hey, all …, my brother passed away suddenly last month, leaving behind his wife and two children. my brother was on disability, as is one of his kids, plus the family uses other benefits like medicaid, food stamps, etc.
my sis in law is looking for someone who can help her figure out how to navigate the various systems. there was a gofundme set up for the family but she needs to receive it carefully so as to not screw up the family’s existing benefits.
i know @anomalily is excellent with this kind of stuff but i am pretty sure she is pretty busy and i’m not sure if there’s state-level differences that come into play (we are in PA).
do any of y’all have anyone who could help her sort this all out? or ideas of non-scammy resources we could search out and engage with? i’m pretty good with money in general but i don’t know anything about these systems and would fear screwing things up for her. thanks in advance <3
10 Likes
I’m so sorry to hear about your brother.
Usually when it comes to not screwing up receiving benefits, the best people to talk to aren’t financial advisors but caseworkers. Financial advisors are not trained on benefits other than occasionally medicaid and social security (if they work with that age range), at all.
When it comes to wrapping up any estate - I recommend contacting the state bar to look for a pro-bono estate attorney.
For applying for social security survivor’s benefits, the best thing is to ask an existing caseworker.
If you want to DM me, I have a friend who is a social worker in PA and at the VERY least will be quite helpful (she’s got a life-earned PHD in navigating disability and PA social systems). I’m sure she’d be happy to help with minimizing the impact on benefits.
(generally gofundmes are considered gifts and are not taxable income to the recipient, and are not declared on taxes, therefore won’t affect AGI and won’t effect medicaid, snap, etc - however for SNAP benefits, some states look at total assets in an account, regardless of what the income itself is).
9 Likes