When a child or other loved one lives with serious mental illness, families face critical decisions about oversight and financial security for immediate and long-term needs.

Attorneys Jim Funnell and Amy Orlando will address these difficult decisions in their presentation, “Ensuring Care For Your Loved One With A Mental Health Condition.” The two will discuss ways to obtain benefits needed for care and treatment, and how to gain authority to become an oversight caretaker.

The event, sponsored by NAMI Southwest CT, takes place from 7:30 to 9 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 17 at Tully Health Center, Auditorium, 32 Strawberry Hill Court in Stamford.

Topics discussed will include:

· Common Entitlement and Assistance Programs

· Gifts from Grandparents and Others with “White Hearts”

· Special Needs Trusts

· ABLE Accounts (Section 529A Accounts)

· Delegated Decision Making

About the Presenters

Jim Funnell is a principal member of the Westport, Connecticut law firm of Hermenze & Marcantonio LLC. His practice is limited to estate and trust planning, special needs planning for family members with disabilities, and estate and trust administration.

Jim Funnell attorney

Jim Funnell

Jim is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Estates and Probate Section of the Connecticut Bar Association.

He has been AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell for over twenty years; has been named a Connecticut Super Lawyer each year since its inception in 2006; has been named a New England Super Lawyer; and is named in Best Lawyers in America. Jim is admitted to practice law in Connecticut and Texas.

Amy E. Orlando is the founding attorney of the Law Offices of Amy E. Orlando, LLC, where she practices in the areas of elder law, special needs, estate planning, and probate and estate administration.

Amy Orlando attorney

Contributed photo

Amy Orlando

She is also an Accredited Attorney and Federal Fiduciary with the Veteran’s Administration. Amy is Connecticut’s State Ambassador to the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and is the Past-President of the Connecticut Chapter of NAELA, while also sitting on the Public Policy and Membership Committees.

She is a member of the Board, and on the Trust Committee, for Planned Lifetime Assistance Network (PLAN) of CT, a non-profit serving as Trustee for Special Needs Trusts.

Amy has been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Elder Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association (CBA), and also sits on the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the CBA.

She teaches classes on elder law and estate planning for various adult education programs in Connecticut, and is a frequent lecturer on topics that include Medicaid, estate planning and elder financial exploitation. Amy received her law degree Cum Laude, from Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

About NAMI and NAMI Southwest CT

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots, nonprofit organization aimed at improving quality of life for people living with mental health conditions and their families.

NAMI Southwest CT, the local affiliate of NAMI, serves lower Fairfield County, CT.

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