Financing a future

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Harriet Cohen says one of her mother's greatest fears before she died was that her mentally retarded daughter would be put in a group home by the state.

Instead, Mrs. Cohen used money from her mother's estate to set up a trust account to care for her sister, who is now 55 years old and works part-time as a supermarket bagger.

"If she didn't have [the trust] and didn't have me, she would be in a group home and just existing," said Mrs. Cohen, a medical technologist at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.

Mrs. Cohen's sister is one of the disabled people who was saved from being institutionalized as a ward of the state. Others are not so lucky.

In Maryland, for example, about 4,800 disabled people live in state-sponsored assisted-living homes, according to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Social workers say many of them could live more independently if their parents had arranged for their financial futures.

Often, the parents seek advice on planning their children's finances from their doctors, who are ill-equipped to handle the situations.

"Many families either don't think that far into the future or they mistakenly believe that all of their child's needs will be met through [government Supplemental Security Income] benefits and other public services," said Brian Cox, executive director of the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council.

Michelle Hart, the council's public policy co-director, set up a trust and made a will with her husband to take care of their 4-year-old son, Jackson, who has severe congenital brain and spinal disorders.

"We also made sure several family members were lined up in case something happened to us, so they would be able to take care of Jackson," she said.