Special Needs Trust Attorney in Hidden Hills

Special Needs Trust Attorney in Hidden Hills

High-net-worth families in Hidden Hills with a disabled family member face a planning challenge that requires precise coordination: the special needs trust must protect government benefits while also coordinating with an overall estate plan that may involve multiple trusts, irrevocable structures, business interests, and significant inherited wealth. A direct inheritance to a disabled beneficiary ends their benefits, since the SSI resource limit under 42 U.S.C. §1382(a)(3)(B) and related rules is just $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple. The special needs trust must be in place and correctly structured before any assets reach the disabled person.

I am an estate planning attorney serving Hidden Hills and the surrounding area. I do this work over Zoom or phone, and a mobile notary comes to you for the signing. Hidden Hills is in Los Angeles County, and any court proceedings go through the LA County Superior Court. For the full estate planning overview, see the Hidden Hills estate planning page.

Coordinating the special needs trust with a complex estate plan

In a Hidden Hills estate with irrevocable trusts, LLCs, business interests, and investment portfolios, the special needs trust needs to be designed to receive a potentially significant inheritance without disqualifying the disabled beneficiary’s government benefits. The trust’s design must address what distributions the trustee can and cannot make, how the trust assets are invested and managed, and what happens to the trust assets when the beneficiary dies. For a trust established by the parents or another third party, no Medicaid payback is required at the beneficiary’s death, unlike a first-party trust funded with the beneficiary’s own assets under 42 U.S.C. §1396p(d)(4)(A), where the state must be reimbursed from what remains. The amount potentially available for a Hidden Hills disabled beneficiary through a third-party SNT may be very large, which makes selecting the right trustee and the right investment manager critically important for long-term administration.

	Third-party trust	First-party trust
Whose money	The parents’ or another third party’s assets	The beneficiary’s own assets, for example a personal injury settlement
Payback at death	No Medicaid payback is required	The state must be reimbursed from what remains (42 U.S.C. §1396p(d)(4)(A))
Court involvement	Private; most family-funded trusts never see a judge	Prob. Code § 3604 applies when a court orders settlement or judgment money paid into a special needs trust

Professional trustees for large special needs trusts

At the level of inheritance a Hidden Hills disabled beneficiary might receive, a professional trustee or a combination of a family co-trustee and a professional co-trustee is usually the right answer. The trust may operate for decades and require ongoing investment management, benefit rule compliance, and coordination with service providers. A family member who makes wrong distributions, fails to follow the benefit rules, or makes poor investment decisions creates significant liability and can harm the beneficiary. Professional trustees who work in special needs trust administration provide the expertise that a family member trustee may lack. A trust and a good plan can often avoid a conservatorship when a disabled adult lacks capacity. I refer conservatorship proceedings to other counsel, and the conservatorship page explains what they involve. A living trust for the grantors that coordinates with the SNT is the foundational structure.

Court supervision, ABLE accounts, and the benefit rules that shape the trust

Cal. Prob. Code §3604 applies when a court orders a minor’s or disabled person’s money, such as a settlement or judgment, paid to a special needs trust, and sets out how that trust must be structured and reviewed. That court route is distinct from a purely private third-party trust created by parents while the beneficiary is capable of managing personal decisions. Alongside the trust, 26 U.S.C. §529A authorizes ABLE accounts, tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities that can hold up to a set annual contribution limit without affecting SSI, and which work well as a complement to a special needs trust for smaller, more flexible day-to-day expenses the trustee does not need to administer directly. I look at both tools together when designing the plan, since neither one alone is usually the complete answer for a Hidden Hills family.

What comes off the top before a special needs trust is funded

A special needs trust only helps with what reaches it. If a parent’s assets are in their own name at death, they go through probate first, and the fee schedule in Prob. Code §§ 10800 and 10810 comes out of the estate before anything is distributed to a trust for a disabled child. On the Zillow Home Value Index for August 2026, the typical Hidden Hills home is worth $5,134,415. On that value the schedule allows the executor and the attorney $64,344 each, or $128,688 together.

Slice of the estate	Rate	Fee for each of the executor and the attorney
First $100,000	4%	$4,000
Next $100,000	3%	$3,000
Next $800,000	2%	$16,000
Remaining $4,134,415	1%	$41,344
Total, each		$64,344

The figures are for an estate of only the typical home and are based on gross value, with no deduction for a mortgage (§ 10810(b)). The schedule allows those amounts and doesn’t require them. What matters for a special needs plan is where the money comes from: the fee is paid out of what would have funded the trust. A living trust that holds the home and carries the special needs sub-trust inside it skips that step. See the living trust page for Hidden Hills.

