Care, Protect, Grow: Empower Your Family Through Special Needs Financial Planning - Hardcover

by Kristin Carleton (Author), Kathy Matthews (Author), Mary McDirmid (Author)

Proven strategies to help you care for your special needs family

In Care, Protect, Grow: Empower Your Family Through Special Needs Financial Planning, a team of experienced financial planners delivers a holistic blueprint for the successful management of the complex challenges that come from navigating life as a special needs family. The book is an in-depth overview of how to piece together the disparate components you need to make sense of--including financial planning, care planning, investing, taxation, legal considerations, government benefits--in order to provide for your family.

You'll learn to calculate the lifetime cost of care of a loved one, establish a care plan to address day-to-day supports, and understand how different decision-making supports--like Power of Attorney, Guardianship, and Supported Decision-Making--work:

Inside the book:

• Tax planning and tax efficiency strategies in a changing legal landscape
• Retirement planning tips and investing considerations for people responsible for a child with special needs
• Techniques to minimize insurance risks, understand employee benefits, and how to know when permanent life insurance may be necessary

Perfect for people in special needs families, the families of people with a developmental disability, and the families of people with a rare disease, Care, Protect, Grow is an invaluable resource for anyone with a professional or personal stake in the support of families of people with special needs.

Front Jacket

How do you ensure your child with special needs will thrive after you're gone? What legal protections do you need today? How can you plan financially for two generations while navigating a complex web of government benefits? For families struggling to meet the challenges posed by significant health problems, developmental disabilities, and other lifelong conditions, the journey from diagnosis to comprehensive planning can feel overwhelming.

In Care, Protect, Grow: Empower Your Family through Special Needs Financial Planning, Kristin Carleton, Dr. Kathy Matthews, and Mary McDirmid--the co-founders of All Needs Planning and parents to children with special needs--deliver a holistic blueprint for navigating life as part of a special needs family. Their signature framework explains care needs, legal protections, and growth opportunities to ensure every member of a family that includes a person with special needs is supported. This comprehensive guide tackles the complex challenges that traditional planning approaches ignore, from calculating lifetime care costs to understanding decision-making supports like guardianship and supported decision-making, navigating special needs trusts, and maintaining government benefit eligibility.

You'll discover how to establish a care plan for daily supports, prepare for retirement while investing for your child's lifetime, minimize insurance risks, plan for taxes in a changing legal landscape, and create person-centered plans that empower your loved one to live their best life. With clear explanations, practical worksheets, and real-world examples, this book transforms the overwhelming special needs planning process into manageable steps that provide peace of mind.

Perfect for special needs families, families of people with developmental disabilities, and families dealing with a rare disease, Care, Protect, Grow is the comprehensive resource you need to sleep well at night knowing your child will be well cared for and protected--now and in the future.

Back Jacket

Praise for CARE PROTECT GROW

"The book every special needs family wishes they had years earlier--clear, hopeful, and grounded in lived experience."
--CARL RICHARDS, Author of Your Money

"Care, Protect, Grow is the most comprehensive and compassionate guide for special needs families to financial and life planning I've ever read. The authors utilize their professional and lived experience to provide a step-by-step and easy-to-follow process filled with meaningful case studies. This book is so captivating, you don't want to put it down and I can't wait to share it with our community."
--KARI LUTHER ROSBECK, President and CEO, TSC Alliance

"Care, Protect, Grow is the bible for navigating care of a special needs child from diagnosis through adulthood. Regardless of where you are on this journey, the book has something for everyone. Despite being a parent of a special needs adult as well as a health care professional, I learned new information and gems that I can incorporate into my plans for my son. These brave women share their stories, expertise and insights in all the areas of caring for children of all various special needs. It moves beyond traditional financial and estate planning and challenges parents to consider care needs in a comprehensive way, embrace advocacy, and navigate the complex government and legal landscape on behalf of their child now and into the future. All parents, grandparents and anyone who loves a child with disabilities can benefit from this easy-to-read manual."
--SUSAN STACEY, CEO, Providence Inland Northwest Hospital System

"Families like ours need guidance that feels human. Care, Protect, Grow offers a practical, compassionate roadmap for every family that's ready to plan, but doesn't know where to start."
--AMANDA LUKOF, Co-Founder and CEO, Eleplan Inc.

"As a physician who specialized in caring for children and youth with disabilities and chronic illnesses and the parent of individuals with disabilities, I have lived and seen the challenges of special needs planning from many perspectives. Not only can one not see the forests for trees, but more often one is so focused on day-to-day challenges that you can't see the tree for the bark. Care, Protect, Grow provides the framework to step back, reorient and work in a practical way to ensure that not only their challenged family member, but the entire family can create a better future for everyone."
--DR. HARRY GEWANTER, Pediatric Rheumatologist, Founder of Medical Home Plus, and former President of the Medical Society of Virginia

Author Biography

KRISTIN CARLETON lives with her husband and two children in Richmond, Virginia. She founded All Needs Planning with two other special needs mothers who knew there had to be a better way to support families needing special needs planning. Her sig-nature method of addressing care needs, protections, and growth opportunities ensures holistic planning that meets the needs of every family member.

KATHY MATTHEWS, PHD, lives with her two sons in Powhatan, Virginia. She joined All Needs Planning with a quest to answer the question, "What does your family need?" instead of "How do we fit your family into what already exists?" Dr. Matthews earned her doctorate from Columbia University in human behavior and uses her expertise in special education to lead the Special Needs Master Class.

MARY McDIRMID lives with her husband and two daughters in Spokane, Washington. Mary became a special needs planner when her daughter was in the NICU, bringing empathy and understanding from her personal experience to every client interaction. Her mission is to make sure families feel seen, connected with, and valued.