Special needs financial planning coordinates your family's financial, legal, and life planning into a single strategy designed to protect benefits, preserve assets, and plan for a lifetime of care for all family members, ensuring their financial security. FamilyVest combines CFA/CFP (Certified Financial Planner)/ChSNC rigor with the lived understanding of families navigating ABLE accounts, special needs trusts, and lifetime care funding.
$994
2026 monthly SSI benefit
(individual)
$2,000
SSI asset limit
(unchanged since 1989)
$20K
Annual ABLE account
contribution limit
46
New ABLE age-of-onset
eligibility (expanded 2026)
Discussing special needs financial planning with Prof. Kent Smetters Listen
As the father of two sons on the autism spectrum, Todd learned early that the margin for error would be small. The financial complexity, the regulatory maze, the fear of making one wrong move that costs years of benefit eligibility. He doesn't advise on it theoretically. He navigates it daily.
Having spent twenty years in institutional portfolio management, Todd dedicated the second act of his career to helping families like his tackle these obstacles together. Other advisors know ABLE accounts. Todd knows what happens when a parent passes without a funded second-parent SNT in place. The difference between knowing the mechanics and understanding the reality is the difference between generic advice and a plan that actually works.
FamilyVest exists because of this. Every client benefits from that foundation. Families with complexity deserve advisors whose advisory services truly understand it.
The difference between knowing the mechanics and understanding the reality is the difference between generic advice and a plan that actually works.
Special needs financial planning spans four interdependent domains. FamilyVest leads the financial planning for families with special needs and coordinates estate and legal work. We also help your family organize the resource and life planning areas that are essential to getting the financial plan right.
Your child's life goals drive every financial decision. We address these in depth during the planning process to ensure the financial and legal plans reflect reality.
Resource decisions are capital-intensive and drive the financial plan. We help your family organize these areas, understand the options, and ensure you have a plan in place. Due to HIPAA and other constraints, families manage these services directly.
This is where we lead. Benefit preservation, trust funding, lifetime cost modeling, investment management, and cash flow coordination across your entire family's financial picture, including a tailored investment strategy.
We coordinate with your attorney to ensure the estate plan, trust structure, and legal protections align with the financial plan and carry out your intentions.
The 5 Life Stages of Special Needs Planning
Minor Child: Special needs child financial planning starts here. Establishing ABLE accounts early, titling assets correctly, and ensuring both parents carry adequate life and disability insurance. The goal is building the foundation before your child ages into adult benefit systems.
Adult at Home: Financial planning for special needs adults living at home focuses on benefit eligibility, structured employment income, and the transition from pediatric to adult services, including understanding Medicare options. This is where Social Security (SSI) asset limits and Medicaid preservation become daily concerns.
Independent Living: Residential costs often become the largest line item in a special needs financial plan. Trust distribution strategies, housing subsidies, and supported living arrangements all need to align with benefit preservation rules.
Parents Aging: Special needs estate planning becomes urgent. Working alongside your estate planning attorney, we ensure successor trustees, funded SNTs, letters of intent, and caregiver succession plans are in place before they are needed. We stress-test every plan against a "what if tomorrow" scenario.
After Parents: The plan must function without you. Corporate trustee coordination, ongoing investment management inside the SNT, and a funded long-term care model ensure your loved one's quality of life continues on your terms.
Every domain requires a plan update at every stage. Expenses grow. Rules change. Your special needs financial advisor stays with your family through all of it.
Free Guide
A comprehensive primer covering government benefits, ABLE accounts, special needs trusts, guardianship alternatives, estate planning, and the tax strategies that matter most for families with a special needs dependent. Updated for 2026 with current benefit amounts, the ABLE age expansion, and SECURE Act planning strategies.
An ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) account is a tax-advantaged savings account for individuals with disabilities. Contributions grow tax-free when used for qualified disability expenses like housing, education, transportation, and healthcare. As of 2026, the annual contribution limit is $20,000 and the age-of-onset eligibility has expanded to 46, meaning the qualifying disability must have begun before age 46. ABLE account balances up to $100,000 are excluded from SSI asset limits, making them one of the most important tools in special needs financial planning.
A special needs trust (SNT) holds assets for a person with a disability without disqualifying them from SSI or Medicaid. There are three types. A first-party SNT is funded with the beneficiary's own assets (such as an inheritance or legal settlement) and requires Medicaid payback at death. A third-party SNT is funded by parents, grandparents, or other family members and has no Medicaid payback requirement. A pooled trust is managed by a nonprofit and can be useful when a corporate trustee is needed for smaller balances. Which type you need depends on whose money is going in and what the long-term funding plan looks like.
They can if assets are not structured correctly. SSI has a $2,000 individual asset limit that has not changed since 1989. Money held in the beneficiary's own name counts against this limit. However, assets inside a properly drafted special needs trust or an ABLE account (up to $100,000) are excluded. The key is ensuring that every dollar intended for your child flows through the right vehicle. A direct inheritance, a well-meaning gift to a savings account, or an improperly titled life insurance policy can all trigger benefit loss.
This is the central question in special needs estate planning. The plan must function without you. That means a funded third-party special needs trust with a named successor trustee (or corporate trustee), a detailed letter of intent documenting your child's preferences and routines, life insurance structured to fund the trust rather than pass directly to the beneficiary, and a will that does not inadvertently leave assets to your child outside the trust. We stress-test every plan against a "what if tomorrow" scenario to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
No. While we are based in Destin, FL, we work with special needs families nationwide. Federal benefit programs like SSI and Medicaid have national eligibility rules, though Medicaid waivers and state disability services vary by state. We understand the federal framework and coordinate with local attorneys and state-specific resources as needed. All planning meetings can be conducted virtually.
The foundational framework for coordinating lifetime care, benefits, assets, and family decisions.
Comprehensive overview of ABLE accounts, trusts, benefits coordination, and lifetime care planning.
Understanding the 2026 ABLE age-of-onset expansion and how it affects your planning strategy.
First-party, third-party, and pooled trusts: which type is right for your family.
Navigating guardianship, benefits transitions, and the critical decisions that shape their future.
How SSI and SSDI work, benefit amounts, asset limits, and common misconceptions.
Special needs financial planning touches everything: wealth management, retirement planning, life insurance, Social Security, long-term care, and the loved ones who depend on you. If you want a financial professional who understands how all the pieces connect, start with a conversation.
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