1. A lifetime of support
Planning for a family member who has special needs
Title: A Lifetime of Support
General description: This seminar discusses some of the fundamental issues confronting families of loved ones with disabilities.
Target audience: Families who need help preparing for the lifetime care of a loved one with a disability
Suggested speaker: Financial advisor
Seminar invitation and local ads: Available on Resource Central and Materials Online
Good [morning/afternoon/evening].
Thank you for coming. Some of you know me—and I’ve had the pleasure of being your financial advisor for a number of years. But for those of you who don’t, let me introduce myself. I’m [Name] with the [Name of team], and I’ve been in the financial services industry for [XX] years, [XX] of them with Merrill Lynch.
This [morning/afternoon/evening] we’re going to talk about some of the issues you face as a family who has a loved one with a disability. We’ll also discuss some of the steps you can take to provide for your family member now and after you’re gone.

2. Are Not Bank Guaranteed
Important disclosures
The information in this presentation is intended to be a general introduction of Merrill Lynch’s approach to wealth management. It is not intended to be either a specific offer by any Merrill Lynch entity to sell or provide, or a specific invitation to apply for, any particular product or service.
Merrill Lynch offers a broad range of brokerage, investment advisory (including financial planning) and other services. There are important differences between brokerage and investment advisory services, including the type of advice and assistance provided, the fees charged, and the rights and obligations of the parties. It is important to understand the differences, particularly when determining which service or services to select.
The Financial Foundation report is an investment advisory service and is completed upon the delivery of the report. You are not obligated to implement any of the recommendations contained in the report or to transact business with Merrill Lynch. If you choose to do so, Merrill Lynch will be acting as a broker-dealer (unless otherwise agreed in writing).
Merrill Lynch Wealth Management makes available products and services offered by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, a registered broker-dealer and Member SIPC, and other subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”).
Trust and fiduciary services are provided by U.S. Trust, a division of Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC.
Neither Merrill Lynch nor any of its affiliates or financial advisors provide legal, tax or accounting advice. You should consult your legal and/or tax advisors before making any financial decisions.
Investment products:
© 2018 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.  | ARJDTMG3 | PRES  |  PM-0718  | 07/2018
[Note to presenter: Allow reasonable time for the audience to read the disclosures.]
Are Not FDIC Insured
Are Not Bank Guaranteed
May Lose Value

3. What questions are you asking yourself?
Some of the most pressing might be:
Who’ll take care of and watch over our loved one after we’re no longer able to do so?
Will there be adequate financial resources to maintain a decent quality of life for our loved one?
What will happen when schooling ends or when our loved one turns 18?
As a parent, financially preparing for your family’s well-being is a top priority. But planning for a family member who has special needs adds a whole other level of responsibility.
You’ve probably asked yourself:
Who’ll take care of and watch over our loved one after we’re no longer able to do so?
Will we have enough financial resources to maintain a decent quality of life for our loved one?
What will happen when schooling ends or when our loved one turns 18?
You’re not alone. These are some of the most pressing questions asked by families who have loved ones with disabilities.

4. Prepare for the future Begin by:
Talking with a professional who’s knowledgeable about the issues you face
Involving your entire family
Working together to put a financial strategy in place
Have you made adequate preparations for your loved one’s lifetime care? The fact is, few families who have a loved one with a disability actually have a financial strategy in place today. But not preparing for the future could have drastic consequences for your loved one.
You can begin by:
Talking with someone who’s knowledgeable about the issues you face
Involving your entire family
Working together to put a financial strategy in place
The sooner you begin to prepare, the sooner you can start to feel confident and assured about the security of your loved one’s future.

