History of the Henson Trust

Found this information on the internet and has a special interest to me as we have just completed this process through our lawyer for the Grandkids.


History of the Henson Trust

The Henson trust had its origins in the city of Guelph, Ontario. During the early 1980's, a gentleman by the name of Leonard Henson lived in the Guelph area and he had a daughter named Audrey. Audrey was a person with a developmental disability and she lived in a group home managed by the Guelph Association for Community Living.

Leonard knew that if he left his estate directly to his daughter, it would exceed the allowable asset limits as set out by the Family Benefits Allowance (now called the Ontario Disability Support Program).

He realized that having assets in the hands of his daughter directly would not be to her advantage and that her benefits would be terminated until the assets were "spent down" to a level below the threshold amount. In addition, Leonard's wife had pre-deceased him and he had no other family.

Therefore, Leonard went about to find a way to leave his estate to his daughter without interfering with her entitlement to government supports. He conferred with a number of legal people and advocacy organizations and even investigated what was going on in other jurisdictions within and outside of Canada.

Eventually, he discovered a technique that would allow Audrey to retain her government benefits while at the same time allowing her to receive quality of life enhancements from his estate.

That technique was the use of the Absolute Discretionary Trust to be created in his Will as a Testamentary Trust.

Leonard updated his Will with his lawyer. Unfortunately, he then died. At that point, the Will required the creation of an Absolute Discretionary Trust which appointed the Guelph Association for Community Living as Trustee and his daughter Audrey as beneficiary of the trust.

Once Audrey died, his Will instructed that the remaining funds in the Trust were to be passed on to the Guelph Association for Community Living.

The Ministry of Community, Family and Children's Services, the ministry which controls the FBA (ODSP), determined that Audrey had inherited the estate of her father and since it was in excess of the allowable amount of assets, they terminated her benefits.

The Guelph Association for Community Living challenged this decision and to make a long story short, the Ministry took the trust and the Trustee to court. The first court found that the funds contained in Audrey's trust account did not meet the FBA (ODSP) definition of assets and therefore, it ruled in favor of the Trustees.

The Ministry was not at all impressed with this decision and so they launched an appeal. The appeals ultimately reached the Supreme Court of Ontario and in September of 1989, the appeal was dismissed.

The Government lost and what that decision did for families with a son or daughter with a disability was to provide us with a vehicle in which we can place assets for our children without disqualifying them from receiving the ODSP payments to which they would otherwise be entitled.

In Canada, anyone with a disability may be entitled to support payments from the government. For example in the province of Ontario, the Ontario Disability Support Payments (ODSPs) is the provincial sponsored program set-up to provide financial support to assist those with physical and/or mental disabilities that have limited prospects of finding gainful employment do to their disability.

Although ODSP is a well-intentioned program, and a necessity for a society that perceives itself as just and socially responsible, ODSP has inherent flaws.

What are the flaws?
Government provided support payments at first glance would appear to offer an obvious financial remedy, helping to alleviate these hardships and the predicament that parents of disabled children find themselves in.

However, the law in Ontario like other provinces states that a person with disabilities must be deemed to be living in poverty in order to qualify for support payments.

The criteria that match the definition of what qualifies as living in poverty in Ontario have an extremely low benchmark. Liquid assets over $5,000 will effectively disqualify an otherwise justified recipient from receiving ODSP benefit payments.

The rule in effect requires the liquidation of all assets of disabled individuals if they are to be awarded any ODSP benefit payments. In short:
“Come back and see us when you have burned through your inheritance.”

Necessity is the mother of all inventions, is it not?

In the late 1980s, a very loving and forward thinking father in Guelph, Ontario named Leonard Henson approached his lawyer, George Goetz, to create a legal solution that would transfer enough of his estate to his disabled daughter, Audrey, that she would be able to be cared for throughout her life and after his death.

The salient issue was that if the assets were transferred directly to Audrey, she would be immediately rendered sufficiently financial well off that she no longer qualified for assistance from the Ontario Social Services Ministry.

After some thought, Goetz creatively drafted a Will for Henson that relied upon an “absolute discretionary trust” to transfer income to Audrey.

Ingeniously, set within the terms of the trust she would not technically own the assets. Though the Social Services Ministry objected vigorously, by 1989 the Ontario Court of Appeal approved this solution crafted by both Henson and Goetz, to the great benefit of the disabled and their parents and guardians nationwide.0

The modern era of the Henson Trust commenced.

Funding Method

The most effective method for setting-up and properly funding a Henson Trust is to fund the Trust through the proceeds of a life insurance policy that insures the life of the disabled person’s parent or guardian.