When a court approves the trust: the limits in Prob. Code § 3604

Most family-funded trusts are private and never see a judge. The court route applies when a court orders a minor’s or a disabled person’s money, such as a settlement or judgment, paid into a special needs trust. In that case § 3604(a)(1) requires the court to review and approve the trust’s terms, and the trust stays under the court’s continuing jurisdiction, supervised to the extent the court decides.

The court can approve only after three findings under § 3604(b). The beneficiary has a disability that substantially impairs the ability to provide for their own care or custody and is a substantial handicap. The beneficiary is likely to have special needs the trust will meet. And the money going in doesn’t exceed what appears reasonably necessary to meet those needs. That last finding is a ceiling. For a Hidden Hills family that can fund a trust with parents’ wealth, it’s a reason to keep an inheritance in a private third-party trust and use the court-approved route only for a settlement.

The petition goes to the Los Angeles Superior Court. Which department hears it depends on the case that produced the money, and I check that before anything is filed.

The home, the community association, and a beneficiary who lives there

A trust can own the house a disabled beneficiary lives in. In Hidden Hills, the Hidden Hills Community Association approves building changes, so a ramp, a widened doorway, or a change to a barn or corral needs its approval before a contractor starts. The trust should give the trustee authority to apply for those approvals and pay for the work.

The deed to the trust is recorded with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, headquartered at 12400 Imperial Hwy., Norwalk, along with a Preliminary Change of Ownership Report. Whether a particular transfer to the trust is a reassessment event depends on how title moves, and I check that before the deed is signed. The trust also has to carry the property’s ongoing costs, so the funding plan should count property taxes and upkeep on a large home. See special needs trust administration for what the trustee does year to year, and the special needs planning guide for the wider picture.

Questions Hidden Hills clients ask

My disabled child may inherit several million dollars through the estate plan. Can the special needs trust hold that much?

Yes. There is no maximum on a third-party special needs trust. The larger the trust, the more important it is to have professional trustee management, a well-drafted investment policy, and careful attention to how distributions are made without affecting benefits.

What if my disabled child also has a conservator?

A conservator manages the disabled person’s general affairs under court supervision. A special needs trust is a separate structure that holds assets for the beneficiary’s benefit. The conservator and the trustee may interact on matters affecting the disabled person, but they are separate roles with separate legal obligations. Both may be necessary in some situations.

Can the trust buy property in Hidden Hills for my disabled child to live in?

Yes. A special needs trust can own real property for the beneficiary’s use. Housing owned by the trust and occupied by the beneficiary is treated differently from cash shelter payments under SSI rules. For a Hidden Hills property, the ongoing costs of the property, maintenance, and property taxes would need to be addressed in the trust’s financial planning.

What is the difference between the third-party trust you are describing and a first-party special needs trust?

A third-party trust is funded with someone else’s assets, typically a parent’s, and requires no payback to the state at the beneficiary’s death. A first-party trust, funded with the disabled person’s own assets under 42 U.S.C. §1396p(d)(4)(A), for example a personal injury settlement, must reimburse Medi-Cal for benefits paid before anything passes to other beneficiaries. Most Hidden Hills estate planning uses the third-party structure since the funds originate with the parents.

Does an ABLE account replace the need for a special needs trust?

No. ABLE accounts under 26 U.S.C. §529A are useful for smaller, flexible expenses but have annual contribution and total balance limits that make them unsuitable for holding a significant inheritance. For a Hidden Hills family, the special needs trust handles the bulk of the inheritance, and the ABLE account can supplement it for day-to-day flexibility.

Can a court cap how much goes into my child’s special needs trust?

In the court-approved route, yes. Under Prob. Code § 3604(b)(3), the court must find that the money going into the trust doesn’t exceed what appears reasonably necessary to meet the beneficiary’s special needs. A private third-party trust funded from a parent’s estate doesn’t go through that finding.

Does the state get repaid before a court-ordered special needs trust is funded?

Under § 3604(d), a court order sending money to a special needs trust must provide that statutory liens held by the Department of Health Care Services, the Department of State Hospitals, the Department of Developmental Services, and any county are satisfied first. That’s a rule for court-ordered payments, such as settlements, and it’s separate from the payback question for first-party trusts.

Does the probate fee apply to money that goes into the trust?

It applies to the estate before distribution. If the parents’ assets pass through probate on their way to the trust, the schedule in Prob. Code §§ 10800 and 10810 is figured on the gross estate first. Assets held in the parents’ living trust, with the special needs sub-trust inside it, avoid that step.