5. Work with a team who understands what you’re facing
Social Services
Groups
Parents/
Guardians
Special Needs
Trust Attorney
Trust
Specialists
Insurance
Estate Planning
Merrill Lynch
Financial
Advisor
Solutions
When you hear the term “special needs,” what comes to mind? Challenges? Hardships? A loved one who’ll need your help and support long into the future? Merrill Lynch defines special needs as the physical, psychological and familial challenges facing families who are affected by a loved one’s disability. And we’re committed to serving the financial needs of these families.
But it takes more than just financial advice. It requires the understanding and expertise of a team of professionals, including an experienced Special Needs Trust attorney and social services advocate — in short, a group such as the one gathered here today.
Take a look at the graphic on this slide. The team we use in our Special Needs Planning Program combines the resources of Merrill Lynch financial specialists, a Special Needs Trust attorney, and a social services advocate, disability organization or state agency all working together with the family.
This “teamwork approach” encompasses the specialists, professionals and organizations dedicated to finding the most appropriate solutions to the complex financial challenges you face as a family with a loved one who has special needs.

6. Doing the right thing for your loved one and your family
To help ensure that your entire family is taken care of, your plans may include:
Defining your intentions for your loved one after you’re gone
Using your assets efficiently to preserve your loved one’s current quality of life by providing supplemental income while maintaining government benefits
Preserving your estate for your family or charitable organizations
Helping you do the right thing for your loved one, for his or her quality of life and for your family overall — that’s the real benefit of the Special Needs Planning Program. To help ensure that your loved one and your family are taken care of, we can work with you to put in place the things you want to happen after you’re gone.
We’ll also alert you to strategies that are designed so your loved one can maintain lifelong eligibility for government benefits while obtaining a source of supplemental funds. A social services advocate helps you select sources of funding for your loved one’s future care costs — sources that will capitalize on available government benefits programs, from federal to local levels, and reduce the loss of wealth due to lifelong medical and personal care expenses. We’ll talk about Special Needs Trusts shortly.
The Special Needs Planning Program also makes extended family members aware of how they can leave a gift or legacy to a loved one with special needs — without jeopardizing the loved one’s benefits eligibility or their own estate plans — and facilitates the efficient transfer of wealth.

7. Financial security for your family Special needs of loved one
Assess your situation
Five components of a basic financial strategy:
Lifestyle
Estate planning services
Portfolio management
Family protection
Liability management
Tools and resources available to you:
Special Needs Planning Workbook: Special Needs Calculator worksheet (pages 11 and 12)
Special Needs Calculator (ml.com/specialneeds)
Financial security for your family
Special needs of loved one
Financial solutions
It’s important to assess where you are so you can work toward a financial solution for your loved one and your entire family. Let’s take a look at the five components of a basic financial strategy.
Lifestyle. Are your assets being put to use in the most effective way, considering your present lifestyle? When do you want to retire? And when you do, what type of lifestyle would you like to maintain?
Estate planning services. What’s the most efficient and orderly way to transfer control of your wealth to your heirs? Do you have a strategy that helps you today and provides for your heirs in the future?
Portfolio management. Do you have a portfolio management process in place? Have you established objectives and set a strategy? Are you receiving the proper advice and guidance for implementing solutions that are appropriate for your goals? Do you review your portfolio’s progress?
Family protection. What if the unexpected occurs? Have you taken steps to reduce how it will affect your family?
Liability management. How much should you borrow, and what’s the best way to do it? Have you made your liabilities more of an asset to your overall financial picture? Your packet includes our Special Needs Planning Workbook, which addresses these components in more detail. The workbook also includes a worksheet (pages 11 and 12) that can help you focus on the expenses you’ll need to consider for your loved one with special needs. You can transfer the data to our Special Needs Calculator, a valuable tool that can provide an estimate of a year-by-year savings goal or the lifetime lump sum required to help preserve your loved one’s financial security. You can find our Special Needs Calculator on our website at ml.com/special needs.

8. Being the ‘point person’ can be overwhelming
Care manager
Residential coordinator
Insurance agent
Financial advisor
Trust company
Attorney
Parents/ Guardians
Trustee
Many families are reluctant to begin the planning process because it’s simply too overwhelming for those who already have little or no time to spare.
Part of that reluctance stems from the realization that, if you’re the point person for various key people and agencies working independently of each other, their efforts, and yours, most likely would result in a strategy that doesn’t make the best use of available and potential resources.

