Florida Qualified Income Trust Requirements, Explained
Florida does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form, and the trust must be drafted by an attorney (or, where Florida permits it, you). DCF's own published policy (ESS Policy Manual 1840.0110 ("Income Trusts") and 1840.0111 ("Transfer of Income"); Fla. Admin. Code R. 65A-1.701(57) and 65A-1.702(13); federal authority 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(d)(4)(B)) sets out exactly what a compliant trust must contain — this guide explains those requirements in plain language, cited clause by clause, so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes. This guide is informational only and is not legal advice — it does not determine your need for a trust, and it does not draft, execute, or gather information for one.
Florida does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form, so the trust is drafted — by an attorney, or by you where Florida permits it — to meet Florida Department of Children and Families's own published requirements. This is not a step-by-step execution guide: it explains what the law requires, so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes. We do not draft, provide sample language for, or review a trust.
What a compliant Florida trust must contain
Florida does not publish a fill-in Qualified Income Trust form. DCF's own "Qualified Medicaid Trust Guidelines and Forms" (Appendix A-22) confirms that even the Department's internal trust-review forms are not distributed publicly -- they "are not available in the warehouse and must be photocopied" by DCF's own Region and Circuit Program Offices. There is no current public instrument to link to, fill in, or complete. What follows instead is a plain-language explanation of what DCF's ESS Policy Manual (1840.0110) and Fla. Admin. