Are you dying to GO GREEN?

I cam across this article on a clean/green energy website:  www.cleantechnica.com.  Enjoy!

Dead People Will Provide Heat to Crematorium Facilities

Written by Ariel Schwartz

If you’re dead and worried about the carbon emissions created from your cremation, relax. The Swedish town of Halmstad has a solution. After an environmental review showed that Halmstad’s crematorium was pumping too much smoke into the air, the facility’s director decided to re-use heat from the cremations to warm up the crematorium’s buildings.

The plan will both eliminate the crematorium’s heating bill and allow it to save money on cooling smoke before it is released into the air.

Locals in the town of 55,000 approve of the crematorium’s system, so it should be up and running soon. If the plan is successful, the crematorium eventually wants to pipe heat from its facilities to area homes. And while some may protest Halmstad’s plan on moral grounds, I’m sure that the potential monetary savings for the town will ultimately keep them quiet.

http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/05/dead-people-will-provide-heat-to-crematorium-facilities/

Special Planning for Special Needs: Part Two

Planning for disabled and special needs beneficiaries:  “part two.” In “part one” I discussed programs available for disabled and special needs individuals.  This week I will focus on how people can protect and provide for special needs and disabled beneficiaries through their estate plans.

As I wrote in “part one,” although it may seem like a good idea, I strongly discourage people from establishing custodial accounts or leaving cash outright to special needs beneficiaries. The distribution of assets outright may disqualify the beneficiary from government assistance, which is means-based.

When the assets of an individual with special needs exceed the governmental financial resource limits, the individual may be disqualified from both Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid.

A more appropriate way to pass an inheritance to a special needs beneficiary is to utilize a Special Needs Trust.  Special Needs Trusts can be either self-settled Trusts, or third-party Trusts.  A self-settled Trust is a Trust set up with the disabled persons own assets.  The disabled individual is the Grantor and the beneficiary.  A third-party Trust is created by one person (the Grantor) for the benefit of another, so long as the Grantor is not legally responsible for providing support for the disabled individual.

A Special Needs Trust containing certain provisions may be established to administer and distribute Trust assets to a beneficiary with special needs without otherwise disqualifying them from governmental benefits.  If drafted properly, the assets in the Trust are not counted for the purpose of determining eligibility for governmental benefits.  A properly drafted self-settled Special Needs Trust will require the Trust to pay back the government after the death of the special needs individual for governmental benefits provided to the individual.   If the assets are depleted then they do not need to be reimbursed.   Special Needs Trusts should be drafted with care.  The instrument should not direct the Trustee to make disbursements for a disabled person’s heath, maintenance or support as this will cause the Trust assets to be includable in determining eligibility for governmental benefits.  One way to accomplish this goal is to give the Trustee absolute discretion on disbursements.  When distributions are up to the Trustee’s sole and absolute discretion, the assets in the Trust are not counted when calculating eligibility for governmental benefits.

Special Needs Trusts can be a valuable tool in planning for disabled individuals.  The process requires consideration of many issues and should be approached with care by qualified professional.