Legal and financial planning with a special needs child

[Anonymous]

We are in the first year of an ASD for our high school senior, following 6 years of steadily increasing social anxiety including periods of acute distress and hospitalizations. Our DC seem to be stabilizing on a supportive regiment. With that comes a realization that the future of parenting our soon to be adult will be very different than we anticipated and is only now slowly coming into view.

We are a dual income government/non profit salaried couple. We’ve saved well and have some modest family resources. We are hopeful our child will one day be independent, but want to understand how our planning should change to allow for any possible outcomes.

How did your family plan for managing these life transitions? What is your experience with long term legal and financial planning and parenting your special needs child? Where do we find knowledgeable legal and financial advisors to help us learn and get a handle on all of this? Do you have referrals in UNWDC/MoCo?

TIA

[Anonymous]

OP - One thing is to see if you can get DS to sign the papers to allow you to continue to know about his health care and to help him find the best services needed. A good online FREE resource is the Special Needs Alliance to get you started to understand the aspects of a Special Needs Trust in planning. On health care at least he can continue on your family policy until age 26.

If he is making strides with anxiety and other aspects, I would start higher education locally to help him acquire daily living skills. Also if he has a therapist and psychiatrist he works well with it may be most important with the diagnosis at last to continue the team during this major transition in DS’s life. If he goes to college, I would look into insurance if available should it not work out. Just remember there is no one set pathway or timetable for a young adult, and the impact of the last three years needs to be considered, too.