9. Social Services Groups
Get the help you need through our teamwork approach
Social Services Groups
Parents/
Guardians
Special Needs
Trust Attorney
Trust
Specialists
Insurance
Estate Planning
Merrill Lynch
Financial
Advisor
Solutions
But with all of us working together, you can benefit from solutions designed to be both effective and efficient.
Remember, Merrill Lynch and its financial advisors don’t give tax or legal advice. That’s why it’s important to include your tax and legal advisors in the process.

10. Focus on your entire family
A good strategy can be the foundation of your financial success
Start with a Special Needs Planning Workbook and the Special Needs Calculator.
Include the entire family in the process
It’s understandable that well-intentioned parents might allocate a disproportionate share of their assets to a child who has a disability. That’s why it’s so important to include brothers and sisters and other family members in the process.
For families of children with disabilities, we recommend a family-focused strategy. We suggest starting with our Special Needs Planning Workbook and the Special Needs Calculator, which will give your advisor the information needed to incorporate the planning for your child with a disability into a Wealth Outlook report for your whole family.

11. Preserve your loved one’s quality of life
Key points of a Special Needs Trust:
Trust assets are not considered available resources belonging to the loved one with a disability
The trust is not held in the name of the loved one with a disability
The trust is for supplemental needs only and is not for replacing government benefits
Quality of life. For families with special needs concerns, ensuring it isn’t only an important consideration, it’s essential. Since the cash benefits provided by the government are quite limited, many families elect to supplement that income to preserve their loved one’s quality of life. A Special Needs Trust is one way to do that.
Through the Special Needs Planning Program, we’ll explain that Special Needs Trusts are a way to provide supplemental funds for a person with a severe disability or special health care need. Here’s how it works:
I’ll talk to your family about retaining specially trained attorneys who have expertise in establishing Special Needs Trusts.
I’ll explain that Special Needs Trust funds may be used only for “supplemental” needs and that the trust must be discretionary, with assets managed and distributed by a trustee(s), not the loved one with special needs who is the beneficiary.
I’ll also explain that a Special Needs Trust must be drafted by a specialized attorney trained in elder and disability law.
We’ll work with your family, attorneys and tax advisors to consider the most appropriate funding sources for the Special Needs Trust, choose trustees and consider alternatives for management of trust assets.
We’ll include extended family members in discussions about how they can make gifts or endowments to the Special Needs Trust on behalf of your loved one with special needs.
[At this point, if you’re hosting a panel seminar with an attorney and a third-party disability organization, you may want the attorney to speak about Special Needs Trusts and their benefits in more detail.]

12. Select a trustee A trustee of a Special Needs Trust:
Helps ensure that your loved one has the support system for lifetime care after you’re gone
Assists your family in developing a care plan for your loved one with a disability
Can be a family member, a friend or a professional trustee
[If you’re hosting a panel seminar with an attorney, you may want the attorney to provide an overview of trustee options.]
Naming someone to care for your loved one can be the most difficult part of the process. If no family members are available or capable of providing the care your loved one requires, you should consider naming a professional trustee. Individual trustees help to ensure that your loved one has the support system for lifetime care after you're gone. They can also assist your family in developing a care plan for your loved one.

13. Access our support services
To help trustees with their responsibilities, we offer assistance that includes:
Referrals
Special needs trustees
Comprehensive trust administrative and investment services
[If you’re hosting a panel seminar with an attorney, thank him or her and proceed.]
It can be daunting to be the trustee for a loved one with special needs. To help simplify the process, we offer services specially designed for trusts that can assist trustees with their responsibilities.
From referrals, to special needs trustees, to comprehensive trust administrative and investment services, we offer a range of services to help you once you’ve designated a trustee.
Before we hear from our care manager, [Name] from [Organization], I’d like to take a few minutes to highlight some of the support services we offer through our Special Needs Planning Program. Let’s take a look.

