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| Best Practices: Matters of Trust |
Best Intentions
Danna Voth
12/01/2004
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We should include three main types of
information in a letter of intent: our child’s health history, personal
information and, less prosaically, our hopes and dreams for our child. Within
the health history, we should list all of our child’s physicians, including
their addresses and phone numbers. Hospitals and hospital ID numbers, schedules
of any regular appointments, results of tests and even contact information for
medical professionals we do not want our children to see again also should be
included.
Personal information about our child should contain such items as
favorite colors, music, activities and foods, as well as clothing sizes and
haircut styles. Detail what makes the child happy or nervous, what special toy
or blanket calms her down or helps him sleep. Vogel recommends explaining
sensitivities to certain colors or sounds, such as those that can cause seizures
in an autistic child.
Detailing Desires
The hopes-and-dreams section enables our trustees to
know how we would like the assets in the trust to be used, whether they are for
eating at favorite restaurants, going on trips or taking swimming lessons. In
short, we can detail the things our children love having in their lives.
We
should share the letters of intent with family members, agencies, trustees and
future guardians of our children. Barbara McGoldrick of Oakbrook, Ill., has
directed in her letter of intent that her son Steven, who is mentally ill,
should always have a functional computer. She has also indicated that he loves
to go on trips with his family and friends, and wants him to continue to enjoy
such visits after she is gone. “I feel very comfortable,” she says. “If I drop
dead tomorrow, somebody can walk in here and it’s all there.”
For the
Hausslein family, setting up a special-needs trust for Tommy has given Robert
and Evelyn basic peace of mind. They no longer worry that Tommy will lose his
government benefits or that his needs will go unmet after their deaths. “We feel
reasonably secure that Tommy will be provided for financially,” Robert
says.
Illustration by Isabelle Arsenault.
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