If you have a special needs child at home you understand the importance of establishing a Special Needs Trust. But what you may not realize is that the sooner you set one up, the better. You don’t need to wait until the child is 18 years old. You also don’t need to have the funds to put in the trust upon setting one up.
Once you as the parent set up the SNT, you can name the trust as one (or sole) death beneficiary of his/her life insurance policy and other assets, such as a pension. Of course, you can also transfer funds into the trust while they are alive. You are able to name themselves as trustees, and name successor trustees for when you can no longer serve due to death or incapacity.
Other family members, such as the grandparents of that child, may also like to contribute to the child's present and future welfare and maintenance. Rather than each relative having to set up his/her own SNT for the child, the one SNT the parent creates can be the one legal depository to which everyone can contribute.