Fun events for children with special needs

I saw this article and had to post. It has some different events that take place in Southwest Florida for kids with special needs. Check it out.

I want to highlight this:

Fort Myers Miracle

Hammond Stadium, Lee County Sports Complex » 14100 Six Mile Cypress Parkway, Fort Myers » miraclebaseball.com

The Fort Myers Miracle and the Dave Clark Foundation will hold their 10th annualSpecial Needs Baseball camp in April. The Miracle team and coaches teach the kids a variety of baseball skills like hitting, throwing, catching and fielding as well as playing baseball games with them. The event, which includes lunch, is open to children up to age 18 and is free to participants and their families. For more information, call Ashley Adams at 768-4210 or email aadams@miraclebaseball.com.

and I also thought this was interesting. I know the Surfers for Autism events take place all over Florida.

Surfers for Autism

Surfersforautism.org

Statewide program that has a surfing day on Fort Myers Beach each fall.

Let me know if there are any other events for kids with special needs. Email me at scottrussell@tfamail.com

Autism: Planning for the future

As a financial planner and a father of children with special needs, I know it’s important to make sure we plan ahead for our kids. I came across an interesting article on the website Autism Society about how to plan for those with Autism. Click here to go directly to the article or read below. I am happy to discuss any of this with you if you have questions.

Ensuring quality of life for a loved one with autism requires a care plan with a sound legal and financial foundation.  The purpose of a special needs estate plan is to ensure the economic security and ongoing well-being of your family member, even when you’re no longer able to assume that responsibility.

A special needs estate plan should address:

• Guardianship – Guardianship is a potential issue at three points throughout your child’s life: while a minor, upon reaching the age of 18 and upon your death. During childhood, who would assume parental obligations in the event that you could no longer do so? Then, upon reaching the age of 18, will your child be in a position to make important legal, financial and educational decisions? If not, you will need to consider whether or not to establish yourself as legal guardian (in some states, referred to as a conservatorship for persons over 18) in order to continue to provide such assistance. If you do assume guardianship of your child once they legally become an adult, you will also need to name someone to take on those responsibilities upon your passing.

• Benefit Assessment – The financial security of many individuals with autism depends upon such public benefits as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). Based upon the services that your family member will require throughout life, a special needs attorney can help you determine eligibility for government assistance. Then, with the help of a financial advisor, you can establish savings and investment goals in order to provide additional funds needed to support the lifestyle you envision.

• Special Needs Trust (SNT) – In order to qualify for certain government benefits, an individual with disabilities must meet stringent standards for financial need. If your child will be dependent upon such public programs for medical care, housing, employment assistance or other services, you will probably wish to supplement the very basic levels of support provided.  Assets that are held by SNTs are not considered by the government when evaluating applications for means-tested programs.  In addition, an SNT is a good tool for ensuring that the assets set aside for an individual with disabilities are managed responsibly and not subject to creditors. There are several types of SNTs, depending upon who funds them and how they are administered.

• Letter of Intent (LOI) – While not a legal document, the letter of intent is essentially a roadmap providing guidance to guardians, trustees and others on how to care for your child when you are no longer able to fill that role. It includes medical, financial, legal and personal details, as well as your intentions concerning your child’s lifestyle.

• Powers of Attorney – If guardianship is inappropriate for your adult child, you may wish to consider less intrusive alternatives that name agents responsible for specific types of decision-making.

• Will – A will details your wishes concerning the disposition of your property upon death. It establishes what portion of your estate should be allocated to your child with disabilities and other heirs, and whether or not certain funds should be held by an SNT.

While there’s no such thing as a perfect plan, doing nothing is almost certainly a bad plan. The point is to create a flexible plan that can—and will—change over time to reflect events in the lives of all involved.

Services for children with special needs in Florida

When you find out your child has special needs, looking for services for your child can be daunting. Who do I contact? Where do I start? Just some of the questions you may be asking. In Florida there are special education services that your child may be eligible for. Here’s a article that may help point you in the right direction of these services. Click here for more information.

Places to take the kids this holiday season that are autism friendly

Did you  that more than 25,000 people live with autism in and around Tampa Bay. The University of South Florida has a community-based project called The Center for Autism & Related Disabilities (CARD) that provides information and consultation to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and related disabilities. They have a fabulous website full of information and a variety of resources, materials, online trainings and tutorial and even community events.

There is a special section called Autism Friendly Business Directory. This is where they give you a list of businesses that are autism friendly including restaurants, entertainment, faith based organizations, health & wellness, travel, public parks and recreation and others.

Maybe you are looking for places to take the kids this holiday season. If you go on the website at http://card-usf.fmhi.usf.edu/index.html you will find Dinosaur World, Lowry Park Zoo, Great Explorations Children’s Museum, Glazer Museum, Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) and The Florida Aquarium.

Maybe you are thinking about staying at a hotel on the beach or in Tampa. There are several hotels including the TradeWinds Island Resort on St. Petersburg Beach, the Crowne Plaza Tampa Westshore and Wyndam Hotel Westshore. You can also book a vacation with ASD Vacations and be linked with a personal special needs travel agent.

When you click on the links to the locations you want to visit, you will find a page with information for adults and then pages you can review with your child prior to visiting the location. This is to help your child so they have advance knowledge of rules and potential sensory issues.

If you are a business or you know of a business that wants to become a part of the CARD Business Directory, you can go onto the website or call 813-974-2532.

I would love to find out what you think about this program and if this helps you with your planning for fun adventures with your child. Email me at scottrussell@tfamail.com or comment below.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Special Needs Trust?

Here is information about a special needs trust from a Florida Bar Journal Article.

A new quasi-governmental pooled special needs trust provides a safer and more transparent solution for disabled persons to set aside funds to legally and ethically but still maintain eligibility for public assistance. By using a trust protector model and directing any and all retained funds back to the Statewide Public Guardianship Office, the new State of Florida Public Guardianship Pooled Special Needs Trust advances good public policy and safer judicial and day-to-day administration.

What is a special needs trust?
A special needs trust is a trust agreement, authorized by federal law,¹ which excludes certain assets and income from being counted against eligibility for certain need-based government benefits. If an otherwise impoverished disabled person comes into money, that person will lose his or her Medicaid health insurance. Because Medicaid is often the only health insurance a disabled person can obtain, the new money is often absorbed totally by health care costs. The disabled person then has no recourse other than discontinuing health care until the “new” Medicaid may be obtained upon “reimpoverishment.” It is, therefore, critical to keep Medicaid eligibility intact. Special needs trusts allow disabled people to keep the benefit of their savings but only to supplement government benefits which fall short of actual need. The disabled person is able to keep the benefit of the money and the Medicaid health insurance subject to state and federal law. Under some special needs trusts, the government then gets paid back upon the death of the disabled person.

If you would like more information contact me at scottrussell@tfamail.com or call me toll free at 1.866.453.7737

Top 10 ways to set goals for your financial future

When you have family members with special needs, it is important to make sure that our financial future is set. We need to make sure we can have the funds and resources available for the needs of our family. I found this list from CNN Money and thought it was a wonderful way to budget your money and set financial priorities.

1. Narrow your objectives.

You probably won’t be able to achieve every financial goal you’ve ever dreamed of. So identify your goals clearly and why they matter to you, and decide which are most important. By concentrating your efforts, you have a better chance of achieving what matters most.

2. Focus first on the goals that matter.

To accomplish primary goals, you will often need to put desirable but less important ones on the back burner.

3. Be prepared for conflicts.

Even worthy goals often conflict with one another. When faced with such a conflict, you should ask yourself questions like: Will one of the conflicting goals benefit more people than the other? Which goal will cause the greater harm if it is deferred?

4. Put time on your side.

The most important ally you have in reaching your goals is time. Money stashed in interest-earning savings accounts or invested in stocks and bonds grows and compounds. The more time you have, the more chance you have of success. Your age is a big factor – younger people (who have more time to build their nest egg) can invest differently than older ones. Generally, younger people can take greater risks than older people, given their longer investment horizon.

5. Choose carefully.

In drawing up your list of goals, you should look for things that will help you feel financially secure, happy or fulfilled. Some of the items that wind up on such lists include building an emergency fund, getting out of debt and paying kids’ tuitions. Once you have your list together, you need to rank the items in order of importance (if you have trouble doing so, use theCNNMoney.com Prioritizer for help).

6. Include family members.

If you have a spouse or significant other, make sure that person is part of the goal-setting process. Children, too, should have some say in goals that affect them.

7. Start now.

The longer you wait to identify and begin working toward your goals, the more difficulty you’ll have reaching them. And the longer you wait, the longer you postpone the advantage of compounding your money.

8. Sweat the big stuff.

Once you have prioritized your list of goals, keep your spending on course. Whenever you make a large payment for anything, ask yourself: “Is this taking me nearer to my primary goals – or leading me further away from them?” If a big expense doesn’t get you closer to your goals, try to defer or reduce it. If taking a grand cruise steals money from your kids’ college fund, maybe you should settle for a weekend getaway.

9. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Although this lesson encourages you to focus on big-ticket, long-range plans, most of life is lived in the here-and-now and most of what you spend will continue to be for daily expenses – including many that are simply for fun. That’s OK – so long as your long-range needs are taken into consideration.

10. Be prepared for change.

Your needs and desires will change as you age, so you should probably reexamine your priorities at least every five years.