More and more families are facing the challenges of estate planning in families with a special needs child.  How will a special needs child be protected after the parents are gone? 

The primary way in which families protect their special needs children is through the use of a special needs trust.  This is a trust which has a trustee to protect and preserve the wealth for the benefit of the special needs child, with special distribution rules that restrict distributions to the special needs child so as to preserve entitlement to government benefits.