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Special Needs Trusts & Disability Estate Planning in Colorado

An inheritance meant to help a child, sibling, or grandchild with a disability can accidentally cut off SSI or Medicaid. We help Roaring Fork Valley families build a plan that provides extra support without putting those benefits at risk.​This is person-centered planning. We start with your person — their care, their benefits, your other children, and what you want life to look like — then we draft the documents around that.

What a special needs trust does

A special needs trust (also called a supplemental needs trust) holds money or property for someone with a disability. The trustee can pay for extras that government benefits do not cover — therapies, education, recreation, a better living situation, travel with family — without treating those funds as the beneficiary’s own countable resources when the trust is drafted and used correctly.

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An outright gift in a will, a payable-on-death account, or a retirement beneficiary form that names the person directly can work against that goal.

First-party and third-party trusts

Families usually need one of these, and sometimes both.

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Third-party special needs trust


Funded with a parent’s, grandparent’s, or other family member’s assets — not the beneficiary’s. This is the tool most families use in a will or living trust so an inheritance never lands in the loved one’s name.

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First-party special needs trust


Funded with the beneficiary’s own money: a personal injury settlement, an inheritance that already arrived the wrong way, or saved assets. Colorado and federal rules for these trusts are stricter and often include a Medicaid payback provision.

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Which one you need depends on whose money is involved. We will tell you plainly.

 

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How this fits the rest of the plan

A special needs trust does not replace a full estate plan. It sits inside it.

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  • Your will or revocable trust directs the share for the loved one into the special needs trust, not to them personally

  • Powers of attorney and medical documents name who can act if you cannot

  • Beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance are updated so they do not bypass the trust

  • A letter of intent tells future trustees how your person actually lives — routines, providers, what “a good day” looks like

  • ABLE accounts can sit alongside the trust for some day-to-day spending

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If those pieces do not match, the trust on paper may never get the money.

Who this is for

Parents, grandparents, and siblings in Carbondale, Aspen, Basalt, Glenwood Springs, and across the Western Slope who are planning for:

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  1. A child or adult child with a disability

  2. A sibling who receives SSI or Medicaid

  3. A grandchild you want to include without disrupting benefits

  4. A family member who may need long-term supports later

 

You do not need to have every diagnosis or benefit letter in a binder before we talk.

 

Frequently asked questions

Will a special needs trust stop my child from getting SSI or Medicaid?


The point of the trust is the opposite: to give support without counting those funds as the beneficiary’s resources, when the trust is written and administered under the rules. A regular inheritance or joint account can cause a problem. This structure is designed to avoid that.

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Can grandparents leave money this way?


Yes. Grandparents often use a third-party special needs trust, or name the trust as beneficiary, so a well-meant gift does not land in the grandchild’s name.

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Do we still need an ABLE account?


Sometimes. An ABLE account can be useful for smaller, day-to-day funds. A special needs trust is usually the better vehicle for an inheritance or larger gift. Many families use both.

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Who should be trustee?


Someone careful, available, and willing to learn the distribution rules — a sibling, a trusted friend, a professional trustee, or a combination. We help you think that through instead of defaulting to “the oldest child.”

 

How we work

  1. A 15-minute discovery call to see whether this is the right fit.

  2. A longer counseling meeting about people, benefits, assets, and who should serve as trustee.

  3. Drafts in plain language.

  4. Signing and a funding checklist so accounts and beneficiary forms actually get updated.

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Kelly brings two decades of special education and family-support work to this process. Z drafts and implements the legal plan. You get both.

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