Special needs financial planning for a lifetime of care.
Protect your loved one’s future care without putting their government benefits at risk. Planning built around special needs trusts, benefit rules and the real cost of lifetime care.
How a trust protects benefits
A loving gift can cost benefits.
Families caring for a loved one with special needs plan for two lifetimes at once: their own, and the years after they’re gone.
Well-meant decisions, like leaving an inheritance directly to a child, can disqualify them from the benefits they rely on. And the questions of who will manage money and care, and how it will be paid for, rarely have simple answers.
Many families start with a trust drafted years ago, a will and good intentions. But benefit rules change, documents drift apart, and the plan for who takes over often lives only in a parent’s head.
What it costs you
- Lost benefitsAssets left in the wrong way can disqualify a loved one from means-tested programs.
- Care that outlasts parentsLifetime care costs can run for decades after the family’s own plan ends.
- Unclear responsibilityWithout planning, no one is clearly in charge of money and decisions.
- Documents that don’t agreeWills, trusts and beneficiary forms that work against each other.
Planning for both lifetimes.
Special needs financial planning coordinates your family’s own plan with the lifetime needs of a loved one. It’s built around special needs trusts, government benefit thresholds and lifetime care costs, alongside retirement, insurance, investments and estate planning.
We deliver it through the Pillar Planning Process™ and work with your estate attorney, who drafts the legal documents.
Peace of mind, planned.
Instead of
So you can
An inheritance left directly to your child
Leave what you intend without putting benefits at risk
Hoping someone steps in
Know who takes over, and give them clear instructions
Guessing what care will cost
See what lifetime care may cost and how it will be funded
Documents drafted years apart
Keep a will, trust and beneficiary forms that work together
What your plan covers.
Special needs planning sits alongside the rest of your family’s plan, so one never works against the other.
Special needs planning
- Special needs trust review
- Government benefit eligibility considerations
- Letter of intent
- Guardianship and decision-making documents
- Lifetime care cost projections
General Financial Planning™
- Personal financial statements and ratios
- Personal debt and credit review
- Cash reserve structure
- A funding process for every goal
- A travel hacking guide to make the most of your travel perks, benefits and points
Insurance Planning™
- Life and disability
- Long-term care (over 55)
- Health benefits
- Property and casualty
Investment Planning™
- Current allocation, diversification, risk and concentration
- Tax location
- New allocation and risk strategy
- Security-level recommendations
Tax Planning™
- Retirement tax strategy
- Gifting strategy design
- Taxable account tax location
Estate Planning™
- Will, trust and letter of intent review
- Powers of attorney and advance medical directive review
- Gift strategy review
Clear fees, set before we start.
Choose a one-time plan or a year of ongoing planning. Every engagement starts with a written agreement that states the fee.
| Flat fee | Subscription for Executives | Subscription for Founders | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee | QuotedRequest a quote | $1,250 / month* | $2,000 / month* |
| The six pillars of the Pillar Planning Process™ | One complete plan | Planning meetings through the year, pillar by pillar | Planning meetings through the year, pillar by pillar |
| Investment reviews | Six-month review | Quarterly | Quarterly |
| Alternative investment recommendations | Not included | Included | Included |
| Collaboration with your tax professional | Not included | Included | Included |
| Collaboration with your estate attorney | Not included | Included | Included |
| Year two and beyond | Not included | Your plan evolves: updated plan, cash flow and debt review, insurance check, tax work with your CPA, beneficiary review | Your plan evolves: updated plan, cash flow and debt review, insurance check, tax work with your CPA, beneficiary review |
| Exit timeline mapped to your personal goals, your ownership stake on your personal balance sheet, and a personal guarantee and liability exposure review | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Business-related insurance and executive benefit review: key person, buy-sell funding, golden handcuffs, earnout and retention terms | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Employee compensation strategy and execution review, and a sale proceeds tax overview | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Hypothetical exit models built on business valuation work from your accountants or other professionals, including entity structure scenarios and their tax impact | Not included | Not included | Included |
*Subscriptions require a 12-month engagement. Business valuations come from your accountants or other professionals; we use their work to model your personal outcomes, and tax scenarios are coordinated with your CPA. Business-side exit work is handled by Founder’s Accounting, and divestiture and recapitalization transactions belong with an investment bank. Full fee details are in our Form ADV Part 2A.
How it works.
- 1
Discovery Meeting
A complimentary conversation about your loved one, your family and your goals.
- 2
Plan, design, analysis
We review benefits, documents, accounts and care needs together.
- 3
Your plan
Recommendations for the trust, benefits, funding and your own plan.
- 4
Reviews and coordination
We keep the plan current and work with your attorney and trustee.
Questions we hear
Do you draft special needs trusts?
No. Your estate attorney drafts the legal documents. We help decide what the plan needs, how it will be funded and how it fits the rest of your family’s finances.
Will planning affect my loved one’s benefits?
Protecting eligibility is one of the main goals. Benefit rules are complex and vary by program and state, so we coordinate closely with your attorney.
Is this only for parents?
No. We also work with grandparents, siblings and other family members who help support a loved one.
We already have a special needs trust. Do we still need this?
Possibly not. A trust is one piece. We’ll check whether it’s funded, whether it still fits current benefit rules, and whether the rest of your plan works with it, then tell you where you stand.
Is it worth the fee?
That’s one of the things the Discovery Meeting is for. Fit has to work both ways. We’ll look at your family’s situation and tell you plainly whether planning is likely to matter enough to justify the cost. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.
Plan for their lifetime, and yours.
In a complimentary 90-minute Discovery Meeting, we’ll talk about your loved one and your family, and identify the gaps that could put benefits or care at risk. It’s also how we both decide whether we’re the right fit, with no obligation.