Special Needs Planning Lawyers in NYC

Maintained by Lighthouse | June 2026

Most of the families we hear from started planning for their child's education long before they ever thought about a trust. You fight for the IEP. You fight for the placement. You fight for the related services. And somewhere in the middle of all that fighting, a relative dies, or a settlement comes through, or a grandparent decides they want to leave something behind, and suddenly there's money with your child's name on it.

Zeke Zimmerman, a financial planner at The Time To Plan Is Now, works with special needs families and has a name for what happens next. "We call those unplanned inheritances," he told Lighthouse. The shorthand version, the one he uses with clients: the Uncle Charlie scenario. "Uncle Charlie leaves 100 grand to the granddaughter who's got special needs, and it screws everything up."

Jump straight to the special needs trust attorney list.

What "screws everything up" actually means depends on where you live, which is exactly the kind of detail that gets lost in general advice. "Is this person on SSI? Yes, they are. What just happened?" Zimmerman said. "They lost the SSI. Sorry, next month, for checks not coming." Medicaid is a different story in New York specifically: "They're in New Jersey. What happens? Sorry, you know that day program that you go to, your therapies, you're gonna have to spend down that money, and then reapply." In New York, a gift that size often doesn't touch Medicaid at all, because the asset limit here is far more generous than almost anywhere else in the country.

The money isn't the problem. The absence of a plan is.

This guide exists for the moment before that call has to happen. It covers what a special needs planning attorney actually does, how that's different from the special education attorneys in our main lawyers directory, what setting up a trust costs in New York, and a directory of attorneys who handle this work, several of whom Lighthouse spoke with directly.

A special needs trust isn't the same kind of legal work as fighting the DOE over an IEP. The DOE fight is short, contentious, and ends, you win a placement, a service, a settlement, and then it's done until next year. A special needs planning lawyer does the opposite: one set of decisions, made carefully, meant to hold for decades, long after you're not the one making them anymore.

That's worth sitting with before you call anyone.

These are not the same job, and a good attorney in one lane won't necessarily help you in the other. If you're trying to get your child evaluated, get services written into an IEP, or fight a placement, you want a special education attorney, see our main special education lawyers directory for that list. If you're trying to figure out what happens to your child's money, an inheritance, a settlement, a life insurance policy, you want a special needs planning attorney. A few firms on this list, including Littman Krooks, Cuddy Law Firm, and Arkontaky Law Group, do both. Most don't.

Before your first call, it helps to know there are two fundamentally different kinds of special needs trusts, because the planning, and the cost, differs. A third-party trust is funded with someone else's money: a parent's savings, a grandparent's gift, a life insurance payout. A first-party trust holds money that already legally belongs to the disabled person, most often a lawsuit settlement or an inheritance that landed directly in their name. The distinction matters most at death: a third-party trust has no Medicaid payback requirement, while a first-party trust generally does. If you're not sure which one your situation calls for, that's a legitimate first question to ask, not something you need to walk in already knowing.

Ask for a number early. Zeke Zimmerman, a financial planner who works with special needs families, puts a full plan, two wills, the trust itself, and advance directives like power of attorney and a health care proxy, in the $5,000 to $7,000 range for a couple with two children, one disabled. Costs below that exist, but Zimmerman is candid that some attorneys "are losing money" charging as little as $1,500 just to make the service available. If a quote is far outside that range in either direction, ask why.

If the cost of attorney-drafted planning isn't realistic right now, ask specifically about pooled trusts, these are run by nonprofits like the Arc or AHRC, require no attorney to join, and can cost a few hundred dollars or less. They're a real option, not a consolation prize, for families with more modest assets to protect.

This list includes attorneys and law firms that handle special needs trusts, guardianship, and disability-focused estate planning for NYC families, a different specialty from the IEP and due process attorneys in our main special education lawyers directory. Several names overlap with that list; we've noted it where they do.

Important notes:

Littman Krooks LLP (also listed in our special education lawyers directory)

1325 Avenue of the Americas, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10019 | Also: 800 Westchester Ave, Rye Brook, NY 10573

NYC: (212) 490-2020 | littmankrooks.com

35+ years in practice. Special needs trusts, estate planning, and guardianship sit alongside their special education advocacy work, useful for families who need both an IEP fight and a long-term financial plan handled under one roof.

The Law Offices of Adam Dayan, PLLC (also listed in our special education lawyers directory)

85 Broad Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10004

(646) 866-7157 | dayanlawfirm.com

Free consultations. Adam Dayan has represented children with special needs for 15+ years and maintains a dedicated special needs trusts practice alongside his special education work. Handles both first-party and third-party trust structures.

Andrew M. Cohen, Esq.

1100 Franklin Avenue, Suite 305, Garden City, NY 11530

(516) 877-0595 | amcohenlaw.com

30+ years in New York law. Dedicated practice areas in Special Needs Planning, Guardianship, and Special Education. Team includes Laura Adler-Greene, who specializes in children's rights, special education law, and special needs planning. Lighthouse reached out to Andrew Cohen, quote pending.

Britt Burner, Esq., Burner Prudenti Law, P.C.

450 7th Ave, Suite 1904, New York, NY 10123

(212) 867-3520 | burnerlaw.com

Managing Partner; voted an officer of the New York State Bar Association's Elder Law and Special Needs Section in 2019. Dedicated Special Needs Trusts and Special Needs Planning practice pages, separate from the firm's general trusts and estates work. Lighthouse reached out to Britt Burner, quote pending.

Katya Sverdlov, Esq., Sverdlov Law PLLC

Wall Street, New York, NY

(212) 709-8112 | sverdlovlaw.com

CFA and attorney; 12 years on Wall Street before law school. Practice focuses on estate planning, Medicaid planning, elder law, and special needs planning. Board member, IncludeNYC. Spoke with Lighthouse directly for this piece, see quotes throughout.

