Special Needs Trust - The Arc of Northern Virginia

Meet the Team Our Trustee Trust Basics Setting Up a Trust Using the Money in Your Trust Documents & Forms Appointments & Payments

Special Needs Trust Program

Protect your child’s future

Our Special Needs Trust exists to assist people with disabilities and their families in saving money for the future without losing public benefits, like Medicaid and Social Security that have strict asset caps. The funds invested in the trust will be used to provide security, support, services, and medical care or other supplemental needs not covered by benefits or insurance.

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From "What if?" to "Here's how." Every day, we introduce families to the security of our special needs trust program.

Learn About Setting Up a Trust

We Plan Trusts

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We're there for our trust clients. We listen, support and guide them every day.

Learn How to Use Money from a Trust

We Manage Trusts

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Our diverse team of trust experts speak various languages to help our families and individuals, including ASL, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, and Spanish (basic).

Learn About our Trust Team

We Are Here For You

Come to us for webinars, question-and-answer roundtables, online videos, downloadable resources and referrals to knowledgeable experts.

Build Your Knowledge

We Teach and Train

White text over a purple circle background reads What is a Trust and what makes The Arc's trusts unique? Next to the purple circle is a photo of a mom and dad embracing their son.

White text over a purple circle background reads How we help as trust manager-with the Arc to make it easier simpler and safer. Next to the purple circle is a photo of a young couple outdoors on a blanket smiling and playing with their toddler son.

White text over a purple circle background reads Establishing your special needs trust How The Arc gets you set up in thee steps. Next to the purple circle is a photo of a man and woman, both are outdoors wearing jackets. The man has a baseball hat on backwards, and is kissing his wife on the cheek.

White text over a purple circle background reads Setting up your family funded trust safeguarding the future with The Arc as a partner. Next to the purple circle is a photo of a family at the beach, including a mom, two daughters, and grandma and grandpa. The family are kneeling on a towel. Next to them is a bouquet of balloons.

What IS a Special Needs Trust?

Someone told you you need a trust for your child, but what does that even mean? This short video explains the basics of how a trust works, and why The Arc of Northern Virginia has the unique expertise to manage a Special Needs Trust for your loved one.

How We Help as Special Needs Trust Manager

Learn about how The Arc of Northern Virginia manages our trusts as the Trust Manager and how we help families and individuals with disabilities make their lives easier and better.

Creating A Special Needs Trust in Three Steps

When you work with The Arc of Northern Virginia to set up a Special Needs Trust, it’s a three-step process. Start learning with this short video.

Setting Up Your Family-Funded Trust

Learn how to set up a Family-Funded (AKA third party) special needs trust with The Arc of Northern Virginia.

Setting Up Your Self-Funded Trust

Learn how to set up a Self-Funded (AKA first party) special needs trust with The Arc of Northern Virginia.

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MORE ABOUT OUR PROGRAM

Meet your Trust Services team

We understand that each person who has a trust account with us has unique needs and deserves personalized attention and care. Our team is dedicated to making sure you feel heard and that your needs are addressed with compassion.

The Arc of Northern Virginia is a known and trusted organization with a 60 plus-year history of helping people with disabilities. We know the trust laws and governmental requirements, and how to best serve the needs of persons with disabilities without jeopardizing benefits.

meet the team

Photograph of an office building showing a revolving door, and a sign for Key Bank over the door. Two women walk by the building in the foreground

About our Trustee – Key Bank

KeyBank serves as Trustee of our Special Needs Trusts and handles paying bills, writing checks and ongoing investment management.

learn more

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Special Needs Trusts basics

People who receive government benefits, including SSI, SSDI, and Medicaid, are at risk of losing those benefits if their financial resources exceed government established resource/asset limits. A special needs trust (SNT) protects benefit eligibility and allows people to save for the future and use those savings to pay for the extras in life.

learn more

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Setting up Special Needs Trusts

The prospect of establishing and funding a special needs trust can seem daunting, but it is an important step in managing care for a family member with a disability.

The enrollment process for a first-party or a third-party trust is similar, but extra steps may be needed if a beneficiary is funding his or her own trust and the person does not have capacity to enter into a legal agreement.

Our team of caring, compassionate experts will help you with every step along the way.

a man with a developmental disability, perhaps in his late 20s or 30s, sits at a table, wearing headphones, and about to plug the headphones into a laptop computer on the table.

Using the money in your Special Needs Trust

A special needs trust can be used to buy things that make the beneficiary’s life better. It can be used for clothing and luggage. It can be used for vacations and vehicles. It’s for education, medical needs, entertainment, subscriptions, sports, health clubs and much more.

But certain government rules may restrict what special needs trust money can be used for. The money in a special needs trust is meant to supplement benefits and add enjoyment to the beneficiary’s life.

The Arc of Northern Virginia works with families and individuals to comply with government rules, while minding the budget and other circumstances of each client.

use your money

a man and his son with a developmental disability sit on a park bench outdoors. The father holds a tablet in his right hand, his left arm is around the boys's shoulders.

Having a friend or relative as trustee can work well. But not always. A person chosen as trustee could move, die or simply decide it's too much work. And it is a lot of work. With our partner, Key Bank, you know the Trustee is stable and dependable.

The people at The Arc of Northern Virginia may change, but the mission of The Arc will not. It will always be an experienced trust manager, a reliable source of information, and a passionate advocate for people with disabilities.

Being a trustee means staying up to date with regulations. It could mean sending reports to government agencies. It means monitoring monthly income. It's a complicated role. And government benefits are at stake every month. Our trust staff handles all of that. They understand and work with these requirements every day. They monitor changes in laws and regulations. Our team is very good at it because they do it all the time.

People with disabilities may get government benefits if they have very little income and savings. It's fair to say that most banks don't handle trusts for people with low incomes. As a result, most banks are not experts at working with those agencies. Our staff are experts. It's what we do every day.

Most corporations won't set up a trust with less than $350,000. We have a $10.00 minimum and no maximum. With our special needs trust, there's no need to fund the trust right away.

At The Arc of Northern Virginia we are here to help. Together we complete the trust documents. We remind you to follow through with updating and changing other legal documents and beneficiary designations. Each step of the way we are here to answer your questions. Once your document is complete and your questions are answered we keep in touch. We are here for you.

Testimonials

Expressions of gratitude from those we’ve helped

head and shoulders photo of Nick Baldiva, wearing a red checkered dress shirt

team photo of the O'Brien family at the 2023 Team Challenge

“Every time I run out of options for solving a need for my adult intellectually-disabled son, The Arc of Northern Virginia has provided a pathway for help. Without this organization, our lives would be much more difficult.”

Esther Baldiva

Mother of Nick Baldiva

“The Arc of Northern Virginia is a friend and a defender, not only for my daughter but for all those challenged with Intellectual Disability. The staff does a tremendous job, and it is just amazing to witness all the progress which has been made under their leadership. For sure I am a big fan. ”

Ed O’Brien

Father of Shana

“I highly recommend The Arc of Northern Virginia for their exceptional advocacy for individuals with intellectual disabilities.”

The Carlucci Family

Parents of Phillip

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Support Us

Your support makes our work possible

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, The Arc of Northern Virginia relies on private support from individuals, corporations, organizations, and foundations to fund our efforts. Your generous donations help make it possible for us to provide programs, services, and advocacy so that people with IDD can live “A Life Like Yours.”

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