National Conference
2025 National Conference on
Special Needs Planning and Special Needs Trusts Main Conference
Thursday, October 23, 2025
8:00 a.m.-8:20 a.m.
Welcome and Announcements and TEAM Introduction
Mark Bauer and TEAM
[Description]
8:20 a.m.-9:20 a.m.
Advocacy – An Essential Part of a Special Needs Practice, Now More Than Ever
Frederick M. Misilo, Jr.
This session will explore the importance of advocacy at the local, state, and national level within a special needs practice in the current political climate. An overview of the disability rights movement on behalf of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities over the last seventy years in the areas of housing, education, Medicaid expansion, health care, voting rights, and self-determination will be provided. The role of grass-roots advocacy by families and advocacy organizations will be highlighted. In our current political climate, the many advances in expanding community-based services and support for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are being threatened. This session will provide resources and strategies for engaging in advocacy efforts for your clients as well as for your law practice.
9:20 a.m.-10:10 a.m.
Child Support Rules for Adult Children who have a Disability
Craig Reaves
[Description coming soon]
10:10 a.m.-10:25 a.m.
Break and Visit with Sponsors and Exhibitors
Sponsored by Prudent Investors
10:25 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
SSI Update
Kenneth Brown and Jennifer Burdick
[Description coming soon]
11:15 a.m.-12:05 p.m.
Housing
Stephen Morris and Patricia Nadeau
[Description coming soon]
12:05 p.m.-1:30 p.m.
Lunch
Sponsored by Key Bank
1:30 p.m.-2:20 p.m. Breakout Session 1
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock n’ Roll: Atypical Beneficiary Distribution Requests
Megan Brand, Marco Chayet, and Peter Wall
All trustees have "that" story - the discretionary distribution request that catches you and your team a bit off-guard. This session will address how and from whom such requests are made, sole benefit impact, discretionary distribution language drafting and implications, beneficiary expectation setting, and distribution funding mechanisms. Music and gig-themed trivia and fact patterns abound - as well as a case law review and interactive case studies! - Earning without Losing: Beneficiaries Who Work or Bring in Income
Elizabeth Moran
[Description coming soon] - Crowdfundung
Lauren Mechaly
[Description coming soon]
2:25 p.m.-3:15 p.m. Breakout Session 2
- Malpractice
Roberta Flowers
[Description coming soon] - Can't You Decant?
Michelle Mulvena
[Description coming soon] - SNT Ethics Jeopardy
Rebecca Morgan, Bryn Poland, Mary Alice Jackson, and Robert Fleming
Attorneys and trustees need to clearly understand their ethical obligations. Using the Jeopardy game show format, in this interactive session, the presenters will cover various ethical issues encountered in a special needs practice, providing the answers while the audience provides the questions.
3:15 p.m.-3:30 p.m.
Break and Visit with Sponsors and Exhibitors
Sponsored by Prudent Investors
3:30 p.m.-4:20 p.m. Breakout Session 3
- The Unseen Burden: Navigating Special Needs Planning for Solo Ager Caregivers
Eric Einhart
This session addresses an often-overlooked challenge – solo ager caregivers. These are older adults responsible for a special needs dependent (often their own child) who lack traditional family support systems. We'll explore the compounded complexities they face as they age, managing their own long-term care, finances, and healthcare, while also planning for their loved one's continuing needs. Attendees will gain actionable strategies for holistic planning, including selecting fiduciaries, creating dual care plans, and identifying funding and resources to ensure peace of mind for both the aging caregiver and their special needs dependent. - Medicaid’s Right to Reimbursement and Special Needs Trusts
Bridget O'Brien Swartz
This session will discuss the requirement under federal law that a first party special needs trust provide for reimbursement to Medicaid upon termination of the trust. What on its face appears to be a straightforward matter is far from it. The implications of Medicaid’s status as a beneficiary versus creditor, distinctions among the various types of special needs trusts, for what Medicaid can seek to be reimbursed and at what rate, as well as how the right to reimbursement from a special needs trust is distinct from estate recovery will highlight the complexities of what is required under the law and the importance of understanding it as well as counseling clients about this requirement before they make a decision to enter into such an arrangement. - Remote Support
Janet Lowder and Jeanne Sydenstricker
[Description coming soon]
4:25 p.m.-5:15 p.m. Breakout Session 4
- First Party SNTs and PI
Ethan Ordog
[Description coming soon] - HOT Issues in HOTMA: Trustees (and others) Beware!
Stuart Zimring and Emily Starr
This presentation explores the new income calculation and asset eligibility rules enacted by Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), to whom they apply, the verification requirements, and the status of implementation. We will examine the collision course between HOTMA and special needs trusts, exploring how HUD's efforts to streamline subsidized housing programs have created new compliance headaches for Special Needs Trust Trustees, drafters and disability advocates. The session will provide practical strategies for maintaining compliance, protecting client/beneficiary interests, and avoiding the pitfalls that could jeopardize both housing assistance and trust integrity in this evolving regulatory landscape. - Proposed Changes to Model Rule 1.14: How They Will Affect Practice
Charles Sabatino
Model Rule 1.14 “Client with Diminished Capacity” underwent significant changes at the recommendation of the ABA’s Ethics 2000 Commission but has remained essentially unchanged since 2002. Experience with MRPC 1.14, as well as changes in the law and changes in the understanding of the rights and abilities of people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities over the past two decades, have revealed a need for amendments to the Rule. An initiative to craft a revised Rule 1.14 has culminated in a proposed draft developed under the auspices of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility that will likely be considered for final approval at the ABA’s February 2026 mid-year meeting. This session will review the proposed changes, their rationale, and what they will mean for your practice.
5:30 p.m. Welcome Reception