Adding Dan Blauw to the letterhead at CT brings more then just another highly qualified estate planner to the firm. Dan brings with him a leading role in an organization that serves a critical part of the special needs community.
As administrator of the Hope Network Foundation’s Pool Account Trust. Dan oversees trust accounts for hundreds of person with disabilities, involving millions of dollars. It’s a role Dan has held from the start of Hope Network’s Pooled Accounts Trust in 1999.
“I was working a Hope Network at the time,” Dan recalls. “Pooled accounts trust were a new ides, recently authorized by Federal legislation. We decided to start our own and see how it went. Then when I struck out on my own, I asked if I could continue to work as the administrator. They agreed, and I’ve been in that role every since. Going on 23 years now,” he said.
For those who don’t know, pooled accounts trusts allow persons with disabilities who would otherwise qualify for Medicaid assistance to put their money under control of a trustee, like the Hope Network, and by doing so, qualify for benefits. While they are alive, the Trust can use the money they set aside to pay for things for their benefit. Things that they could not otherwise afford.
And that’s where Dan comes in. “it can be a real life changers for these people. It allows us to provide them with things and services that dramatically enhance their quality of life,” he explains.
And it works out for Hope Network as well. When Trust beneficiaries dies, any unused funds revert to the Hope Network which is allowed to use those funds for services to benefit indigent people with disabilities. So far, the Trust has generated more then $800,000 in the Hope Network.
