A special needs trust is defined as a legal tool designed to help people with disabilities and special needs improve their quality of life and maximize their resources.  There are a few duties that need to be followed when it comes to Special Needs Trusts in Indiana and the surrounding areas in New Albany Clarksville Jeffersonville and Corydon, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky.  You can read about them below.

Collect Assets and Fund the Trust

You must firstidentify the assets that you wish to fund and transfer to trust, and identify the beneficiary of the trust and the circumstances under which distributions will be made to the beneficiary.  Drafting a Special Needs Trust will require an attorney and must meet certain requirements in order to be successful and preserve government benefits.  You must consider whether the beneficiary is funding the Special Needs Trust or whether another person will be funding the trust.

Hire Professionals for Trust Management

When administering a trust in Louisville and the surrounding areas in Indiana and Kentucky, you are in charge of hiring professionals to help out with things you don’t understand.  You have fiduciary responsibility to act in a certain manner as you manage the trust estate and assets, and pay claims and bills and liabilities and make distributions on a day to day basis.

You Have a Duty to Inform and Account

As the trustee, you have a duty to keep accurate and complete books for the trust.  This means keeping up with what is spent and what additions are put into the trust.  You should keep up-to-date, accurate records of everything that is taken out of or added to and put into the trust for the benefit of the person who is intended to benefit from the trust.

It is always best to name and appoint successor trustees in the event that the initial trustee is unable, unwilling or fails to serve as trustee.  This avoids confusion and court involvement and provides for a smooth transition and continuity for management of the trust.

These are just some of the guidelines for creating a Special Needs Trust and the duties and responsibilities of being a trustee for the trust.  It is a serious undertaking for the Grantor as well as the Trustee.