The Bottom Line
By John W. Nadworny and Cynthia R. Haddad; 310 pages. Subtitle: How to Prepare for Every Stage of Your Child's Life
Planning for the legal and financial needs of even a "normal" family can be overwhelming, but add a child with special needs to the equation and the degree of difficulty soars. Authors Nadworny and Haddad have family members with disabilities, so they know the problems firsthand -- and try to guide you gently away from them in a calm, compassionate, and only mildly panic-inducing guide. There's even a CD of helpful files to get you going.
Pros
- Clearly lays out issues and goals for every stage and age
- Identifies five factors important to special-needs planning, and addresses them throughout
- Gives detailed sample Letter of Intent to get you going on this important paperwork
- Stresses awareness of government supports and the planning needed to keep your child eligible
- Includes a CD with files for starting your own planning
Cons
- Will make you feel guilty that you haven't gotten going on all this already
- Sample family stories used may not reflect your own needs and experience
- You'll still need to hire a financial planner to make this all work
Description
- Chapter 1: The Special Needs Planning Timeline
- Chapter 2: An Overview of Special Needs Planning
- Chapter 3: Practical Steps in the Planning Process
- Chapter 4: The Five Factors to Consider in Special Needs Planning
- Chapter 5: Planning for Stage I - Child's Birth to Age 3
- Chapter 6: Planning for Stage II - Child's Age 3-15
- Chapter 7: Planning for Stage III - Child's Age 16-21
- Chapter 8: Planning for Stage IV - Child's Age 22 and Beyond
- Chapter 9: Important Special Needs Planning Tools and Resources
- Bibliography
Glossary
Appendix: Letter of Intent
Guide Review - Book Review: The Special Needs Planning Guide
When you're dealing with the day-to-day strategic complications of raising a child with special needs -- getting through the doctor's appointments and therapist visits and impossible homework and temper meltdowns and sheer exhaustion -- it can be hard to sit down and figure out what you're going to need financially decades down the road. Or what sort of legal arrangements you're going to need to make in the event of your unexpected absence. Or what sort of government help your adult child will need and what you'll need to do to preserve eligibility.
The far-off future can seem low-priority in the face of the crisis du jour, so the authors of The Special Needs Planning Guide break things down into smaller pieces, like you would do for your child. They present planning challenges at each stage of a child's life, explaining what you need to start doing when a young child is diagnosed, when your tot reaches school-age, when transitions are made to high school, when adulthood looms. The earlier you start, the less you have to deal with all at once (nudge, nudge).
Considerations at every phase are broken into five factors that color the decisions you'll make: Family and Support; Emotional; Financial; Legal; and Government Benefit. Since every family is different, so too is every set of arrangements and investments and life insurance purchases and eligibility determinations. Even if you're not ready to get down to paperwork, the writing here will help you think about things like: How much would it cost to compensate for the loss of the primary caretaker, who may not be earning a salary but handles all those irreplaceable childcare duties? Will the person we're appointing as guardian have to quit a job to do this? And, what happens if I don't actually live forever?
