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Providing future security for your child with a disability and for your entire family is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. All the legal pieces (Will, trusts, guardianship, powers of attorney, etc.) have to fit together.
Parents contact me because they want me to draft a special needs trust for their child with a disability so
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Hi
My brother Jon didn’t get enough oxygen at birth causing various neurological issues. In 1963, Jon got into trouble in our neighborhood. I won’t go into the details. Let’s just say one neighbor didn’t understand Jon. The neighbor filed a legal complaint. Jon was dragged through the “juvenile justice system” and the judge committed Jon to be placed in Elgin State Hospital, an asylum. Jon was 15 years old. My other brother, Dave, was 12. I was 9. Sundays after church my parents, Dave, and I would pile into the green Buick Skylark, drive a couple hours, to visit Jon. I’ll never forget one Sunday afternoon. We drove up to the hospital's big imposing wrought-iron gates. As we entered, I peered out of the car window, gazing at the bars on the windows. There were also a few people just lying beside a tree. My parents went inside and checked Jon out. When they all returned, Jon got into the back seat with Dave and me. Jon’s grey uniform was so filthy it had an acidic stench that literally made my eyes tear. (Fifty years later I asked Dave if he remembered that smell and to my surprise he said he sure did.) We drove to a nearby park. The park had grills and picnic tables. Dad grilled hotdogs for lunch. I’ll never forget that particular Sunday afternoon. I don’t know why that Sunday stood apart from all the other Sundays. But, I remember standing by a tree about 30 or 40 feet from the grill just looking at my family. I thought to myself: It’s great that my parents are acting like everything is normal - but I know it’s not. |
Much later in life, I learned that my parents were frantically searching for a residential program for Jon. Eventually, my parents found a private out-of-state program for Jon. Eventually, Jon moved back home. Fast forward about 15 years when I was in law school. I was near the top of my class. I planned on joining some “big firm.” But, everything changed when my dad asked me to be a founding Board member of a nonprofit organization he co-founded. After dad retired, he wanted to give back to the community. He was worried about Jon’s future so he founded one of the first non-profit organizations in the country trying to help parents solve a vexing problem: “What will happen to my child with a disability after I die?” The nonprofit would act as an advocate, or a successor guardian, or a corporate trustee for people with disabilities after the parents died. My experience working beside my father on that Board of Directors changed the direction of my career. Instead of joining some corporate law firm when I graduated I opened my own firm; I wanted to help parents give their child with a disability a safe future. Two years later, in 1983, I wrote the first book in the country about special needs trusts. Thirty-five years later and hundreds of clients later — I’m still doing the same thing: Helping parents protect their child with a disability. Best wishes, Mark |
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CONTACT MEOffice: 401 E. Prospect Ave., Suite 106, Mt. Prospect, IL 60056
Phone: (847) 262-3120 |
