Revocable living trusts are widely known for helping families avoid probate after death. That benefit is real, but it is often not the most urgent reason a trust matters. For comprehensive estate planning, a trust addresses challenges that arise both after death and during life.

In real life, many families face a harder question first: What happens if Mom or Dad is alive but can’t manage money anymore? A hospitalization, a stroke, a fall with complications, or advancing dementia can quickly turn everyday tasks into a crisis. 

Bills still need to be paid. Insurance paperwork still arrives. Property taxes still come due. Care costs can change month to month.

A properly designed and managed revocable living trust can provide a clear, private, and practical framework for handling these responsibilities during incapacity, not just after death.

A new trailer was recently released for As Deep as the Grave starring Val Kilmer. 

Before 2026, that likely would not have raised eyebrows. A Hollywood icon returning to the screen is nothing new.

But Kilmer passed away last April.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI), the film recreates his likeness and voice, placing him back on screen with the consent of his estate. The project reportedly uses “state-of-the-art” AI to show his character across multiple stages of life, with over an hour of screen time.

It starts innocently enough: You’ve been meaning to update your will for months but haven’t had time to meet with your attorney. 

You have heard how helpful artificial intelligence (AI) can be in performing tasks, so you ask an AI chatbot about making a basic will. Before you know it, you’re asking about family conflict and disinheriting someone. Eventually, you paste in something sensitive — a memo from your attorney — and ask the AI to explain it “in plain English.” 

That convenience comes with a hidden risk: You may be creating a detailed digital record about your private intentions. Unlike a conversation with your attorney, that record may not be confidential — and in the wrong situation, it could be requested and used later in a dispute.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has published a final rule simplifying and expanding its rental subsidy program for Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Effective September 30, 2024, the new rule is likely to allow more people to qualify for SSI. In addition, some current SSI recipients may see an increase in their monthly benefit amount as a result. The rule change is part of a broader agency effort to streamline certain aspects of the SSI program.

SSI applicants and recipients may want to talk to a special needs planning lawyer about the new rule if they have questions about how it affects them.

Earlier this month, Southpoint Estate Planning was proud to sponsor the NC Down Syndrome Alliance Buddy Walk — and what a perfect day it was! The weather couldn’t have been better as families gathered to celebrate, play, and connect with one another.

A revocable living trust is a valuable estate planning tool. It not only allows you to remain in control of your finances remain while you are alive and ensures they remain well managed if you become unable to manage them yourself (known as becoming incapacitated), but also can provide lasting financial security for your loved ones after your death. However, merely signing the trust agreement does not complete the process. To work properly, you also must fund the trust.

The Trump administration has proposed rescinding a Biden-era rule that expanded eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Under the proposed rule, hundreds of thousands of SSI recipients, including many disabled adults and children, would have their benefits cut or lose eligibility entirely based on how the Social Security Administration (SSA) defines a “public assistance household.”

The existing rule remains in place for now, and a change is not imminent. However, disabled households should understand what’s at stake—and how to prepare—if the benefits rollback moves forward.

If you or a loved one are among the 71.6 million people receiving Social Security benefits, be careful of downloading email attachments. You could receive a dangerous email from hackers pretending to be the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the email looks convincing.

Haven't filed your beneficial owner report? Well, if you’re a US Company, it looks like (as of now) you won’t have to.

Everyone should have a durable power of attorney in place that appoints someone to act for them if they become unable to do so. However, in some circumstances, this legal document may not be enough. In these cases, setting up a revocable trust can help.

• The Trump administration has made significant budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Education in recent days.

• An announcement regarding layoffs at the education department maintains that funding for special needs students will continue. However, disability advocates are expressing concern that recent cuts could affect special education services.

This week I joined fellow members of the Special Needs Alliance in Washington, D.C. to meet with our Senators and Representatives to discuss the Childhood Disability Benefit Fairness Act. The Special Needs Alliance has crafted a legislative solution to a significant problem facing disabled adult children.

The Childhood Disability Benefit Fairness Act addresses the issue where disabled adult children are denied crucial Medicaid and related medical benefits, including mental health care, because they never received SSI before becoming eligible for Social Security’s Childhood Disability Benefit (CDB) (formerly Disabled Adult Child or DAC benefit).

This issue of The Voice® is written by Lisa Nachmias Davis, CELA, a partner in the New Haven, Connecticut firm of Davis O’Sullivan & Priest, LLC.

Having a disability can pose challenges when it comes to finding — and maintaining — gainful employment.

People with disabilities have much lower labor force participation than the general population. Many disabled people in the United States want to work and increase their independence but face barriers to entry to the workplace that include a lack of career planning specifically designed for them.

Job training can help young disabled people integrate into the community and support themselves. A half-billion-dollar federal program provides funding to states that is supposed to help students with disabilities enter the workforce when they leave high school. Although these services must be made available to all disabled students, most parents — and even some school personnel — aren’t aware of them.

The program is so unknown it’s been compared to a “secret society.” Here’s your initiation into pre-employment transition services, or pre-ETS, for disabled students.

The aging U.S. population means that more people will likely need nursing home care in the coming decades. Meanwhile, the cost of nursing home care is increasing — and expected to keep increasing.

With the exorbitant cost of nursing home care, many families worry about depleting their loved ones’ life savings to pay for the care they need. Private health insurance does not cover nursing home care, and while long-term care insurance is available to cover nursing home costs, these plans are also expensive and may come up short for long-term stays. 

This leaves millions of Americans reliant on Medicaid to pay for nursing home care — a far from perfect solution that usually involves spending down assets to qualify. With proactive Medicaid planning, though, it is possible for someone to qualify for Medicaid and still retain some of their assets. The sooner you start planning, the more options you’ll have for protecting your parents’ assets from nursing home costs.

When planning for a disabled child’s inheritance, parents and guardians face complex financial decisions. One is particularly impactful: whether to convert a traditional individual retirement account (IRA) to a Roth IRA. Understanding how tax laws, government benefits, and inheritance issues intersect is critical to making an informed decision.

Let’s explore why converting your IRA to a Roth might be a wise move for securing your disabled child’s financial future.

Imagine not being able to marry or even live with the person you love. The recently released documentary Patrice: The Movie, now available on Hulu, addresses this emotionally challenging conundrum. Patrice Jetter and Garry Wickham are the main characters in this touching film. They have both lived with disabilities their whole lives and receive disability benefits from the government.

Most of us spend little time thinking about death or losing the capacity to manage our own affairs. These are unpleasant topics and banishing them from our minds is easier than entertaining them. Death, however, is inevitable and becoming incapacitated is not likely, but possible.

What would happen if you could no longer handle your finances or communicate your health care decisions? Who would make important decisions for you about these kinds of things or manage and distribute your assets after you die? These are some of the underlying questions in estate planning.

If you rely on Social Security disability benefits programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), the year ahead will offer a somewhat minimal amount of relief financially.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) issued its cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2025 on October 10, 2024. This coming year, the COLA will increase by 2.5 percent. The average increase over the past decade, according to the SSA, has hovered around 2.6 percent. The highest adjustment in recent years, an increase of 8.7 percent, went into effect in 2023.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released its tax inflation adjustment figures for tax year 2025.