The right questions today can help secure a child's future tomorrow. Here are 10 questions financial advisors can ask when a client has a child with special needs.

When a financial advisor learns that a client has a child with special needs, the conversation often moves quickly to the financial tools: life insurance, beneficiary designations, ABLE accounts, special needs trusts and how much money the child may need someday.

Those are important conversations.

But I would encourage advisors to start somewhere else.

Ask the family what they want their child's life to look like.

As attorneys working with families of children with disabilities, we see how interconnected these decisions really are. Education can affect employment. Employment can affect benefits. Housing choices can affect the amount of support someone needs. An inheritance can affect eligibility for public benefits. And the parents' caregiving responsibilities can profoundly affect their own retirement plan.

No single professional is expected to know all of it.

But a financial advisor is often in a unique position to recognize when another conversation needs to happen.

Here are 10 questions I wish more advisors would ask.

1. “What do you hope your child's life looks like 10 or 20 years from now?”

Start with the person, not the portfolio.

What does a meaningful life look like for this child? College? Vocational training? Employment? Living independently? Supported living? Staying close to family?

The answer begins to define what the financial plan actually needs to accomplish.

The better question isn't simply “How much money will they need?”

It is “What kind of life are we planning for?”

2. “What can your child do independently—and where do they need support?”

Two people with the same diagnosis can have very different abilities and needs.

Understanding where a child needs assistance with transportation, decision-making, health care, money management, employment or daily living can help everyone on the professional team plan more realistically.

And those needs may change considerably over time.

3. “What is happening at school that might affect the long-term plan?”

This may seem outside the traditional financial-planning conversation. It isn't.

If the child has an IEP, ask whether the family has begun discussing transition planning, employment, vocational training, postsecondary education and independent living.

Federal special-education law requires transition goals and services to be included in the IEP no later than the IEP in effect when a student turns 16—or earlier when appropriate. Those goals can address education, employment and, when appropriate, independent living.

For an advisor, that information can provide an early window into what adulthood may actually look like.

4. “What happens when your child turns 18?”

Eighteen is more than a birthday.

It can change who has legal authority to make decisions. It can also change the way eligibility for certain government benefits is evaluated.

Has the family talked with an attorney about decision-making? Do they understand the possible roles of powers of attorney, supported decision-making and guardianship? Has someone talked with them about benefits their child may qualify for as an adult?

The advisor doesn't need to answer those legal questions.

The advisor needs to recognize that they should be asked.

5. “Do you know which public benefits your child may need now—or later?”

SSI and Medicaid may eventually become important pieces of the child's financial and care plan.

That makes seemingly ordinary financial decisions much more consequential.

For example, the 2026 SSI resource limit remains just $2,000 in countable resources for an individual.

So ask:

Does the child currently receive benefits? Has anyone discussed eligibility at adulthood? Are there assets already in the child's name? Could future gifts or inheritances create unintended consequences?

The goal isn't for the financial advisor to become a public-benefits expert. It is to make sure someone on the team is looking at the issue.

6. “How are you saving for your child today?”

A 529 plan may be part of the picture. So may an ABLE account, a special needs trust or other resources.

And this area continues to evolve.

As of January 1, 2026, ABLE eligibility expanded to people whose disability began before age 46, rather than before age 26. Social Security also generally excludes up to $100,000 held in an ABLE account when determining an individual's countable resources for SSI.

The important question isn't simply which account offers the best return.

It is how the different accounts fit together with the person's benefits, education, employment goals and estate plan.

7. “Who is named as beneficiary of everything?”

This is one of the simplest questions an advisor can ask—and one of the most important.

Who is named on the parents' retirement accounts, insurance policies and investment accounts?

What about grandparents?

A family may have carefully created a special needs trust, only to have a loving grandparent name the child directly as beneficiary of an account.

Good planning needs to reach beyond the parents' estate documents.

Everyone who may eventually leave assets to the child should understand the plan.

8. “What does caring for your child mean for your own financial future?”

Special-needs planning isn't only about the child's money.

Has one parent reduced work hours or left the workforce? Will caregiving responsibilities continue during retirement? Are the parents expecting their child to live with them? Does their home need to accommodate that? Will they eventually need paid caregivers?

These questions affect retirement projections, insurance, housing and investment decisions.

Sometimes the financial plan needs to support two retirements and a lifetime of care at the same time.

9. “What happens if you are no longer here—or simply can no longer do all of this?”

This can be a difficult question. It is also an essential one.

Who knows the child's routines?

Who understands their doctors, medications, therapies, benefits and education history?

Who would manage the money?

Who would advocate for them?

Where would they live?

What role are siblings expected to play—and have those siblings actually agreed to it?

A trust may explain how assets should be managed. It doesn't necessarily explain how someone's life works on a Tuesday morning.

That is why care planning and documentation of the family's wishes belong alongside the legal and financial documents.

10. “Who else is on your team—and are we talking to one another?”

This may be the most important question of all.

A family might have a financial advisor, estate-planning attorney, special-needs attorney, CPA, education attorney, insurance professional, care coordinator, physician, therapist and school team.

Each may be doing excellent work.

But if everyone is working in a separate lane, important connections can be missed.

We often talk with families about building a professional family around them: people with different expertise who understand their roles, communicate when appropriate and work toward the same larger vision.

The financial advisor doesn't have to interpret an IEP.

The education attorney doesn't have to manage an investment portfolio.

The care coordinator doesn't have to draft a trust.

But everyone should understand how their piece affects the others.

The Question Behind All 10 Questions

Financial advisors are being asked to do more than manage money.

Families increasingly need professionals who listen closely enough to recognize the issues that don't appear on a financial statement.

For a family raising a child with special needs, the most valuable question you ask in your next meeting may have nothing to do with an account balance.

It might simply be:

“Tell me what you hope your child's life will look like.”

Listen carefully to the answer.

It may tell you who else needs to be brought to the table—and what the financial plan ultimately needs to make possible.

I Wish I Would Have Known is an ongoing series sharing the questions, observations and lessons that come from working alongside families and the professionals who advise them.