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Arranging the financial, custodial, and medical care for a disabled dependent is one of the most difficult planning challenges. With regard to your benefit plans, there are issues affecting both your Welfare benefits and your Pension benefits.
Plan Checklist
- Older children who are physically or mentally disabled may be considered dependents if they became disabled before turning age 26, they were covered as dependents at the time they became disabled, and you are eligible for benefits. Once your child reaches the age of 26, you must provide evidence of the ongoing permanent disability. This evidence may be required periodically thereafter.
Also Consider…
Financial planners advise that special planning should occur for families with a permanently disabled child. The issues are generally the same as for families with minor children. But, because the length of the child’s dependency period can be as long as a lifetime, the planning can be considerably more complicated.
A checklist of items you may wish to review are as follows:
- Will
- Living Trust
- Estate Plan
- Durable Powers of Attorney
- Designation of Beneficiary: IRA, 401k, Life Insurance
- Adequacy of Life Insurance
- Adequacy of Disability Insurance
External Links
- National Organization on Disability
Promotes full and equal participation of America’s 54 million men, women and children with disabilities in all aspects of life. - disAbility Online
Maintained by the US Department of Labor Disability Employment Initiatives Unit of the Employment and Training Administration. Provides information on employment resources and services available to individuals with disabilities. - DREDF
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. - NICHCY
National information center that provides information on disabilities and disability related issues. Children and youth, birth to age 22, are the focus