Elder Law Issues

Elder Law Issues


Supporting a Grandchild with a Disability

November 30, 2025

Supporting a Grandchild with a Disability

Many families will have the experience of raising a child or grandchild with a disability. Fortunately, for grandparents there are a variety of options they can use to support disabled grandchildren.

Several options include third party special needs trusts, ABLE act accounts, UTMA accounts and possibly 529 accounts. There are several factors to consider when deciding which of these tools to use. Does the grandparent want to gift during their lifetime, or after their death? How much does the grandparent want to leave? Does the family want a mechanism that multiple members can use to support the grandchild? In this podcast we discuss the positive and negative aspects of each of these tools.

Supporting a grandchild with a disability can be complicated but careful planning can help mitigate this.