Trust Offers Financial Security for Disabled Family Members
Henson Trusts
Record staff
An ancient scheme to retain family wealth now helps disabled dependent children, a seminar in Kitchener was told Saturday.
Kenneth Pope, an Ottawa lawyer who advises families how to optimize financial situations for their disabled children, said creation of a "Henson Trust" a decade ago allows the dependents to receive private funds as well as Ontario Disability Support Payments.
Without that legal framework in place, said Pope, government disability benefits would not be available until a dependent's inheritance was exhausted. He urged parents attending the event to ensure the Henson provision was included in their Will.
Pope told the participants that the original idea began when parents set up trusts for their children who entered religious orders and took a vow of poverty.
He said the motivation was likely to "keep family money in the family."
While government disability benefits are available to qualified applicants - Pope said that there are an estimated 6,000 Waterloo Region residents receiving them - it is not uncommon for parents to spend several hundred dollars more monthly to ensure their disabled children enjoy a good lifestyle, said John Dowson, of LifeTrust Planning of Newmarket.
Dowson said that the idea is "not to cheat" the government but to continue to provide that lifestyle for dependent children.
Pope said the Henson Trust was named after Leonard Henson, a Guelph-area man who wanted to ensure his handicapped daughter, Audrey, was financially secure after his death and could access an inheritance. Both are now deceased.
Guelph lawyer George Goetz drafted a Will with appropriate legal language but it was challenged by the Ontario Social Services Ministry. Eventually, however, the Ontario Court of Appeal approved the concept in 1989 and it has remained unchallenged since.
Goetz, now retired, said in a weekend interview that while it was the Henson case which set the precedent, he'd got the idea from a lecture given by a Toronto lawyer.
The above article initially appeared in the Record (Kitchener-Waterloo's daily newspaper) on March 26, 2001.