Grimaldi Yeung Law Group

652 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11232 | Also: 45 Rockefeller Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10111 (by appointment)

(718) 238-6960 | gylawny.com

Dedicated special needs planning practice page covering trusts, government benefits, and care documentation. Named attorney for this practice area not yet confirmed, Lighthouse is following up.

The Arkontaky Law Group, P.C. (also listed in our special education lawyers directory)

143 Broadway, Suite 107, Hawthorne, NY 10532

(914) 460-7880 | arkontakylawgroup.com

Holistic approach combining special education advocacy with disability planning, OPWDD eligibility and appeals, guardianship, special needs estate planning, and trust administration. Bilingual staff. Founded by Adrienne Arkontaky.

Cuddy Law Firm, P.L.L.C. (also listed in our special education lawyers directory)

400 Columbus Ave., Suite 140S, Valhalla, NY 10595

(315) 370-4020 | cuddylawfirm.com

Free consultations available. Alongside its special education docket, the firm handles special needs planning, OPWDD applications, and trust administration. Multi-state practice with New York offices in Auburn and Westchester.

What does a special needs planning attorney do?

A special needs planning attorney sets up and structures trusts for families with a disabled child or adult family member, work that's distinct from special education law. Katya Sverdlov, an estate planning attorney in Manhattan, explained the core mechanism this way: the trust is set up "for the benefit of an individual," but that individual "cannot, under any circumstances, use the money for themselves." Instead, a trustee controls the money and spends it on the beneficiary's behalf. "If somebody is setting up a trust for the benefit of Katya, Katya cannot say to the trustee, I want $10,000 now," she said. "The trustee is not obligated to," but if the trustee decides the beneficiary needs something, "Brian, as the trustee, can spend" it.

What's the difference between a special needs trust lawyer and a special education attorney?

They're different specialties that solve different problems. A special education attorney fights for your child's IEP, placement, and services through the DOE, see our Special Education Lawyers in NYC directory for that list. A special needs planning attorney handles what happens to money in your child's life: trusts, guardianship, and protecting eligibility for programs like SSI and Medicaid. Many families eventually need both, and a few firms on this list, Littman Krooks, Cuddy Law Firm, and Arkontaky Law Group among them, handle both special education and special needs planning under one roof.

How much does it cost to set up a special needs trust in NYC?

Zeke Zimmerman, a financial planner who works with special needs families, put the range for a full plan, two wills, the trust itself, and advance directives, at "five to seven thousand" for a couple with two children, one disabled. He noted some attorneys go lower: "I know a person that will do it for as little as $1,500, I think that they're losing money on doing that, simply to be able to provide a resource." For families who can't manage that, a pooled trust, administered by a nonprofit like the Arc or AHRC, requires no attorney and can cost a few hundred dollars or less to join.

Who is eligible for a special needs trust?

Katya Sverdlov described it as needing all three of these at once: the person has a disability, they currently receive or may eventually need means-tested benefits like Medicaid or SSI, and someone, the family or the individual themselves, actually has money or assets worth protecting. Zeke Zimmerman framed it the same way independently: "If any of those three criteria aren't met, I can't see right now why there would be a need for that trust."

What's the difference between a first-party and third-party special needs trust?

The distinction is about whose money funded the trust. A third-party trust is funded with someone else's money, a parent's, a grandparent's, a life insurance payout. "It was never the son's money to begin with," Katya Sverdlov said, describing how a parent can set one up: "I give this money for my son to be used for his life benefit." A first-party trust holds money that legally already belongs to the disabled person, most often a lawsuit settlement or an inheritance that landed directly in their name.

Does a special needs trust get clawed back by Medicaid when the beneficiary dies?

It depends entirely on which kind of trust it is. With a third-party trust, "there is no Medicaid clawback at all," Katya Sverdlov said, if money is left over when the beneficiary dies, it passes to siblings or other named beneficiaries, not the state. A first-party trust works differently: because the money was the beneficiary's own to begin with, "upon the child's passing, anything that's left over in this trust will first be used to reimburse Medicaid" for what was spent on their care.

Should I set up a standalone trust now, or have one created after I die?

Zeke Zimmerman recommends setting it up now, not waiting. A trust created after death, through a will, rather than on its own, means "you're basically just kicking the can" to whoever administers your estate later, with no guarantee they'll set it up correctly. A standalone trust, created while you're alive, lets you choose the attorney, control the language, and, critically, name the trust as a direct beneficiary on life insurance, retirement accounts, and other assets that pass outside a will entirely. "I just feel more comfortable having it all set up and having it done now," is how he describes most clients' reasoning, "rather than waiting, and putting it in somebody else's hands."

Do I need a lawyer to set up a special needs trust?

Not always. If the amount of money involved is modest, tens of thousands of dollars rather than hundreds, a pooled trust run by a nonprofit like the Arc or AHRC can be a real option with little or no attorney cost. Zeke Zimmerman calls a third-party trust set up by an attorney "the gold standard," but says pooled trusts exist precisely "for families who don't have a lot of money," the trust is already established, and the family simply joins it. For most other situations, especially anything involving real assets or life insurance, both Zimmerman and Sverdlov's own practices reflect the more common path: working with an attorney directly.

This list was compiled and is maintained by Lighthouse. We update it periodically but cannot guarantee current availability or accuracy of contact details. Always verify information and confirm the attorney handles special needs trusts and disability planning, not only special education law, before engaging.

Know of an attorney we should add? Email us at [email protected]

Note on sources: Quotes from Katya Sverdlov and Zeke Zimmerman are drawn from original interviews conducted by Lighthouse in 2026.

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