Comprehensive Special Needs Financial Life Plan
We work with you to create an individualized life plan for you and your family. This plan considers the family as a whole, while focusing specifically on the individual with special needs. It is a plan for two generations. It enables us to identify private and public resources available now and in the future, as well as outline the various steps, financial, legal, and other, that are necessary in order to create a secure and stable financial future for your family member with special needs and the rest of the family.
Comprehensive Life Planning is the heart of what M&L Special Needs Planning is all about. We work with families creating their life plan understanding the entire family scenario with a special focus on your individual with special needs. What resources/assets are necessary to provide and protect the individual with special needs now and when the family can no longer provide for them. This type of life planning is updated annually incorporating any changes with family dynamics, state/federal benefits and what additional resources could be necessary to continue creating the quality of life necessary for the individual with special needs.
To develop this plan, we identify and prioritize your family’s goals and objectives as they relate to your individual with special needs and analyze the present financial situation with respect to these goals by reviewing
- family resources
- legal documents
- investments
- insurance
- retirement goals
- tax and estate issues and other related matters
From this information we begin developing recommendations and steps after we identify and prioritize your goals and financial needs and take the steps to maximize and protect personal and public resources. Throughout this process we also evaluate and analyze the need for college education planning, retirement, investment strategies, life insurance, disability and long-term care insurance, and concerns with tax and estate planning.
One of the most important parts of the Comprehensive Special Needs Financial Life Plan is to calculate the approximate supplemental costs for the life of the individual with special needs today and when the main caretakers are gone. This includes but not limited to the following:
- residential and lifetime planning with a focus on goal setting for additional resources both private and public,
- determine your annual or monthly savings available towards your goals
- calculate the costs of the program, services, and lifestyle needs
- identify financial shortfalls and gaps
- identify planning strategies to fill the gaps
- implement a properly coordinated plan of action
We gauge the approximate supplemental costs of the individual with special needs by the extent of the disability and special needs.
A written plan is presented at the final meeting. The family may choose to implement the recommended strategy to begin the life planning process. The implementation may involve reallocating existing investments, purchasing or modifying existing insurance, long-term care, disability and/or other financial products or services. The client may implement the recommendations independently or can retain M&L to implement the recommendations. Compensation for implementation of services and ongoing services will be discussed at that time. Comprehensive Special Needs Life Planning requires periodic reviews and monitoring. We suggest meeting at least twice a year if not more to stay abreast with any changes with the family, the individual with special needs, and to continue to educate the families with all changes pertaining the public state and federal resources.
Part of the life plan is the gift of M&L’s proprietary interactive Letter of Intent CD. The format of the CD is designed to communicate information along with your desires and concerns for your individual with special needs to future caretakers.