3 Ways Your Trust Can Help a Family Member With Mental Illness
When a loved one suffers from a mental illness, one small comfort can be knowing that your trust can take care of them through the winding road they will face. There are some ways this can happen, ranging from the funding of various types of treatment to providing structure and support during his or her times of greatest need and we can assist you with determining the best strategy from 3 ways your trust can help a family member with mental illness.
Let’s explore a few ways you can help take care of a family member struggling with mental illness through estate planning:
- It can contribute to voluntary treatment
Trusts can be disbursed in a variety of ways. If your loved one is involved in an inpatient care facility or an ongoing outpatient program, you can structure your trust to allow for disbursements to cover the costs of treatment over time. This also helps your loved one since it relieves them of the responsibility of managing large sums of money without guidance. They can rest easier knowing their care is paid for without having to set up a complicated payment plan of their own.
In some cases, the person suffering from mental illness lacks the capacity to enroll themselves in the right type of care. If an intervention of care is needed, your trust can help encourage involuntary treatment that best serves your loved one’s interests during their lifetime.
2. Trustees can help watch over them
Selecting the right trustee isn’t always an easy feat. That’s one of many areas where were we can assist you in evaluating the options and walk you through the process. When you have a loved with a serious mental illness, your choice of a trustee becomes even more of a difficult decision.
We can assist you in evaluating and selecting the perfect person to not only manage the wealth contained within the trust, but also keep a compassionate watchful eye on your mentally ill loved one benefitting from the trust. A properly chosen trustee can look for early warning signs surrounding your loved one’s mental health issue and make sure to get them the care and services they need as soon as possible.
3. Lifetime trusts provide structure and support
Most people don’t think of large inheritances as a burden. However, that can be the case when an individual is dealing with depression, anxiety, hoarding, or other conditions like schizophrenia. Lifetime trusts are an excellent way to take care of your loved one without burdening them with the challenge of managing significant assets on top of what they are already experiencing.
A discretionary lifetime trust can be drafted to ensure funds can only be used towards certain goods and services — such as outpatient mental health care, housing, or other “necessities” of life. Likewise, it can also disallow spending on items that would cause more harm than good — gambling or compulsive shopping, as examples. The discretionary nature of these types of trusts makes it so your loved one doesn’t have to worry about their own potential missteps when it comes to using the wealth contained within the trust.
Do you have a family member or other loved one who could use the financial flexibility and structural support of a trust? Give us a call or visit our website today to set up a free 30-minute consultation and together we’ll figure out the best ways to enhance your loved one’s life by implementing the 3 ways your trust can help a family member with mental illness into your estate planning.