I have come across many clients who have a child that qualifies for certain government benefits because the child has special needs. Unfortunately, a well-intentioned gift to a child can, in some cases, inadvertently disqualify the child from the government benefits. In other instances, a child might have become entitled to sizeable funds, such as through a settlement or award in a personal injury lawsuit, which could also disqualify the child from benefits. This is where special needs trusts come into play.

The role of special needs trusts is to provide economic security for a person with special needs without disqualifying them from government benefits. There are three types of special needs trusts, depending on the circumstances: common law discretionary trusts, OBRA-93 payback trusts and pooled trusts. 

Common Law Discretionary Trusts:

This type of trust is referred to as “common law” because it arises from a series of court decisions and not from a particular statute. Typically, common law trusts should be used when the source of the funds is coming from a third party, such as money in the form of a gift to the person with the special needs. 

There are four primary requirements for establishing a common law discretionary trust.