What disability instructions should be included in the trust?

While it is impossible to plan for one’s possible disability in a will, a Revocable Living Trust is the ideal legal tool for this important planning need. On any given day, a person has a seven times greater chance of becoming disabled than of dying. We feel that a Revocable Living Trust is not complete unless it contains instructions for the possibility that the Trustmaker may become disabled.

For example, many of our clients tell us that if they become disabled they want to be cared for in their homes as long as medically feasible. In such instances, the trust can contain individualized disability instructions such as the following:

• Authority to use trust assets to maintain the home so long as it is occupied and to retrofit it for handicapped accessibility if necessary;
• Authority to pay for services such as visiting nurses, twenty-four hour care, hospice, and other needed caregivers to make staying at home a reality; and
• A statement of the desire to participate in normal activities of daily life to the maximum extent possible including outings, recreation, travel, and religious or spiritual involvement.