Wills when you have a child with special needs

[joshuasdad]

Hi all, my wife and I have three beautiful children, one of whom has Downs Sydrome. He's 11 and we are worried that he may not be able to manage his money or indeed make decisions about things and generally be independent.

My dad has suggested that there is some special kind of will or trust where my son with SEN has his share kept in a separtate trust account so that he can still be entitled to DLA etc and won't be prey for people who may want to take advantage of him. Does anyone have experience of this?

Perhaps the Downs Syndrome Association would be able to advise you and recommend a lawyer who specialises in things like this.

ds2 is now 16 and when they get to that age the DLA gets changed to adult and on the renewal form they send you, you have to tick the box to say they can't manage their affairs. then they come and visit you ( I assume to make sure that what you have put is correct and you are not trying to keep the DLA) and they make you what is called an appointee which means you become responsible for the DLA and that you are the one who is legally obliged to tell them of any changes etc

Our building society told us that we should when he turns 18 open a joint account with his name and either me or dh on it

mencap have some sort of information leaflet about this sort of thing. There is something like a power of attorney thing but I don't know the details - we will have to look into it in a couple of years. Our wills are very general with nothing specific for ds2

My DH and I have been thinking very seriously about this lately. We are quite old (I am nearly 49) and have a 3yo DS with ASD. He is in a (very expensive, funded by me alone) ABA home programme.

He has two half-sisters (DH's daughters), aged 19 and 17, one already at university , the other about to start in September. I already know that they are responsible girls who feel very close to their brother and would be prepared to ensure that he is looked after when we are no longer here.

I worry however about what would happen if something was to happen to us both (ie we both die) in the next few years while the girls are still at uni. It does not seem right to expect the girls to cut short their education and life chances to care for their little brother.

I have no property or savings. I have therefore taken out a large life insurance policy (also taken out income protection in case I cannot work as I am the only breadwinner), and we in the process of organising a trust so that if we die, all the insurance money (except for relatively small payout for each of the girls) would be in trust for DS's education etc, the trust being administered by them (well, the older one, as the younger one will only be included once she turns 18) and two close friends of ours (we have no family in this country), together with a family lawyer.

I really hate thinking about this kind of thing but having a SN child really concentrates your mind!

Recently mumblechum who is a solicitor dealing with wills advised on will making for SN children's. She advertises on the mn site and has personal experience. Trust funds etc can be set up for SN children

sneeze, thanks, but I can't find mumblechum's advert anywhere - whereabouts on MN is it, please?

thanks

The trust you need to set up is known as a Discretionary Trust. DH & I have made wills which in the event that we both die before DD (17 with SN) all our estate will go into the Trust fund. The fund will be administered by my brother, DH's brother and a family friend, and there we have indiacted what monies can be used for, whilst both DS and DD are alive. Once DD dies, all the money will pass to DS (as long as he is 23) and in the event that we all die, the money goes to the rest of the family members named in the trust.

As others have said I think Mencap should be able to advise, or I expect Mumblechum will be along. Her ad was in classifieds, but she had a special offer on which may have expired.

Just found Mumblechums advert here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/small_business_ads/1507084-MARLOW-WILLS-Professional-Qualified-Will-Writers-Rated-5-by-Mumsnetters

Thanks for that, I will be contacting her

Mencap do seminars on wills and trusts:

www.mencap.org.uk/what-we-do/our-services/wills-and-trusts/planning-future-events

They are very informative and you can request all the literature as well.

They also have a list of solicitors approved by them and who are experienced with LD.

The offer is still on until 30th July

www.cerebra.org.uk/English/gethelp/willsandtrusts/Pages/default.aspx

OP, a discretionary trust is probably the way to go. Essentially, you decide what proportion of your estate goes into the trust (usually it kicks in on the second death of the parents). The money is held by at least two people previously appointed by you, and they have discretion to use the money for the benefit of your son. So for example they could buy a flat for him out of the trust monies, held in their names as trustees, pay for any adaptations, pay for extra care, holidays, a car for his use if he doesn't get a motability car, etc.

You also need to think about what would happen after your son's death - if it's foreseeable that he'd have kids, you'd probably want it to go to them, otherwise perhaps you'd perhaps wish any money left in the trust after his death to go to your other dc.

You can also extend the appointment of Guardians into adulthood for a person without capacity.

to Sneezecake and BigBlue for their direction to my ad in Classifieds (Small Business).

Thanks mumlechum, you have great reviews, and I'll be in touche

Sorry, meant to say Mumblechum1.

Thanks

Hi joshuasdad, sounds like you are sorted, but I just wanted to add to the posts above; I used Mencap for guidelines on what to do and they recommended a list of solicitors for my DD who also has Downs Syndrome. They gave me great pointers and I ended up with a lovely solicitor who had recently acted for someone in a similar position. Mencap also run free seminars for parents in this position all over the country, so may be worth looking at one of those too.

Sorry, not a solicitor for my DD, but for me, making a will to provide for DD who also has Down's. We went with a discretionary trust, as Mumblechum1 suggests.

Thanks Bigg CC. Have now spoken to Mumblechum1 and she's sorted us out with mirror wills including the discretionary trust.