Joining the Golden State Pooled Trust

Work with an attorney

We at the Golden State Pooled Trust respect that you have choices and that it can be overwhelming to make important life decisions affecting the personal and financial well-being of yourself or your loved one. It’s important that you find independent counsel from an attorney who is familiar with special needs trusts (see here for a list of attorneys) to help you determine your options and select the best path forward.

The Golden State Pooled Trust requires beneficiaries to work with an attorney in order to join one of our trust programs. Our trustee will give you and your attorney a call before joining the trust so we can be sure that this is a good fit for both of us.

As you consider your options, here are some helpful questions to ask your attorney:

What is the impact on my benefits if I keep the money? (Be sure that you bring documentation to show your attorney the types of benefits that you receive.)
What else can I do with the money besides placing it in a trust account?
When do I have to make a decision?
If I put my funds in a pooled trust account…
- How do I get things that I need?
- How long does it take the trust to make a disbursement?
- How are my funds invested?
- If there are assets remaining in the trust after my death, what happens to them?

Consider your options at GSPT

The Golden State Pooled Trust maintains four pooled trust programs:

The GSPT Self-Settled Trust
The GSPT Self-Settled Trust for Court Monitored Cases
The GSPT Medicare Set Aside Trust
The GSPT Third Party Trust

For more information on these programs and the fees associated with joining them, please click here.

Select a beneficiary advocate

We require the beneficiary to name a person to be their “beneficiary advocate” (BA) when enrolling in the Golden State Pooled Trust. In some cases, the beneficiary may be acting as his/her own beneficiary advocate.

The beneficiary advocate...

Advises the trustee about what expenditures need to be paid to meet the beneficiary’s needs (Note: It is important to remember that the trustee has final authority and sole discretion)
Acts as the beneficiary’s representative; all decisions made by the beneficiary advocate are binding upon the trust beneficiary and the remainder beneficiaries