What Special Needs Planning Covers

Special needs planning isn’t a single document. It’s a set of coordinated legal decisions built around your family’s circumstances and your loved one’s long-term care needs. The plan typically involves establishing a special needs trust, designating guardians or conservators, and drafting powers of attorney and advance health care directives. Each of these tools should be integrated into your broader estate plan to work as intended.

When a child with disabilities reaches adulthood, guardianship through the Clark County courts may be required under Nevada law (NRS Chapter 159) if that person can’t make independent financial or medical decisions. A durable power of attorney addresses immediate decision-making authority for caregivers. The plan should also account for what happens after the primary caregiver passes away or becomes incapacitated, which means naming successor trustees and backup guardians before that situation arises.

Three Types of Special Needs Trusts Under Nevada Law

A special needs trust (also called a supplemental needs trust) holds assets for a beneficiary with disabilities in a way that supplements rather than replaces public benefits. Permitted distributions can cover therapy, education, personal care items, and housing modifications without necessarily affecting benefit eligibility. Nevada recognizes three main trust structures for this purpose.

Third-Party Special Needs Trusts

These trusts are created and funded by someone other than the beneficiary, most often parents, grandparents, or other relatives. They’re built into an estate plan so that an inheritance can pass to the person with disabilities without necessarily disqualifying them from benefits. A meaningful advantage: when the beneficiary dies, remaining funds pass to other designated beneficiaries rather than to Medicaid.

First-Party (Self-Settled) Special Needs Trusts

A first-party trust is funded with the beneficiary’s own assets, typically from a personal injury settlement or a direct inheritance already received. In Nevada, a parent, grandparent, legal guardian, or court may establish this trust on the beneficiary’s behalf. These trusts require a Medicaid payback provision after the beneficiary’s death, meaning any remaining funds first reimburse the state for benefits paid.

Pooled Trusts

Pooled trusts are managed by nonprofit organizations that pool assets from multiple beneficiaries for investment purposes while maintaining a separate sub-account for each individual. This structure can reduce setup costs for families working with smaller trust amounts. Nevada’s decanting statute (NRS 163.556) generally allows a trustee to move assets into a new trust with updated terms without court approval, giving any special needs trust the flexibility to adapt as circumstances or applicable laws change.

Preserving SSI & Medicaid Eligibility Through Proper Planning

SSI and Medicaid are means-tested programs with strict income and asset limits. Nevada Medicaid planning for long-term care generally requires that a person with disabilities hold countable assets below $2,000. Assets held inside a properly drafted special needs trust are generally not counted as that person’s personal resources, because the beneficiary doesn’t hold direct ownership or control over the funds. Without a trust, a direct gift or inheritance can count as income or an asset and may trigger immediate disqualification.

Trust distributions matter too. Payments used for shelter may affect an SSI recipient’s monthly benefit amount, while distributions for therapy, recreation, or education generally don’t. Under federal SSI rules updated in 2024, food is no longer treated as a countable in-kind resource, so only shelter-related payments now risk triggering a benefit reduction. Nevada doesn’t impose a state fiduciary income tax on special needs trust income, which can reduce ongoing administrative costs compared to many other states. Families should also know that as of January 1, 2026, the ABLE Age Adjustment Act expanded eligibility for ABLE accounts to individuals whose disability began before age 46, up from the prior threshold of age 26. This change may affect how some families coordinate an ABLE account alongside a special needs trust, though further regulatory guidance may follow.

Why Las Vegas Families Work with Bowler Twitchell, LLP

Our attorneys carry more than 50 years of combined experience in estate planning and probate. Our background in Nevada Asset Protection Trusts and self-settled spendthrift trusts extends to the asset-protection side of special needs planning. We carry an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and have served clients in Las Vegas and throughout Nevada since 2000. We respond promptly to client communications and offer bilingual Spanish-language services so families we work with have access to the guidance they need.

Attorney Credentials

Travis Twitchell
Selected to the Super Lawyers list every year from 2017 through 2025, recognized as a Rising Star in 2009 and 2011 through 2014, and peer-reviewed by Martindale-Hubbell.

Christopher Harris
Recognized as a Rising Star in 2021 and 2022.

Russell Bowler
Member of the Order of the Coif and holder of a Certified Public Accountant credential (currently on inactive status), bringing cross-disciplinary perspective to the tax and financial dimensions of special needs planning. He also served as an adjunct professor of business law at UNLV’s College of Business.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

Special needs planning decisions shape your loved one’s quality of life for decades. The sooner a plan is in place, the more options your family may have. We offer free initial consultations and bilingual Spanish-language services, and we respond promptly so you’re not left waiting for answers.

Contact Bowler Twitchell, LLP today to schedule your free consultation. Call (702) 703-6998 and speak with our Las Vegas estate planning team about planning for your loved one’s future.