I have a child with complex additional needs - it’s likely they won’t have enough understanding of finances to be sensible when they are an adult and they may well need to live at home for the long term. They are also vulnerable to financial manipulation.
I also have another child, too young to know if they will be neurodivergent too.
We had some free financial advice recently from SEND specialists about protecting finances for our children. They suggested a package including wills, LPAs, vulnerable persons trust, assurance trust, all for £3k. We found them advertising regular webinars through my SEND social media. I’ve been to the webinar which was good, looked at their website and LinkedIn, had two meetings with different people, who gave a lot of general advice which was in line with what I have read.
We also sought another quote from another SEND specialist financial adviser who works with a couple of well known disability charities (the charities confirmed this), but they were less forthcoming with advice until you pay for the package, similar price.
My head is feeling a bit from it all. The mental
load of looking after a ND child is already a lot and I struggle to make sense of all the options and details - I think an adviser is probably what we need to protect my kids. But we’re a bit anxious about choosing the right one and conscious that they are in the end selling their services and products.
How do I find other SEND specialist financial
advisers to shop around? How do I check they are legitimate? We spoke to a high street solicitor recently and they didn’t have a clue about disabilities and advised us incorrectly so I don’t want to make the same mistake.