
Request a Free Consultation
Request a Free Consultation

Google initial with star next to it

  • Our Firm
    • About Our Firm
    • Attorney and Staff Profiles
    • Communities We Serve
      • Butler County
        • Fairfield
        • Hamilton
        • West Chester
      • Clermont County
        • Milford
      • Hamilton County
        • Blue Ash
        • Cincinnati
        • Loveland
        • Montgomery
        • Sharonville
      • Warren County
        • Mason
    • Our Client Care Program
  • Services
    • Estate Planning
    • Incapacity Planning
    • IRA Inheritance Planning
    • Legacy Wealth Planning
    • LGBTQ Estate Planning
    • Medicaid Planning and Elder Law
    • SECURE Act
    • Special Needs Planning
    • Young Adult Protection Plan
  • Live Events
    • Webinars
  • Resources
    • DocuBank
    • Elder Law Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Elder Law & Medicaid Definitions
      • Fairfield
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Montgomery
      • Sharonville
      • West Chester
    • Estate Planning Resources
      • Estate & Gift Tax Figures
      • Estate Planning Checkup
      • Estate Planning Definitions
      • Free Estate Planning Checklist
      • Incapacity Planning Definitions
      • Is Your Estate Plan Outdated?
      • Legacy Planning Definitions
      • Top 10 Estate Planning Techniques
    • FAQs
    • Pre Consultation Form
    • Probate Resources
      • Blue Ash
      • Cincinnati
      • Hamilton
      • Loveland
      • Mason
      • Milford
      • Probate Checklist
      • Sharonville
      • Trust Administration & Probate Definitions
      • West Chester
    • Presentations
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Contact

Home Our Blog What Is a Supplemental Needs Trust?

What Is a Supplemental Needs Trust?

By Barry Zimmer on May 27th, 2014 in Estate Planning, Special Needs Planning

There are many things to take into consideration when you are planning your estate. There is more to it than the proverbial slicing of the pie. You should consider each person on your inheritance list, because all of your heirs are unique individuals. The right way to provide for one person may not be right for the next.

With this in mind, let’s look at supplemental needs trusts.

Government Benefit Eligibility

If you are going to be providing for someone with a disability, you have to understand rules governing government benefit eligibility. Many people with disabilities are enrolled in the Medicaid program. Medicaid is a government health insurance program that is available to people who have very limited financial resources.

Medicaid can be absolutely essential for many people with disabilities. Depending on the disability, care and treatment, it could cost millions of dollars over the course of a lifetime.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is also relied upon by a significant percentage of people who have disabilities.

Once you gain eligibility for government benefits, the eligibility is not necessarily permanent. These are need-based programs. If you were to come into some money as someone who is eligible for government benefits, your eligibility could be lost.

As a result, you must take the right steps if you have someone with a disability on your inheritance list. If you have a Will that names this person as a direct inheritance recipient, his or her eligibility could be forfeited.

Supplemental Needs Trusts

A solution exists in the form of a supplemental needs trust. You fund the trust and you name the person with a disability as the beneficiary of the trust. You also name a trustee to administer the trust. This can be an individual, but it could also be a trust company or the trust department of a bank.

The Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income benefits will not pay for all of the needs of the beneficiary. The trustee may use assets that have been placed into the Supplemental Needs Trust to provide for these unmet needs. Because of the nature of these expenditures, benefit eligibility is not impacted.

Free Special Report

Our firm has assembled a comprehensive library of special reports. These reports cover numerous different estate planning and elder law topics. One of the reports focuses on Special Needs Planning as it applies to minor children.

This report is available to you absolutely free of charge at the present time. We encourage you to download this informative, in-depth study.

To obtain access to the report, click this link and follow the simple instructions that you see: Free Special Needs Planning Report.

 

Primary Sidebar

Request a Free Consultation

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

What Our Clients Say

Some years ago, Barry Zimmer suggested we do a basic estate plan for our son when he went to college. We had no idea how important it would be! In our son's freshman year, he ended up in the hospital, and we were able to get crucial information about his condition because we had a health care ...

Read All Testimonials

Zimmer Law Firm

9825 Kenwood Road
Suite 201
Cincinnati, OH 45242

Copyright © 2025 Zimmer Law Firm
Disclaimer Privacy Policy

 

Make a Payment