Financial planning for families with a child with additional needs
There is a question that sits quietly in the background for most parents in this position: what happens to my child when I am no longer here to look after them? It is the hardest one to think about and the most important one to answer.
The financial questions these families face are different
Most financial advice quietly assumes a standard path. Children grow up, leave home, and eventually manage their own money. When your child has additional needs that path looks different, and almost every piece of standard advice needs rethinking.
You may be planning for care that continues for the whole of your child’s life rather than the first two decades of it. You may be wondering how to leave money to a disabled child without costing them the means-tested benefits and local authority support they depend on. You may not know who will make decisions on their behalf once they turn eighteen, or how deputyship even works. These are not questions a standard financial plan is built to answer, and getting them wrong has real consequences for your child.
We cannot make the questions easy. What we can do is work through them in a structured way, in plain language, at whatever pace suits you, and leave you with a written plan that the people around you can actually follow. We help families across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire do exactly that.
How we help
Four areas, usually in this order.
Education and EHCP costs
An Education, Health and Care Plan shapes a great deal of your child’s support, but plenty falls outside it: specialist provision, additional therapies, equipment, travel. We help you work out what those costs are likely to be and build them into the wider plan, rather than absorbing them year by year and hoping.
Protection, if you are no longer here
This matters for every parent. For your family it is critical, because the plan has to work if something happens tomorrow, not only in thirty years. We make sure life and critical illness cover are the right size and type, and written into trust so the money reaches your child’s care rather than sitting in your estate waiting on probate.
Long term provision and trusts
Leaving money directly to a child with additional needs can do more harm than good, because it counts as their capital and can reduce the support they receive. A properly structured trust lets you provide for them while protecting those entitlements. We explain the options, including a disabled person’s trust, and help you decide what fits.
Wills and guardianship alongside the finances
Financial planning does not sit on its own. It works alongside your will, your choice of trustees, and the arrangements for who will care for and make decisions for your child. We make sure the financial plan and the legal plan point in the same direction, working with your solicitor directly.
Will writing and legal services involves the referral to a service that is separate and distinct to those offered by St. James’s Place and along with Trusts are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
No pressure, no jargon, no rush
A conversation
Thirty minutes, no obligation. Tell us about your family. We will not ask for a single figure in that first call unless you want to give one.
The full picture
Income, pensions, property, existing cover, what support your child receives now and what is likely to change at eighteen and beyond.
A written plan
Clear recommendations you can read at the kitchen table and share with family, your solicitor, or anyone else who needs to understand it.
We stay with it
Annual reviews, and a call whenever something changes. Diagnoses change, funding changes, families change. The plan should keep up.
Where to start
There is a lot to think about and it can be hard to know where to begin. Our short questionnaire takes a few minutes and carries no obligation. At the end you will have a clearer picture of where your family’s plan is already strong and where the gaps are worth a closer look. No obligation, no follow-up you did not ask for.
Questions families ask us
Will leaving money to my child affect their benefits?
It can. Means-tested benefits and local authority support take account of capital held in your child’s name, so money left directly to them can reduce or remove support they rely on. This is the main reason families use a trust: it allows provision to be made without that money counting as your child’s own capital.
What is a disabled person’s trust?
It is a trust set up for the benefit of someone who is disabled or vulnerable, which can receive favourable tax treatment and, importantly, is not usually treated as your child’s own capital for means-tested benefits. Whether it is the right structure depends on your circumstances, and there are other options worth considering alongside it.
When should we start planning?
Earlier is easier, but it is rarely too late. Families often come to us around a diagnosis, at the move into adult services around age eighteen, or when they finally sit down to write a will. Any of those is a sensible starting point.
Who will look after the money when we are gone?
Whoever you appoint as trustees. Part of our work is helping you think carefully about who those people should be, what guidance they will need, and how to write a letter of wishes so that they understand your child as you do.
Do you work alongside our solicitor?
Yes, and we prefer to. The financial plan and the legal plan have to point in the same direction, so we will speak to your solicitor directly rather than leaving you to relay it. If you do not have one, we can suggest firms locally who do this work regularly.
Do you only work with families in Buckinghamshire?
Our office is in Stoke Poges and we see most families in person across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. We also work by video call, and several of the families we help are further afield.
Let’s talk when you are ready
Planning for a child with additional needs is not a one-off task. It evolves as your child grows and as circumstances change. When you are ready to talk, we are here, and we will take the time to understand your family properly before we suggest anything.