Writing a will - how to provide for child with ASD ?

[NedZeppelin]

I wondered if anyone has any advice or experience re writing a will to make provision for a child with ASD (or other disability for that matter) ?

Me and my partner are looking into this and have been advised that a discretionary trust is the best way to go. We also have a NT child so will need to make provision for both children.

Has anyone set up a discretionary trust and what is it exactly ? Any advice much appreciated.

ps - I emailed the NAS and they haven't got back to me

We did this - ds has asd and LD, dd NT. We used a specialist will writer recommended by a friend who is a financial adviser, (he writes wills himself but not complicated ones with trusts). Cost us about £250 for mirror wills for me and dh.

i've set up a trust fund with the help from Cerebra, leaving half to NT son outright and half in a trust fund to daughter, with executors (including a solicitor). This is partly because if anything should happen to me and she inherited outright then she would no longer be entitled to any benefits (care, housing benefits, incapacity etc) I've also written a 'Letter of wishes'.

Cerebra help you through the whole process, its really helpful. They offer a grant towards it for some, details here www.cerebra.org.uk/English/gethelp/willsandtrusts/Pages/default.aspx

We have also written 'mirror'wills with a discretionary trust - so the trust only kicks in once both me & DH are deceased if I remember correctly. As summerlove says it means that no money is left directly to your child and therefore your child with ASD will not lose their entitlement to any benefits and the state cannot take the money for their care should this need to be provided by the state. I think the 'letter of wishes' which you write alongside it specifies what your child would be alowed to have money from the trust for.
Also beware if your child has any grandparents who might leave them any money! Friend of mine lost her in-laws last year and they had left money to their 3 grandchildren - including one with severe disabilities - who immediately lost some of his benefits!

Mencap can give you information, they do excellent talks on the subject and offer practical advice and support.

I have recently been to a talk on Wills and Trusts by a solicitor. Unfortunately, every time I have investigated getting a Will, I have been quoted over £600 due to the complexity of setting up a Trust. Cerebra can help, but when I applied, they had no money for Wills so I still haven't got one.

The solicitor doing the talk said that if you don't have any money to leave your disabled child, then you don't need to set up a Trust, so the Will will be much cheaper. I have very little money, and am wondering whether to leave it to my non-disabled children as my disabled child will get a small pension for life when my DH dies.

It all sounded so complex, I really feel it is a job for a solicitor.

Thank you all. Will follow up the useful advice here...