Special Needs Trust Administration Manual: A Guide for Trustees

I am the administrator for the SNTs for a brother and sister. I've spent a lot of time on line and with the SS office trying to find guidelines, knowing that one small mistake could cost my brother and sister their benefits. I found this book a great resource for the basic rules. The information is presented in a way that is easy to understand -- not a lot of legal language to wade through.

I bought this book because I am considering setting-up a Special Needs Trust for my adult daughter who is disabled. It contains excellent advice on admistering a trust, including what is allowed by law, what is not, and the gray areas. It gave me a much better understanding of how the trusts work and enabled me to have a more intelligent discussion with a trust attorney during our first meeting.

Goes over administering SNTs in detail. Good explanation of the mechanisms related to SSI, SSDI, and Medicaid, and how they interact with the SNT. Oriented to Massachusetts law, where the authors are, although should be similar in other states since law is federal with state "twists". Has a list of "do nots" and "watch out for" items that is useful, although the list is spread out through the book, would be useful to have an appendix summarizing them. Has a chapter on web site references to go to for more info. Finally, the tax section I thought was a bit vague, as it didn't distinguish between distributions that are return of corpus vs. return of income, and didn't make some other things clear. Overall, however, a good reference.

This Manual has been an invaluable resource for our office. Our office is the Trustee for Special Needs Trusts, and having such practical advice in one book has been extremely helpful for our staff. It is readable, cogent, and well organized. It is a useful tool for attorneys and non-attorneys who are trying to better understand the many issues involved with coordinating public benefits and special needs trusts. The information that it provides on Trust Administration is very useful information for anyone who is a Trustee of a Special Needs Trust. Our office is purchasing multiple copies because it is sucha a helpful resource.

Coordination of public benefits and special needs trusts are a complicated matter. I like this affordable guide because it doesn't confuse by trying to give the reader a law degree like some books. It gives straight forward, practical answers that go a long way to explaining day to day administration, particularly for the family member or professional fiduciary that doesn't have a lot of prior experience with government programs and special needs trusts. While it uses Massachusetts examples for some of the programs that could become dated over time, it makes an effort to be generic and timeless, and 95% of the content is good anywhere at anytime. I draft special needs trusts naming Trustees with a wide range of experience, from zero to full time, and I will be sending a copy of this guide to all of them.