How should parents plan their estate for a child with a disability?
Deliberately, and differently. In Ontario, leaving money directly to a child who receives ODSP can put their benefits at risk, so many parents leave the inheritance to a Henson trust instead, and build the child’s RDSP during their own lifetimes. The plan is made in a will, with a chosen trustee, with an estate lawyer’s help.
Most estate planning asks one question: who gets what? For parents of a child with a disability, there is a harder question underneath it: how do we leave it so it helps, and never harms? A loving, equal, straightforward inheritance can accidentally endanger the benefits a child depends on every month. The good news is that Ontario law has tools built for exactly this. This page maps them, and the order to think in.
Please read this first: this page is general information about how Ontario rules work, not legal advice. Trusts and wills are legal documents with lasting consequences. Use what you learn here to have a better conversation with an estate lawyer, not to replace one.
Why the standard will is not enough
A typical will divides assets among children outright. For a child receiving ODSP, an outright inheritance lands in their hands as an asset, and ODSP has asset limits. A large enough inheritance can suspend or end the very support that pays for rent, food, and daily life, forcing the child to spend down the inheritance on basics before benefits can resume. The money still gets used. It just gets used at the worst exchange rate imaginable, replacing benefits dollar for dollar instead of adding comfort on top of them.
Parents are often stunned to learn this, and sometimes a little hurt. They did everything right: saved, insured, wrote a will. The will simply was not written with the benefit rules in the room. That is fixable, and it is far easier to fix while you are alive and well than to leave for a grieving family to untangle.
The Henson trust: the centre of the Ontario plan
Ontario’s answer is the Henson trust, a fully discretionary trust set up in the will. Instead of leaving money directly to your child, you leave it to the trust. A trustee you choose manages it and decides whether to pay anything out, when, and how much. Because your child does not control the trust and cannot demand its money, assets inside a properly structured Henson trust are generally exempt when ODSP eligibility is calculated.
The trustee choice is as important as the legal drafting. This person will make judgment calls for years, ideally decades, balancing today’s quality of life against tomorrow’s security. I wrote a companion guide on comparing the trust with the savings plan, Henson trust versus RDSP, and the pillar guide on Henson trusts explains the structure, including where the name comes from, in full.
The RDSP: the part you build while you are alive
A trust waits in a will. An RDSP works right now. A child approved for the Disability Tax Credit can have an RDSP opened during the parents’ lifetimes, attracting up to $90,000 in federal grants and bonds over the beneficiary’s lifetime, fully exempt for ODSP in Ontario as both an asset and, on withdrawal, as income. Contributions from parents and grandparents during their lifetimes compound the effect and use grant room that disappears at age 49.
Parents also need a succession answer for the plan itself: who acts as holder if the parents cannot, and what the will should say about it. Those are questions for the same estate conversation, not an afterthought. I return to them in my guide on leaving money to a disabled child in a will, which walks the will itself clause by clause in plain English.
The conversation to book
Bring an estate lawyer a short list: your child’s benefits and how they are paid, the RDSP’s status and holder arrangements, your trustee candidates and a backup, and the quality of life extras you hope the trust will fund over a lifetime. A lawyer who knows disability planning will recognize the list. One who suggests simply leaving everything outright, equally, has told you something important about their experience with families like yours.
And tell your family what you have done, at the level of detail you are comfortable with. The trustee should never learn of the job from a will reading. The siblings should understand why the shares look different on paper. Plans explained with love, early, survive. Plans discovered in grief get contested by confusion. Start with the structure, use the free RDSP eligibility checker if the plan is not open yet, and let the legal drafting follow a conversation your whole family understands.
Common questions
Can I just leave my estate equally to all my children?
You can, but for a child on ODSP an outright inheritance can put benefits at risk once it lands as their asset. A Henson trust is the usual Ontario tool for leaving that child’s share in a protected form instead.
What is a Henson trust in one sentence?
It is a fully discretionary trust, usually in a parent’s will, where a trustee holds and manages money for a person with a disability who cannot demand payments, which generally protects ODSP eligibility.
Should the RDSP be part of an estate plan?
Yes. The RDSP works during the parents’ lifetimes, gathers grants and bonds, and needs holder succession thought through. It partners with the trust rather than replacing it.
Is this legal advice?
No. This page is general information only. Wills and trusts need an estate lawyer, ideally one experienced in disability planning, working from your family’s actual facts.
This guide sits inside the Henson trust pillar guide, where trusts, wills, and benefit protection come together.
Sources: Disability Tax Credit, Canada Revenue Agency.
See where you stand: the free RDSP readiness checker takes about a minute and shows whether an RDSP belongs in your plan and what the government could add. No signup, and no pressure.
A quick note: this post is educational, not financial advice. For guidance on your own situation, book a free conversation. You don't have to figure this out alone. I'm here to help you through every step.