The reality today is that many parents with children with special needs do not feel they will have the financial where withal to provide for their disabled children’s financial needs after they have died.

Hence, the purchasing of life insurance by most parents and guardians on their own lives presents the most efficient and practical mechanism upon their deaths to fund Henson Trusts.

Other Considerations
Several aspects of the Henson Trust should be explored thoroughly by the parent or guardian of a disabled child. The most important consideration before setting-up this form of trust is to determine who will be appointed the Trustee/s. This decision should not be taken lightly.

The Trustee/s should be a person or entity that the parent or guardian can put their ultimate trust in. Parents or guardians must believe that their appointed Trustee/s to the Henson Trust will always do what is in the best interest of the disabled child.

Another major consideration when appointing a trustee/s is their ability to make wise investment choices while managing trust assets. In many cases where the trustee/s does not have the sufficient skills to manage the investments within the trust they will have had an investment manager appointed to manage the funds within the trust.

If you or your clients are seriously considering creating a Henson Trust it is of the utmost importance to consult first with a qualified Certified Financial Planner and an Estate Lawyer who are experienced with all the nuisances of setting-up, managing and winding-up Henson Trusts.

Nissan Xterra for Sale

Apparently another true story: * not for the faint of............................ you fill in the blanks;(either you gonna be insulted or entertained here)

Also seems to me that the writing course he took had some flaws in it.Decide for yourself Believe or Not.If you begin to fade from the expressions issued here feel free to leave and move on to something in your age catagory.Maybe he thinks he is a dragon-slayer...maybe he should be on "Mountain Goat-Canadian Rockies in mid July"



NINJA HAULER: 2005 Nissan Xterra
- $12,900

OK, let me start off by saying this Xterra is only available for purchase by the manliest of men (or women). My friend, if it was possible for a vehicle to sprout chest hair and a five o'clock shadow, this Nissan would look like Tom Selleck. It is just that masculine.

It was never intended to drive to the mall so you can pick up that adorable shirt at Abercrombie & Fitch that you had your eye on. It wasn't meant to transport you to yoga class or Linens & Things.

No, that's what your Primus is for. If that's the kind of car you're looking for, then just do us all a favor and stop reading right now. I mean it. Just stop and walk away, do us a favor.

This car was engineered by 3rd degree ninja super-warriors in the highest mountains of Japan to serve the needs of the man that cheats death on a daily basis. They didn't even consider superfluous Nancy boy amenities like navigation systems (real men don't get lost), heated leather seats (a real man doesn't let anything warm his butt), or On Star (real men don't even know what the hell On Star is).

No, this brute comes with the things us testosterone-fueled super action junkies need. It has a 265 HP engine to outrun the cops. It's got special blood/gore resistant upholstery.

It even has a first-aid kit in the back. You know what the first aid kit has in it? A pint of whiskey, a stitch-your-own-wound kit and a hunk of leather to bite down on when you're operating on yourself.

The Xterra also has an automatic transmission so if you're being chased by Libyan terrorists, you'll still be able to shoot your machine gun out the window and drive at the same time. It's saved my bacon more than once. Think Rambo here.

It has room for you and the four hotties you picked up on the way to the gym to blast your pecs and hammer your glutes. There's a tow hitch to pull your 50 caliber anti-Taliban, self cooling machine gun. I also just put in a new windshield to replace the one that got shot out by The Man. In a drive by.

My price on this bad boy is an incredibly low $12,900, but I'll entertain reasonable offers. And by reasonable, I mean don't walk up and tell me you'll give me $5,000 for it.

That's liable to earn you a Burmese-roundhouse-sphincter-kick with a follow up three fingered eye-jab. Would it hurt? Hell yeah. Let's just say you won't be the prettiest guy at the Coldplay concert anymore.

There's only 69,000 miles on this four-wheeled hellcat from Planet Kickass. Trust me, it will outlive you and the offspring that will carry your name. It will live on as a monument to your machismo.

Now, go look in the mirror and tell me what you see. If it's a rugged, no holds barred, super brute he-man macho Chuck Norris stunt double, then contact me. I might be out hang-gliding or BASE jumping or just chilling with my ladies, but I'll get back to you. And when I do, we'll talk about a price over a nice glass of Schmidt while we listen to Johnny Cash.

To sweeten the deal a little, I'm throwing in this pair of MC Hammer pants for the man with rippling quads that can't fit into regular pants. Yeah, you heard me. FREE MC Hammer pants. You can’t touch this, but you sure as hell can buy it, if you’re the man.

Rock on.

We took the same no prisoner’s night course in expressive newspaper journalism.