They need you now.They will need a plan after.
For families caring for a loved one with a disability, the greatest financial question is not what happens today, it is what happens when you are no longer here to provide for them. Goshen Financial helps you build the answer.
Certified American Medicare Disability AdvocateTrained to help people with disabilities navigate insurance benefits, and develop a strategic plan tailored to their situation.
Over 2.1 million people, and the families who love and care for them.
A single inheritance left directly to a loved one can erase their benefits instantly.
Rising to 40% among those aged 50–64, the prime planning window.
The love is unconditional. The plan needs to be too.
Families who care for a loved one with a disability carry something most financial conversations never address, the weight of knowing that the care they provide every single day cannot be guaranteed beyond their own lifetime.
The challenge is not just emotional. It is structural. A well-meaning inheritance left directly to someone receiving SSI or Medicaid can disqualify them from the very benefits that sustain their daily life. Families without a plan do not fail their loved ones, they simply were never shown what was available to them.
Special needs planning is about building something that holds, legally, financially, and generationally, so that your loved one is protected not just today, but in every season that comes after you.
Goshen Financial is the insurance piece of that plan, working alongside families and the legal professionals who structure the framework to ensure the financial foundation is in place.
Benefits at risk without proper structure
A direct inheritance or insurance payout to a disabled loved one can immediately disqualify them from SSI and Medicaid, the programs they depend on most.
The cost of care grows every year
The lifetime cost of care for a child with significant disabilities can exceed $2.4 million. Inflation erodes savings. Life insurance can be structured to outpace it.
Informal arrangements are not protection
Verbal agreements, even loving ones, are not enforceable. A properly structured plan protects your loved one regardless of what happens to anyone else in the family.
This planning is for families who refuse to leave the future to chance.
If you love someone who depends on you, whether a child, a sibling, a spouse, or a parent, this conversation belongs on your calendar.
Parents of Children With Disabilities
Whether your child was born with a disability or acquired one, and whether they are young or already an adult, the question of what happens after you are gone is the most important financial question you will ever answer. We help you answer it now.
Siblings & Family Caregivers
Adult siblings and family members who have taken on caregiving responsibility deserve a financial structure that supports them in that role, and protects their loved one if circumstances change.
Spouses & Partners of Disabled Adults
When one partner has a disability, the plan must account for what happens if the caregiving partner passes first. Life insurance, properly structured, ensures continuity of care regardless of the order of loss.
The risks of not planning are not abstract.
In Michigan, the financial landscape for families with disabled loved ones is real, specific, and unforgiving if ignored.
A single direct inheritance above this threshold eliminates SSI eligibility. Without planning, your generosity becomes their disqualification.
Michigan's MiABLE program expanded in 2026 to include individuals with disability onset before age 46. Used alongside a Special Needs Trust, it provides flexible supplemental funding.
Savings erode. Inflation compounds. Life insurance structured correctly is the only funding mechanism guaranteed to be there, regardless of what happens to everything else.
The most powerful funding tool most families overlook.
Life insurance is the engine of most well-structured special needs plans. Here is why it works, and why other assets often fall short.
Guaranteed funding regardless of what else happens
Savings can be depleted by medical emergencies, job loss, or rising care costs. A life insurance policy delivers a guaranteed, contractually protected benefit at the exact moment it is needed, regardless of what happened to your other assets in the years before.
Structured to outpace inflation and rising care costs
Whole life and indexed universal life policies build cash value that grows tax-deferred and can be structured to keep pace with, and in many cases outpace, the inflation that steadily erodes the purchasing power of savings held in traditional accounts.
Paid to the trust, not the individual, preserving benefits
When the Special Needs Trust is named as the policy beneficiary, the payout does not count toward the $2,000 SSI asset limit. Your loved one receives the benefit of the funds without losing the government programs they depend on.
Income-tax-free death benefit to the trust
Unlike IRAs or 401(k)s, which are fully taxable as ordinary income when received by a trust, life insurance death benefits pass to the Special Needs Trust income-tax-free, preserving the full value of the benefit for your loved one's care.
Second-to-die policies reduce cost for couples by 30–50%
A survivorship life insurance policy pays out after both partners have passed and typically costs 30–50% less than two individual policies while delivering the same death benefit, making meaningful coverage genuinely accessible for most families.
Bypasses probate, funds available immediately
Assets passing through a will can be tied up in probate for months or years. A life insurance policy paid directly to the trust bypasses probate entirely, making funds available to the trustee immediately, when continuity of care cannot afford a delay.
Permanent coverage for a permanent need
Term life insurance expires. For families whose loved one will require lifelong support, permanent life insurance ensures coverage does not end before the need does, regardless of how long that need continues.
Cash value accessible during your lifetime
Permanent life insurance builds cash value the policy owner can access while living, for caregiving costs, home modifications, adaptive equipment, or any need that arises before the policy's death benefit is ever triggered.
Families deserve to understand the landscape before they plan.
MiABLE, Michigan's ABLE Program
Michigan's MiABLE program allows qualifying individuals to save up to $20,000 annually in 2026 without affecting SSI eligibility, with balances up to $100,000 excluded from SSI resource limits. As of January 2026, eligibility expanded to include individuals with disability onset before age 46, significantly broadening access. MiABLE accounts work best as a supplement to a Special Needs Trust, not a replacement.
Special Needs Trusts in Michigan
Michigan law provides for both first-party and third-party Special Needs Trusts. Third-party trusts, funded by parents, family members, or life insurance proceeds, do not require a Medicaid payback provision at the beneficiary's death, preserving more for the family. The distinction matters significantly in structuring the plan. This is a conversation for a qualified Michigan special needs attorney. Goshen Financial provides the insurance that makes that structure operational.
Michigan Government Benefits at Stake
Michigan Medicaid provides healthcare and Home and Community Based Services waivers, personal care, day programs, supported employment, and respite care, worth tens of thousands of dollars annually. These benefits are often more valuable than the SSI cash payment itself. Protecting Medicaid eligibility is the primary reason to structure a plan correctly. An improperly structured inheritance can eliminate these benefits instantly.
Let's build the plan together.
Special needs planning is not a product, it is a process. Our role is to understand your family's situation, explain your options clearly, and help you put the right insurance structure in place as part of a coordinated plan.
- No obligation. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about your family's needs.
- We work with multiple top-rated carriers to find the right coverage structure for your situation.
- We work alongside estate planning attorneys, we are the insurance piece of a coordinated team.
- You speak directly to a licensed broker, not a call center, not a script.
Questions we hear from families.
Special needs planning raises questions most financial conversations never address. We answer them directly.
A Special Needs Trust (SNT) is a legal arrangement that allows assets, including life insurance proceeds, to be held for a person with a disability without those assets counting toward the strict SSI and Medicaid resource limits. Without a trust, a direct inheritance or insurance payout to a disabled individual can immediately disqualify them from the government benefits they depend on. With a properly structured trust, those same funds can supplement their quality of life without affecting benefits. The trust must be drafted by a qualified attorney, Goshen Financial's role is to fund it with the right insurance structure.
The plan you build today is the care they receive tomorrow.
Your loved one does not need a perfect plan, they need a plan that exists. A single conversation with a Goshen Financial broker is where that plan begins.
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