The Future of Special Needs Planning: Why Pooled Trusts Matter More Than Ever

Maryland’s Policy, Maryland’s Options, and the Modern Trustee Problem

More families come to us today without an obvious answer to one question: who would we name as trustee? A generation ago, that question often had a ready answer, a sibling nearby, a grown child with time and stability, a family friend who had already stepped into a caretaking role. We see that answer less often now. Families are smaller. Adult children live farther from their aging parents and from their siblings with disabilities. Caregivers themselves are aging, and the people who might otherwise serve are already stretched thin by their own responsibilities.

This is not a Maryland problem alone, but Maryland has responded to it more directly, and more affirmatively, than some states. The question this article answers is not whether a special needs trust makes sense. If you are reading this, you likely already know that it does. The question is who actually manages it, for decades, once it exists, and why Maryland law goes out of its way to make professional, pooled administration a real option rather than an afterthought.

The Trustee Problem Behind Every Special Needs Plan

A supplemental needs trust protects eligibility for benefits like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income. But the trust document itself does not administer anything. Someone still has to track distributions against benefit rules, keep records, respond to a beneficiary’s changing needs, and do all of this consistently for as long as the beneficiary lives. That can mean decades.

Naming an individual trustee, a parent, sibling, or friend, works well when that person exists and is willing to carry the responsibility that long. Increasingly, families do not have that person, or they have someone willing but not truly equipped for the administrative and regulatory complexity involved. This is the gap that pooled trusts were designed to close.

Maryland’s Policy Is Usually Direct

Many states leave special needs planning to be worked out case by case, through federal law and agency practice. Maryland has gone further. Maryland Estates and Trusts Section 14.5-1002 states plainly that it is the policy of the State to encourage the use of a special needs trust or supplemental needs trust by an individual of any age with disabilities, in order to preserve funds for needs not met by public benefits and to enhance quality of life.

The statute does not stop at encouragement. It requires state agencies administering means-tested programs to adopt regulations that are no more restrictive than federal law, and it specifically requires that those regulations allow an individual account in a pooled trust to be funded without financial limit, without an age limit, and without triggering a transfer penalty. It also confirms that a nonprofit’s own IRS determination is sufficient to satisfy the federal nonprofit requirement for operating a pooled trust, and that a state agency may not layer on additional qualification requirements of its own.

In plain terms, Maryland has decided that pooled trusts are a policy priority, not a workaround. That is a meaningfully different posture than simply tolerating what federal law allows.

What a Pooled Trust Is

A pooled trust is a trust authorized under federal law that allows a nonprofit organization to serve as trustee for multiple beneficiaries with disabilities at once. Contributions are pooled together for investment purposes, but each beneficiary has a separate subaccount tracking their own share, gains and losses, and disbursements. This structure preserves eligibility for means-tested programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income while allowing funds to supplement whatever those programs do not cover.

Maryland families have real, distinct options for where to place that account.

Maryland’s Pooled Trust Organizations

First Maryland Disability Trust, based in Lutherville, offers the broadest range of services among Maryland-based options. It administers both pooled and stand-alone special needs trusts, first-party and third-party, and also offers guardianship of property, representative payee services, financial powers of attorney, and family escrow accounts. That breadth means a family or attorney can potentially work with one organization across several different planning needs rather than coordinating multiple providers. First Maryland Disability Trust also publishes attorney-specific guidance, along with joinder agreements and fee schedules, directly on its website.

Shared Horizons, based in Washington, D.C., administers pooled trusts only, through what it calls Self-Funded and Community Trusts, and serves beneficiaries across D.C., Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia. It does not offer the stand-alone trust or fiduciary services that First Maryland Disability Trust does. For a Maryland family whose needs are limited to pooled trust administration, that narrower focus is not necessarily a drawback, but it does mean Shared Horizons is not the right fit if a family also needs guardianship, representative payee, or financial power of attorney support from the same organization.

Why Professional Administration Is Becoming More Important, Not Less

The trustee problem described earlier is not a temporary condition. Families are smaller than they were a generation ago. Adult siblings are more likely to live in different states. Caregivers are living, and working, and aging, longer than before, which means the sibling or friend who might serve as trustee is often managing their own health and financial pressures at the same time.

Professional administration through a pooled trust answers this directly. It does not require a family to identify one person able to carry full fiduciary responsibility alone for decades. It also tends to be more accessible than a private corporate trustee, since pooled trusts are built to accommodate modest as well as substantial accounts. As more families find themselves without an obvious individual trustee, this option moves from a fallback to a first choice.

Two other advantages matter here, even for families who do have someone willing to serve. An individual trustee is still one person, and one person can be pressured, deceived, or simply make a costly mistake, especially when they are new to benefit rules they have never had to learn before. A pooled trust organization exists to know those rules and to build oversight around every account, which reduces the risk of exploitation in a way that good intentions alone cannot. And unlike an individual trustee, an institution does not become ill, move away, or pass away in the middle of a beneficiary’s lifetime. It provides the kind of continuity a plan meant to last decades actually requires.

Preserving Benefits While Supporting Real Life

Maryland’s statute is notable for saying, directly, that trust funds may be used at the trustee’s discretion for food, shelter, utilities, and transportation, in addition to the broader category of needs not otherwise met by public benefits. That is a meaningful acknowledgment that public benefits are a floor, not a ceiling, and that quality of life is a legitimate purpose of the trust, not an exception to it.

For families and for the professionals who advise them, this means a pooled trust in Maryland is not limited to narrow, bare minimum purposes. It is designed, by the state’s own policy, to support a fuller life for the beneficiary.

Coordinating the Legal Plan with Ongoing Administration

A trust document is only the beginning. Choosing the right organization, understanding its specific fee structure and service limits, and keeping the plan aligned with a beneficiary’s changing needs over time is ongoing work. This is the same philosophy behind our Bridge Program. We do not consider a special needs plan finished the day the trust is signed. We stay involved, coordinating with pooled trust organizations, fiduciaries, and families as circumstances evolve.

Planning for Stability Across a Lifetime

Maryland has made a clear policy choice to support special needs trusts, and pooled trusts in particular, as tools for dignity and quality of life, not just benefit preservation. That policy exists because the underlying problem is real: fewer families today have an obvious person to name as trustee, and the ones who do often carry more risk and burden than anyone intended. Professional, pooled administration is not a compromise. Increasingly, it is the plan that holds up.

Let Us Help You Find the Right Fit

If you are planning for a loved one with a disability in Maryland, or if you are simply unsure who would step into the trustee role you have not yet filled, we are here to help you sort through the options. To get started, you are asked to submit a brief worksheet in advance of a consultation with one of our Client Service Directors, non-attorney team members trained to identify your needs and help you understand the solutions our team offers. We charge a fixed price for our special needs and estate planning packages, but not all plans are the same, so the consultation is a necessary first step to determine the right plan for you, and you will leave it understanding the steps, timeline, and all-in cost. The cost of the consultation is non-refundable and is not deducted from the cost of planning itself. To schedule a consultation, contact our team by phone, email, or the Contact Us tab of our website.

Leslie Case DiPietro( Attorney )

Leslie Case DiPietro Inspired by her own family’s experience navigating a long term care crisis with her father, Leslie shifted her professional focus exclusively to estate planning and elder law. As the founder of DiPietro Law, LLC, she now helps families create comprehensive estate plans that promote family harmony, avoid probate, reduce taxes, protect needed benefits, and shelter assets from the cost of long term care.

Read Leslie’s full bio here.