Special Needs Children and Divorce

Divorce is difficult enough for many families. For those with special needs children, issues of future care become even more critical. Many family law attorneys simply do not know that without special needs planning, they may be jeopardizing their client's benefits for a disabled child. These types of situations are where family law and special needs trust attorneys can work together to protect vulnerable children in a divorce.

The Houston, Texas, Law Office of Christina Lesher has dedicated itself to compassionate legal assistance and care for people throughout the counties of Galveston, Harris and Fort Bend faced with estate planning, elder law, special needs and disability care matters, and care management. By including an experienced special needs lawyer, divorcing parents with special need children can make a positive difference in their disabled child's well-being.

Contact us to learn how we can work together with your family law attorney to establish a viable plan to protect your special needs child and help you find peace of mind.

Protecting Public Benefits and More for a Disabled Child

Our firm's strength in handling special needs issues lies in Christina Lesher's background as an attorney and a licensed social worker. This background allows her to produce viable care plans and appropriate estate plans for parents with special needs children. We work closely with your family law attorney to ensure Medicaid eligibility and other valuable public benefits are not jeopardized during the divorce process:

• Discuss what adaptations need to take place in visitation schedules for the disabled child, parents, grandparents and other family members.
• Work out realistic, healthy and positive plans for visitation tailored to the child's needs, and within Texas divorce and visitation guidelines.
• Establish and direct child support payments to a self-settled special needs trust for disabled children to prevent losing any SSI and Medicaid benefits.

The key to successful implementation of sound care strategies lies in careful pre-planning. With a self-settled trust receiving child support payments, it is important that the grantor is a parent or grandparent. Parents can use the trust to maintain or establish Medicaid benefits as part of an overall plan for that special needs person ; they can also take advantage of its other uses in the future, such as funding it from intestate testamentary assets and personal injury settlements.

Protect Your Special Needs Child, and Yourself, Today

In addition to protection for their special needs child, our firm encourages each parent to do their own estate planning to protect their own needs. To help ensure a divorce does not compromise the valuable care your special needs child needs to maintain a healthy and happy future, contact our Houston, Texas, Law firm online, or call the Law Office of Christina Lesher directly at 713-529-5900