Special Needs Trust Planning in Texas.
A special needs trust can help a family provide supplemental support for a loved one with disabilities without making an outright inheritance the default. Planning should be coordinated with the family's benefit, care, housing, guardian, and trustee considerations. We work with the family and appropriate benefit professionals to create a durable, practical plan.
Parents, grandparents, and siblings planning for a family member with a disability, and guardians or fiduciaries administering existing arrangements.
- Third-party special needs trusts within a family estate plan
- Beneficiary designations coordinated with trust structure
- Letters of intent and care instructions for future caregivers
- Trustee roles, co-trustees, and successor-trustee planning
- ABLE-account coordination where relevant
- Sibling and caregiver planning across generations
- Transition planning on parent incapacity or death
The Lone Star Counsel process, adapted to the matter.
- 01Understand
Family, assets, and objectives.
- 02Design
Legal architecture appropriate to the matter.
- 03Draft
Trust and companion instruments.
- 04Fund
Assets and beneficiary designations aligned.
- 05Maintain
Reviews as life and law evolve.
About special needs trusts.
- Will a special needs trust automatically preserve benefits eligibility?
- No trust automatically preserves eligibility for every means-tested benefit. Preservation depends on the type of trust, funding source, distribution standards, and the beneficiary's specific programs. Coordination with a qualified benefits professional is important.
- Can a grandparent or family member fund a special needs trust?
- Yes. A third-party special needs trust is often established by parents or other relatives and funded during life or at death. The design should be integrated with the broader estate plan to avoid unintended outright inheritances.
- Who should serve as trustee for a special needs trust?
- The trustee needs to understand distribution standards, benefits considerations, and reporting duties. Individual, corporate, and co-trustee arrangements are all used; the right choice depends on the family and the beneficiary's circumstances.
A confidential conference with Darryl V. Pratt, Esq., CPA.
Nearly 30 years of business, estate, trust, and succession counsel. Frisco headquarters, or by secure video across the state of Texas.