Minor Settlement Navigator

The case

Answers update the recommendation as you go.

Net to the minor after fees, costs and liens

$0$3M+

Child's age today

Public benefits

Ask before discussing numbers. This is the single biggest fork in the analysis.

None, and none expectedNo SSI, no Medicaid, no waiver services. Receiving SSI or SSI-linked MedicaidMeans-tested. A lump sum can end eligibility. SSDI or Medicaid only, no SSINot means-tested in the same way. Likely to qualify laterInjury severity suggests future eligibility.

Long-term care needs

Recovered, or expected to Ongoing treatment, not lifelong Lifetime care, life care plan exists or is coming

What the family says matters

Select any that apply.

Why

Also consider

Watch for

Order language to adapt

Starting points only. Conform to your circuit's practice and the carrier's requirements before filing.

$20,000ABLE contributions from all sources, 2026

46Disability onset age for ABLE, from 1 Jan 2026

$100,000ABLE balance excluded from the SSI resource limit

$2,000SSI resource limit for an individual

$10,000Small-estate affidavit threshold — verify currency

Illinois authority

755 ILCS 5/19-8: A representative may compromise a ward's claim only by leave of court. Applies to pre-suit settlements too.
755 ILCS 5/25-2: Small estates of a ward. Payment on a parent's affidavit without appointing a representative.
755 ILCS 5/11-5: Appointment of a guardian of the estate where it serves the minor's best interest.
755 ILCS 5/24-11: Duty to account in a ward's estate. First account within 30 days after year one.
755 ILCS 5/24-21: Deposit or investment of a ward's money. Subsection (a)(5) permits a §529 plan, added by P.A. 102-189 effective 1 Jan 2022.
Local rules: Circuits vary considerably on guardianship thresholds and withdrawal practice. Check yours.

Federal and administrative

IRC §104(a)(2): Damages for personal physical injury are excluded from gross income, including the growth inside periodic payments.
IRC §130: Qualified assignments. Lets the defendant or carrier be released from the future payment obligation at settlement.
IRC §529A: ABLE accounts. Age of onset raised to 46 by the ABLE Age Adjustment Act, effective 1 Jan 2026.
42 U.S.C. §1396p(d)(4)(A): First-party special needs trust. Under 65, disabled, Medicaid payback at death.
42 U.S.C. §1396p(d)(4)(C): Pooled trust administered by a nonprofit. Lower administrative cost.
POMS SI 01130.740: SSA treatment of ABLE accounts, including the direct-deposit language at C.1.a.

The ABLE funding question

Whether a structured settlement payment deposited straight into an ABLE account is income to a child on SSI is genuinely unsettled.

The permissive reading: Where payments are irrevocably assigned by court order and the beneficiary cannot alter the arrangement, the deposit is not the beneficiary's income. SSA reviews the language of each order.
The cautious reading: The account is owned by the beneficiary, and POMS states that an individual cannot use direct deposit to avoid income counting. On that view the payment is countable unearned income when it arrives.
What most practitioners do: Structure pays a first-party or pooled trust; the trustee makes the annual ABLE contribution. A third-party contribution is not income to the child.
When it does not matter: If the child receives no means-tested benefits, there is no SSI to lose and direct funding is straightforward.

The five vehicles, side by side

	Released at 18	Growth taxed	Protects SSI	Ongoing cost	Medicaid payback
Restricted account	Yes, in full	Yes	No	Minimal	No
Guardianship estate	Yes, in full	Yes	No	Bond, fees, accountings	No
Structured settlement	Only as designed	No	Partially	None after funding	No
ABLE account	No — owner controls	No, if qualified	Yes, to the cap	Low account fees	See plan terms
First-party SNT	No — trustee controls	Yes, at trust rates	Yes	Trustee fees	Yes