Cation for those involved with special needs trusts

rasbury

Some of you are familiar with the story on my grad daughter who was in an accident July 2020 and suffered a severe TBI injury. She has come a very longcway since coming home but a long way to go but continues to improve but not the purpose of this post. After the accident I quickly got a lawyer and went after anyone we could- even sued my auto coverage policy. Everyone settled quickly, getting the max out of their insurance policies and any assets we could find- ended up with about 750 k which is nothing for what she has been through and I'm sure will be disabled the rest of her life. I've also figured out the system- if you are in such an accident you file for disability and medicaid as you can never sue for enough money to afford the care you would need- home nurses, continued therapy and rehab...couple of surgeries have come up since etc. So, the money we sued for can't go to her- or she would lose all her benefits. The court ordered that the money would go to a special needs trust and that is to be managed by an independent company who is trustee for the trust. We have no control on how they invest or handle the money- they evaluate any expenses she has and if it something SS or medicaid won't pay for, like her wheel chair van we purchased for her in the name of the trust . We purchased a funeral plot for her also, trust owns it. We almost gave the trust our home with her as beneficiary so we could do some house upgrades for handicap shower etc and the trust would pay for that. How much safer could she be? We get a letter from the trust around the 14th that the founder of the company, which is managed by a board, somehow was able to loan a company he owned 100,000,000.00 dollars out of several of the accounts and all her money is now gone pending outcome of the chapter 11 and qw know how that works. I can't believe this has not made national news. The other use of these special beers trusts would be if you have your parents for example on disability you have to be careful what you do for them, what assets they have etc- tge special needs trust does the same thing- be very careful and if you have one now you need to review tge powers of the trustee as it has got scary real fast. We trusted our attorney and this company and should not have. There has been some local Tampa area paper has covered it some, name of tge company is The Center for Special Needs Trusts out of the Tampa area..the owner is a Leo givioni and I would say from what I see this scam was the plan from the start- outside company that did tge accounting he owned- his daughter ran it. All the red flags were there, there is no state or federal oversize I can see...she may lose her van, **** even her funeral plot before it's over. Thank God we did not give her the house- we'd be out our home.

mbnarney

As the father of a special needs daughter this really hits a nerve. Just getting the benefits she is due seems to be a constant struggle. I wish you the best. If it were me I would contact the Attorney Generals Office , their fraud unit may be able to help.

rasbury

mbnarney said:

As the father of a special needs daughter this really hits a nerve. Just getting the benefits she is due seems to be a constant struggle. I wish you the best. If it were me I would contact the Attorney Generals Office , their fraud unit may be able to help.

I called the FBI as they will be or already investigating...may be able to sue the board of directors...to soon to tell. 

mbnarney

Even Better, Good Luck

TonyG13

@rasbury - That sucks. I just read an article online from last week in the Tampa Bay Times which said some families have started a class-action lawsuit to try and recover the money. Hopefully you can be part of that and at least get some, if not all, returned. Good luck.

raybo3

Good luck @rasbury wishing the best for your granddaughter  

mattie

@rasbury
That is a horrible situation.

Older I get Ras - more I hate people. Hard to face the stuff like that going on....

rasbury

Thanks all- all I can do at this point to feel better about it is get the story out- this should not have happened and others may be more vulnerable to this than they'd think.

rasbury

And @mattie for my funeral my wife will have to hire standins for the pictures...

davidbrooks

That just stinks.  Seems like the hits keep coming.  I can understand the logic for the law but putting a company in complete control vs providing oversight is another thing all together.  I hope you and the other clients of this company are able to get some of the funds back.  I also hope that they can prosecute this guy for embezzlement.  Private companies do give loans to CEO's and other officers.... that much i do realize.  BUT that much seems like an exit plan right before someone relocates to a new country.

rasbury

@davidbrooks it will be years before this is sorted out...there are some families that have lost millions  with more medical needs than we have. I belive this was his whole plan from the company inception. Special place in he'll for this guy.we will ride out the bankruptcy but the money will probably come from other lawsuits. Crazy part is the little money she has left will be used by them in their legal fees- can't do a thing about it.