Starting a fundraiser for someone that has been injured is a great thing, but did you know that it could have a negative impact on that person? Financial planner, Jason Lazarus, explains how hosting a fundraiser can actually cause problems.

Video Transcription

Frequently when somebody is catastrophically injured, whether it is a brain injury or a spinal cord injury, the community will go out and do fund raising for that injury victim. But that can create a danger situation and there is three things that you need to know. One is that, money that is sitting on a back account that has been raised by the community, if that person is receiving public assistance such as assigned Medicaid, that is accountable resource and they can lose their Medicaid coverage. 2. You should know that a special type of trust called of Third Party Special Needs Trust can be established in the money that has been raced by the community can be put into that trust. Third thing that you need to know is that trust can then be use to pay for the supplemental cares, supplemental needs, just like a regular special needs that trust can be used to pay for that person’s care so it can really help an injured victim but it has got to be done the right way. Otherwise, you have run the risk of that person losing their Medicaid coverage. My advice would be, if you are going to go out and do a fund raisers to consult with the financial adviser who has experience in dealing with Medicaid and as a side preservation and a Lawyer who use skill to drafting trust that protect public benefit eligibility, you create the Third Party Special Needs Trust before you do the fund raising and have the funds flow into that when they are raise so that the injured victim does not an issue with their future Medicaid or SSI benefits.