On-Demand Video
CC

Special Needs Trusts 2025


  • City:
  • Start Date:2025-04-30 09:00:00
  • End Date:
  • Length:
  • Level:Intermediate
  • Topics:Estates & Trusts

$299.00 ProPass

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Credit States Status Credits Earn credit until

This program is eligible for 3 hours of CLE credit in 60-minute states. In 50-minute states, this program is eligible for 3.6 hours of CLE credit. Credit hours are estimated and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules.

Overview

This program will explain the crucial need for a Special Needs Trust to protect public benefits for Medicaid and SSI recipients who receive money from an inheritance, verdict, or settlement. Participants will learn to identify when to use a Special Needs Trust, explain the different types, draft and administer trusts, and differentiate a Special Needs Trust from an ABLE Account. The program will also consider ethical considerations in Special Needs Trusts, including conflicts between a trustee and a beneficiary, attorney-client privilege when representing fiduciaries, and representation of persons with cognitive disabilities.

Recorded in April 2025.

Faculty

Dennis C. McAndrews, Esq.

Mr. McAndrews has worked for over forty (40) years in the public and private sectors in several roles in the fields of estate planning and disability law. He is the founder and Managing Partner Emeritus of McAndrews, Mehalick, Connolly, Hulse, and Ryan Law Offices, P.C., a fifteen attorney law firm with offices in Berwyn, Scranton, Wyomissing, Wilmington Delaware, and Metropolitan Washington D.C., which regularly represents individuals and their families in a variety of areas, including estate planning/administration, special education matters, special needs trusts, elder law, abuse of vulnerable persons, guardianships, higher education abuse/discipline matters, and injury cases. He frequently acts as a consultant to other public and private attorneys with regard to estate planning/administration, disability and special education issues. Mr. McAndrews has served as Executive Director and Staff Counsel to two select committees of the Pennsylvania State Senate which evaluated Pennsylvania’s system of care for the intellectually disabled and drafted proposed legislation designed to modernize Pennsylvania’s legal basis for the provision of care to the intellectually disabled. He served for fifteen (15) years as a Special Education Hearing Officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and was assigned to determine the appropriate educational classification, program, and placement of school-age children with disabilities. Mr. McAndrews was also selected to serve as one of the first appellate hearing officers in Pennsylvania under new Department of Education regulations. During his seventeen (17) years as a prosecutor in the Philadelphia area, and thereafter in criminal defense matters, he handled many cases involving defenses of mental disability. He successfully pursued a conviction against the wealthiest murderer in American history, John E. DuPont, for the murder of Olympic gold medal wrestler, David Schultz. He is also a frequent contributor for national and local news media involving legal and political issues and has offered commentary for CBS, NBC, NPR, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Legal lntelligencer, and many other news outlets. For over 30 years, Mr. McAndrews was an instructor of Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Justice and Business Law at Villanova University, Immaculata University and Drexel University. He is a frequent lecturer to national conferences, Bar Association Committees and advocacy groups concerning special education, estate planning/administration, the rights of the elderly and individuals and with disabilities and has authored numerous articles regarding these matters. He has served as a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Elder Law Council and served for a decade as Chairman of The Disability Law Committee of the Delaware County Bar Association. Mr. McAndrews obtained his law degree from Villanova’s Charles Widger School of Law in 1978 and was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education together with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Villanova University in 1975. Dennis is the author and sole actor of a play entitled “If JFK Survived Dallas: Presidential Reflections of an Elder Statesman”. He has also written “The Open” a screenplay which chronicles Ken Venturi’s dramatic victory in the 1964 United States Open Championship where he overcame heat exhaustion to achieve a triumph after years of being a washed-up tour professional.

Lesley Mehalick, Esq.

Ms. Mehalick is a shareholder of McAndrews Law Offices and the supervising partner for the firm’s estates and trusts department. She is an accomplished estates and trusts attorney whose practice includes Estate Planning, Special Needs Trusts, Guardianship, Post – Litigation Planning, Personal Injury Settlement Planning, Trust Administration Counseling, Waiver Program Counseling, Medicaid/Social Security Compliance, Estate Administration, Elder Law Planning, and Orphans Court matters. Ms. Mehalick has extensive experience in post-litigation planning and utilizing various techniques and trusts designed to meet the specific needs of the plaintiff, which may include maintaining eligibility for public benefits or making a plan to protect the monies. She regularly assists families in navigating through special needs planning, whether a young child, adult or elder family member is involved. These efforts include qualifying clients for public benefits when they receive a lawsuit recovery, preparing special needs trusts, bringing guardianship proceedings, and carefully crafting an estate plan that maintains a disabled family member’s eligibility for essential public benefits. She is privileged to counsel clients regarding elder law issues and ways to protect the assets and promote the dignity of loved ones who may require skilled nursing care. She regularly appears in Orphans’ Court and she is a frequent lecturer to both attorneys and families on these topics. Ms. Mehalick previously practiced civil litigation in Northern Virginia, and she has litigated suits in both Virginia and Maryland. Prior to her private practice, she served as the judicial law clerk for the Honorable Stanley P. Klein, Judge of the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Fairfax County, Virginia. Ms. Mehalick holds an LL.M. (Master of Laws) in Taxation and a Certification in Estate Planning from the Villanova University School of Law, Graduate Tax Program, and she received her J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, where she served as the executive articles editor on the American Intellectual Property Law Association Quarterly Journal. In addition to maintaining her practice at McAndrews Law, Ms. Mehalick serves as an Adjunct Professor of Taxation and Special Needs Planning at the American College of Financial Services.

Caitlin McAndrews, Esq.

Caitlin McAndrews is a shareholder with McAndrews Law Offices, P.C., where she concentrates her practice on Special Education matters and Estate Planning. Ms. McAndrews works in the Delaware and Washington, D.C. area offices. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Ms. McAndrews worked as a special educator in the Philadelphia area. As an attorney, she has continuously represented individuals with disabilities and their families. She routinely presents on special education and disability related topics across multiple states and for national organizations. Ms. McAndrews resides with her husband and three children.


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