An experienced fiduciary in California, Carolyn M. Young serves as the owner of her own company. Through Carolyn M. Young Fiduciary Services, Ms. Young provides a wide range of personal and financial services, including administering Special Needs Trusts (SNTs).

1. PROS AND CONS OF A SPECIAL
NEEDS TRUST
Carolyn M. Young Fiduciary Services

2. INTRODUCTION
• An experienced fiduciary in California, Carolyn M. Young
serves as the owner of her own company. Through
Carolyn M. Young Fiduciary Services, Ms. Young provides
a wide range of personal and financial services, including
administering Special Needs Trusts (SNTs).
Parents set up SNTs to ensure that the health and welfare
requirements of a child with special needs continue to be
met after the parents are gone. These types of trusts are
essential for people who cannot manage their finances on
their own or who are receiving care from government
programs like Medicaid. An SNT can keep a person
eligible for these programs and provide financial support
to cover services and care not covered by the
government.

3. SPECIAL NEEDS TRUST
• Setting up an SNT also lets parents set aside funds that are solely
for their child. Not only are the funds used to create such a trust
tax-deductible, they also cannot be used to pay off parents’ debt
or for other uses. Further, since the funds are only available for
providing care to a person with a disability, parents don’t have to
worry about their child being taken advantage of by someone
else after the parents are gone.
These protections relieve anxiety that many parents have about
providing care to their child with special needs. However, SNTs
are not without disadvantages. Most notably, these types of
trusts are costly to set up and often have an annual cost for
management. Beyond that, some funds from the trust must go
toward paying back Medicaid on behalf of the person with
disabilities, and the beneficiary must request funds from the SNT
trustee.