14. Tap into a range of resources
Designated trustees can benefit from these services:
Trust Administrative Advantage®1
Agent for Trustee Services through U.S. Trust2
Access to the resources of Broadspire Care Management3
1 The Trust Administrative Advantage service does not include preparation of individual tax returns (Form 1040), estate and gift tax returns (Forms 706 and 709), or tax reporting for trustee compensation (Form 1099 Misc.). Clients will continue to receive a Form 1099 from Merrill Lynch for their Cash Management Account® for Trust(s) CMAT(s) for their records.
2 Trust and fiduciary services are provided by U.S. Trust, a division of Bank of America, N.A., Member FDIC. Brokerage and investment advisory services are provided by Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (“MLPF&S”). BANA and MLPF&S are wholly owned subsidiaries of Bank of America Corporation.
3 This service is offered by Broadspire Care Management, Atlanta, GA, which is a separate company that is not owned by, or a corporate affiliate of, Merrill Lynch. The contract between Merrill Lynch and Broadspire Care Management provides Merrill Lynch clients an 8% discount on Broadspire Care Management published rates.
Trust Administrative Advantage. Special needs trustees managing trust assets through a Cash Management Account® for Trusts can benefit from Trust Administrative Advantage®, a service offered by U.S. Trust. The Trust Administrative Advantage service provides trust administrative services, including bill payment, principal and income accounting, fiduciary income tax preparation, and valuation assistance. Trustees of special needs trusts who enroll in the service retain maximum investment flexibility through their relationship with their financial advisor, as well as full responsibility for any distributions of the trust’s assets.
Agent for Trustee Services. As agent for the trustee, U.S. Trust will provide investment management services for trust assets as well as comprehensive administrative services. Trust administrative services include preparation of fiduciary tax returns, record keeping, principal and income accounting, and other services.
The trustee is responsible for all the discretionary decisions, such as what equipment or services should be purchased for use by the trust beneficiary. The trustee must also determine whether a particular payment from the trust will have any impact on the beneficiary’s eligibility for government programs. U.S. Trust will make distributions from the account only as directed by the trustee. This service is available in all 50 states.
Access to Broadspire Care Management. Merrill Lynch also offers a referral to Broadspire Care Management, a special needs management service, at preferred rates. Broadspire provides expert and specialized assistance to disabled or aging individuals nationwide. Broadspire’s experienced nurses, social workers and vocational consultants objectively assess an individual’s needs — then assist in securing the necessary products and services while helping to preserve government-provided benefits, such as Social Security benefits.

15. Receive advice on government benefits
A care manager or social service partner:
Makes families aware of all government services available for loved ones with special needs
Helps ensure that families understand key rules and regulations relating to Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid and Medicare
Provides guidance to individual trustees on care providers and available services
Works closely with legal and financial partners
[If you’re hosting a panel seminar with a care manager or social service partner, you may want to introduce that person and ask him or her to address the points on this slide.]
Now I’d like to introduce someone who represents another critical member of your team to help address your special needs issues — [Name] from [Organization]. As a [care manager/social service partner], [he/she] plays a very important role in advising families on the government benefits for which your loved one might be eligible.
[Name] will describe examples of government benefits and support when a Special Needs Trust is in effect. [He/She] will also talk about government regulations and how they relate to eligibility requirements. [Name] will also talk about how [he/she] collaborates with the other members of the team to ensure that the needs of both your loved one with a disability and your family are met.

16. Work with a team who understands what you’re facing
Social Services
Groups
Parents/
Guardians
Special Needs
Trust Attorney
Trust
Specialists
Insurance
Estate Planning
Merrill Lynch
Financial
Advisor
Solutions
Teamwork among Merrill Lynch financial advisors, Special Needs Trust attorneys and social services representatives provides a formula for families who have loved ones with a disability.
Today we’ve covered a lot of information in a short amount of time. So now let’s open the floor to any questions. Who’d like to start?
[After Q&A concludes]: I realize that many of you may have questions that are either personal or highly specific to your own situation. I encourage each of you to schedule an appointment with me where we can explore the subject in greater detail.

17. Thank you
It all begins with a discussion. I look forward to the opportunity to help you prepare for a new future. Thank you for joining me today.