1General guidance
How to plan financially for a child with special needs
The short answer
Financial planning for a child with a lifelong disability means estimating what their care will cost for the rest of their life — not just until adulthood — and building a fund, an income and a legal structure that keep paying after you can't. List today's care costs, carry them forward with inflation to the age you plan for, subtract what will genuinely be available (money set aside for your child, insurance, pensions, their own income), and close the gap early. Then make sure the money reaches your child through someone you chose, usually by a will and a trust.
The question behind every other question
Parents raising a child with special needs — whether that is autism, cerebral palsy, an intellectual disability, or another lifelong condition — live with one arithmetic problem that never quite resolves: the care will continue after the earning does. Most families have a rough sense of it, carried privately and rarely written down — a worry rather than a number. The steps below turn it into a number.
Step by step
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Write down today's real monthly cost
Care and attendants, therapies, medicines, equipment, transport, schooling or day programmes — and the income a parent gave up to provide care, which a paid carer will one day have to replace.
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Decide how far ahead to plan
Plan well into your child's old age, not to 18 or 25. A longer horizon costs more on paper and is the safer assumption.
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Allow for inflation
Care costs rise every year. At 6% a year, ₹25,000 a month today is about ₹80,000 a month in 20 years. Medical costs often rise faster than general prices.
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Count only what will really be there
Money genuinely earmarked for your child, insurance payouts, pensions and your child's own income. The family home may be needed by others, and "a sibling will help" is not a figure.
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Protect the plan against your absence
Term life cover on the earning parents, health cover for your child, and a will. The plan is most fragile in the years before the fund is built.
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Decide who will manage the money
A trustee you trust, with a named successor. See legal planning for trusts and guardianship.
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Review it every year
Costs, returns and the family's circumstances all move. A plan checked yearly stays true.
The costs to include
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Daily living
The ordinary recurring cost of running your child's life.
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Caregiving
Support staff, attendants and the help that will still be needed later.
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Medical & therapy
Therapies, treatment and equipment, including what recurs for life.
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Housing
Rent, a supported home or residential care, if your child will live elsewhere.
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Education & vocational
Schooling, training and programmes that build independence.
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Contingency
The margin for the year that does not go to plan.
If you live in India
- Section 80DD gives a parent a fixed tax deduction of ₹75,000 a year for maintaining a dependent with a disability, or ₹1,25,000 where the disability is severe (80% or more), backed by a certificate from a medical authority. For FY 2025-26 it is available only under the old tax regime.
- Niramaya, run by the National Trust, is health insurance of up to ₹1 lakh a year for people with autism, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability or multiple disabilities, covering pre-existing conditions and therapy. You enrol through a registered organisation of the National Trust.
- Family pension: for central government employees and pensioners, Rule 50 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 lets family pension continue for life to a child with a disability that prevents them earning, paid through a person the pensioner can nominate. Check the rules of your own employer or state.
- A private trust under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 can hold money for your child and be run by trustees you choose. How it is taxed depends on how it is drafted, so take a tax professional's advice before setting one up.
- Nominations on bank accounts, insurance and investments decide who receives money, not who may manage it. Naming a child who cannot manage money can leave funds that someone must still be legally authorised to use.
Tax limits and scheme terms change. Figures checked September 2026; confirm them with the Income Tax Department, the National Trust or your employer before acting.
Mistakes families often make
- Planning to age 18 or 25, when care continues for life.
- Counting the family home as money that will be available for care.
- Leaving money directly to a child who cannot legally manage it.
- Relying on an unwritten promise from a relative.
- Never writing a will, so the law, not the family, decides.
Questions parents ask
How much money will my special needs child need for life?
There is no standard figure; it depends on today's care cost, how long you plan for and inflation. As an illustration, care costing ₹25,000 a month today grows to about ₹80,000 a month in 20 years at 6% inflation. The fund needed is the cost of care from the point it must pay for itself until the end of the plan, less any income that continues, such as a pension.
Can I claim section 80DD under the new tax regime?
No. For FY 2025-26, section 80DD — a fixed deduction of ₹75,000, or ₹1,25,000 where the disability is severe (80% or more), for maintaining a dependent with a disability — is available only under the old tax regime.
Should I leave money directly to my child with special needs?
Often not. If your child cannot manage money independently, money left directly to them may need a court- or committee-appointed guardian before anyone can use it for them. Many families instead leave it to a private trust with trustees they chose, who spend it for the child's benefit.
Does a disabled child get a family pension after a government employee parent dies?
For central government employees and pensioners, Rule 50 of the CCS (Pension) Rules, 2021 allows family pension to continue for life to a son or daughter with a disability that prevents them earning a living, and the pensioner can nominate a person to receive it on the child's behalf. State government and other employers have their own rules.
2Free tool, no login
How LegacyNest helps — without an account
Care Cost Planning turns that worry into arithmetic you can look at. It prepares one care-cost scenario in INR or USD, with the assumptions behind it shown — free, with no sign-in and nothing saved to LegacyNest.
Useful to have to hand
- Roughly what care costs each month today
- Savings, investments or property set aside for your child
- Any income or life cover intended to support their care
You do not need all of it to start. Try the example first, or use your own numbers. A blank stays visibly blank rather than becoming a fact nobody checked.
What this tool does not do
- It is a projection from the figures you enter, not financial, insurance or tax advice
- It does not recommend a product, an allocation or an amount to save
- Currencies are separate scenarios; nothing is converted between them
What happens to what you type
Your answers stay in the browser tab you are using. They are not sent to LegacyNest, not saved to an account and not kept on this device — refreshing the page or closing the tab can clear them, so download what you want to keep. A file you download is yours, and only the people you send it to can see it. See our privacy policy for how information is handled.
What it shows you
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Lifetime projection
The care fund carried across your child's lifetime, not just the next few years.
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Gap analysis
The fund needed when care must pay for itself, against what may be available then.
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Your own assumptions
Inflation, returns and ages are yours to set — and to change.
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If support stopped today
The shortfall if your support ended now, after any cover already in force.
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Two ways to close a gap
One amount invested now, or a yearly amount — arithmetic, not a product.
In today's money, and a projection, not advice
Results are expressed in today's money, so they stay readable rather than becoming an abstraction. Change an assumption and the projection moves with it. LegacyNest does not recommend products, schemes or investments; what you do about a gap is a conversation for a qualified financial adviser — this is the preparation that makes it a short one.
Start with what you already know
You do not need every figure to begin. Most families start with the expenses they can recall without looking, and build the picture up from there. Download the report to keep it.
3With a free account
How LegacyNest helps — with a free account
A free LegacyNest account is a separate product with its own storage and sharing. The free tool above needs none of it, and nothing typed into it is carried into an account.
The free tool answers one scenario in one sitting. The account keeps the figures behind your plan and projects them the way a family's life actually unfolds:
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Your figures, kept
Your child's expenses, income and the assets earmarked for their care stay in your plan, so an update is one changed figure, not a fresh start.
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Both parents, phase by phase
The projection follows each parent's age and life expectancy — the years with both parents, with one, and when the fund carries care alone.
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Life cover counted
Existing life cover recorded in the account's insurance section is counted in the projection.
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Nominees beside assets
Each asset can carry its nominee, so who receives what sits alongside the numbers.