Creating financial security for persons with special needs

23 May 2023

A young man with a mental disability is cheated of his late mother’s life savings by a man claiming to be a friend. A property agent scammed off an elderly man with an intellectually-disabled daughter, pocketed the sales proceeds of a flat, he was asked to sell. A consequences of systemic gaps and insufficient protective measures and a lack of financial planning by families of individuals with special needs, Professor of Law, Tang Hang Wu shares how trusts can be used as a financial planning mechanism to help families support their child with special needs when they are no longer around.

*Prof Tang is a long-standing board member of the Special Needs Trust Company (SNTC) - a pooled trust scheme with a mission to “provide affordable trust services for persons with special needs in Singapore”. With more societies facing ageing populations and shrinking family sizes, he believes the need for social welfare initiatives like SNTC is becoming increasingly important.