There are a number of reasons why it is important to have a special needs trust Arizona for those individuals that have a disability or some other form of a special need. These accounts provides a financial safety blanket of sorts and ensure that the beneficiary’s long term care is addressed through this account, without taking away from or affecting in any way the benefits they receive from the government in the form of disability payments and Medicaid eligibility.
However, one of the most poignant points about a special needs trust account is the fact that financial planners administering special needs accounts often find themselves needing to guide families through the process of setting up and using these accounts. This is because many of the parents overseeing a special needs trust Arizona account often don’t understand the full capabilities of this account type and rely on their planners to understand the requirements of this account and the allowances that can be made for them to be fully beneficial.
Financial planners that deal in these accounts are responsible for understanding the level of disability their clients are dealing with and future issues they may be facing that determine the full benefit of the account. The numbers of people with special needs will continue to grow at a steady rate, in part because medical care for these individuals has improved, which is resulting in longer life spans and access to medical care that enables them to be more self-sufficient than ever before.
Special Needs Situations on the Rise
In fact, the National Center for Education Statistics cites a 13.4 percent rise in school-age children with special needs as of 2009, which has risen from just 8.3 percent in 1977. Moreover, the number of adults in America struggling with a disability has risen as well. In 2010, the University of Illinois’ Department of Disability and Human Development cites 641,000 adults over the age of 60 with developmental disabilities. However, when families sit down with their financial planners, many are often unaware of the needs their clients are facing and fail to even offer this kind of trust account as an alternative when offering financial planning products and packages.
Many financial planners acknowledge that they have little familiarity with special needs, so don’t often know the questions to ask or the information to solicit in order to assist families dealing with special needs issues. For this reason, it is important to provide training for financial planners that help to understand financial products like special needs trust Arizona accounts and how to determine which clients may benefit from an account like this one.
In fact, financial planners are encouraged to ask questions to get to the bottom of special needs cases and what may be required of families that could benefit from this type of account. Digging a little deeper when talking with the family about their needs in terms of financial planning packages goes a long way towards getting to the bottom of what the family may ultimately need and how a special needs trust Arizona account may help to ease the financial burden of long term care down the road.
Financial planners often find it difficult to ask these challenging questions, but with the numbers continuing to rise, this is an important step to ensure that clients are prepared financial to deal with the future when it comes to individuals with special needs.
It is also important for financial advisors to ask the right questions of their clients when it comes to offering a special needs trust Arizona as an option for families with special needs individuals within them. Planners must talk about the benefits of the account and then work with clients to come up with a plan overall to ensure that the account is beneficial and tailored to each individual situation. In other words, planners can just sell the customer on this type of account and then leave it be. A special needs trust account requires continuous tweaking to ensure that the needs of the beneficiary are being met and that the parents understand everything that needs to be done for the family member to realize the full benefit from the account.
In some cases, planners need to undergo special training in order to ensure that they are giving their clients solid information and guiding them in the right direction when it comes to the management of their special needs trust Arizona and how it works for their family member. When done properly, this account can provide relief for families concerned about a financial future for their loved one with special needs and can provide that much needed safety net down the road, when things may pop up in terms of care or financial needs for the family and the individual in question.
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