Just as the Collaborative Process can provide parents with the necessary time and space to make long-term custodial plans for a special needs child, it can also see parents through the early stages of financial planning for that child.

            Financial planning for a special needs child is complex, and every family’s situation needs to be evaluated individually and in detail.  Some of the possibilities that parents may consider – and plan for in advance – during the collaborative process include:

• Will the child need a special needs trust (a legal arrangement designed to hold funds for a person’s care)?
• If there will be a special needs trust:
  • Will it be established by the parents jointly or separately?
  • How will it be funded?
  • What will the terms be?
  • Will the parents be co-trustees, and if so, will they be required to act jointly or authorized to act independently?
  • Who will be trustee if and when the parents are no longer able?
• Should other financial vehicles, such as a Missouri Able account (a tool designed to allow funds to be saved for the care of a special needs individual), be established?
• Will the parents agree to earmark certain funds awarded to each of them in the divorce for the future care of their special needs child?

            Depending upon the answers to these questions, the parents may also want to consider whether it will be necessary to establish a conservatorship (a legal arrangement appointing someone to manage the child’s funds).  If so, as with a guardianship, the parents can reach an agreement laying out how the application for conservatorship will go forward, who the conservators will be, how costs for the application will be allocated, and the like.

            Having a special needs child presents parents with unique challenges for supporting their child, especially during and after a divorce.  In a non-collaborative arrangement, the parents often have more questions than answers, as they typically do not know what, if any, long-term financial arrangements the other parent has made for the disabled child.  The flexibility of the Collaborative Process gives parents the opportunity to answer those questions and ease some of those burdens through structured advanced financial planning, allowing the parents to move forward with confidence that they have developed a strategy to address their family’s ongoing support needs.