Often emotion and some confusion will mark the lives of people who have disabilities when it comes to long range planning by their loved ones or families when they die without leaving specific plans and resources for their family member with a disability. However, with no future plan, the courts and public agencies will move in to deal with the problem, which are currently beset with government fiscal woes and growing bureaucracies services.
Families who want to leave money to their son or daughter or perhaps grandchildren with a disability may disqualify them from most of the public programs available to people with disabilities in Canada. Programs such as the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), Supportive Independent Living, assisted public housing and a host of services and programs, all require recipients to have resources of less than their provincial asset limit. The current threshold limit in Ontario is $5,000.
In spite of the various alternative choices for lifetime planning, very few families who have a family member with a disability ever actually take steps to provide resources and programs for their family member after their death. People with disabilities are facing increasingly tragic outcomes when no adequate future planning has been provided for, or planned for their ongoing financial security after they?ve gone. Sometimes, unfortunately people with a disability in their later years are destined to eke out a living relying on shelters and/or food banks. In Canada there are more than one million people with a disability living with their families who have made little or no provision for them when the family members are no longer alive or able to provide assistance.
There currently are good and acceptable estate planning procedures whereby a person with a disability can participate in the benefits of an estate without even risking their government benefits or their entitlements. Disinheriting a child with a disability is not allowed in most provinces in Canada. However an inheritance left in an absolute discretionary or special needs trust is considered an exempt asset in the majority of provinces and states. Families today need to familiarize themselves with these procedures before meeting with a attorney, they should utilize the services of a financial planner with both experience and expert knowledge in to assist with the family?s estate plans. A reputable ?Life Planner? or ?Chartered Life Planner? (Ch lp) will recognize that most families who have a family member with a disability have very limited resources. The life planner?s primary concern is to find available resources and reallocate them to the trust so that the future funding of the trust will be realistic without offending other children or creating a legal battle should they or the government place claims against the estate and the financial plan.
When in consultation with parents or caregivers and various associations who support people with disabilities, Life TRUST Planning has developed a Comprehensive Life PLAN to financially assist people with disabilities when there are no longer any family members available. Life TRUST Planning offers workshops and seminars to help parents and relatives create a Comprehensive Life PLAN for their child or relative. Topics include Government entitlements, Disability Tax Credits, a Letter of intent, a Henson trust, how to select trustees, estate distribution and a living Legacy Life TRUSTPlan.
Learn more about future life planning for people with a disability in Canada. Stop by John Dowson , Ch lp?s site where you can find out about a life plan and what it can do for you. To book a seminar Contact: LifeTRUST Planning,60 Harrison Dr. Newmarket Ont. L3Y 4P4 1 1-800-638-7256
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