Special Needs Trust - professional trustee or family member?

[Anonymous]

My nieces the father, my brother, set up a Special Needs Trust, commonly called an "SNT," and funded it with about $2 million. Although my brother and I loved each other, we weren't close. He and his wife were MAGA.

So they set up a trust at BECU Trust Services in Bellevue Easgington and made the organization who had been supported living organization for her for over 25 years, also her SSI payee.

They named a trustee that works for BECU and she, is deliberately keeping my niece poor and has driven a wedge with lies, between us, because we demanded more oversight after we found out my niece and her payee at Arc, stayed at a hotel in Seattle for 4-5 days and the hotel was around $1k while room service apparently was over $1,500. But we couldn't get any answer from the Trustee or the Arc of King County.

So then a couple of weeks ago, I was visiting my niece with my driver and it's about a five hour round trip from where I live.

During my visit, the Trustee from BECU as well as their VP showed up. They wanted us to leave. My niece protested twice and said I want my uncle here. Whatever you have to say to me, he can hear. They said no and threw us out.

They then went on to tell my niece vicious untrue lies about my brother and our relationship. My niece is incredibly impressionable and now won't speak to me.

They and the Arc, retaliated against me for yelling my niece, no you aren't broke like they're telling you! You can live outside of public housing and leave this cockroach infested, black mold infested dump!

She wanted to. Until, Everytime, they would intervene and she would again say, they said I'm fine here for another year and can't afford to move.

They wouldn't even replace her arcing totally dangerous microwave. She said she was afraid to tell the Arc or the Trust.

They say nobody but the beneficiary benefits from a special needs trust.

So the Vice President of BECU Member's Trust and the trustee, don't make a dime more when more is left in the Trustees account and she doesn't spend it?

They're doing it for.free?

That's exactly what she told us they're doing. They told her they do things for her like get her curtains, for free. The trust pays for the curtains, but they don't get any reimbursement or make a dime from her!

So they work for free.

They have deliberately sabotaged our relationship, to keep her poor, while profiting off of her trust assets.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, OP. Everyone I know who has a SN family member has a family member who is their trustee. My son, twin brother of my SN daughter, will be her conservator and trustee. He will be able to hire any help he needs and be paid for his time but he alone will administer the trust. If I hear of anyone who has an alternative to a family member that is working well, I will post it here.

[Anonymous]

100% agree with a family member as the trustee; you can always hire to handle the administrative work, but the family member should have the final legal authority. Otherwise, if something goes wrong with the hired administrator, you will face very onerous legal proceedings to get them replaced.

[Anonymous]

My husband and I are slated to manage funds for my SIL. She is a higher functioning adult with cognitive and social deficits. She has the skills to live independently but is extremely vulnerable to being taken advantage of, and she is inclined to spend every dollar she has. She can really only be trusted with $25-$50 at a time. My in-laws have a trust set up that will come into our control when they are no longer able to manage it. They also have a separate account with liquid cash (i believe $10,000 or so) in a HYSA that is in our name. This would be to cover any kind of immediate or urgent need related to his sister. Finally, they invested in a condo for her to live in that will also come under our name when the time comes. We had the option of an inheritance to renovate our home to have her live with us- but for now, the plan is for her to live in the condo near by. If we sell the condo, a certain percentage of the profit goes back into the estate for the sister.

This is not as commonly talked about but my in-laws set the trust up in a way that we get paid a stipend from it- roughly $1000/month but it is based off the interest the account earns. The idea is that it covers our time and incentivizes us to accommodate my SIL's needs. This is to cover things like taking her to dinner, buying her birthday and Christmas presents, taking her to the theater, etc. It also is a "thank you" for considering her when planning out our own lives. For example, we couldn't go on a vacation without making arrangements for her or bringing her with us. We also could never move out of the area without taking her with us or setting up significant supports here. We might need to take off work to take her to appointments and therapies. We would likely do this regardless of the money, but I will say that it really really helps to know that we aren't taking resources away from our own children to support my SIL. My in-laws came up with this after pricing out hiring someone to manage it all. They are elderly and in poor health, so the peace of mind of having a plan is really really important to them.

The downside is that there won't be a very big inheritance. Having a dependent adult child has drained a lot of their funds and they have put the rest towards securing her future after they are gone. My husband will inherit half of the sale of their house, but otherwise, their estate goes to support their daughter.

[Anonymous]

Don't use BECU Investment and Members Trust Services as they are frauds using disabled peoples special needs trust for profit and talk clients into living in the gutter and tell them they're fine and don't spend money! The more money they keep in the trust and you don't spend, the more they also make for themselves. And do you know what they actually charge to manage your trust? So they tell you like our relative that they do it all for free? They don't! Linda Davenport and Aimee Zewalski are liars at BECU. frauds! That's my opinion!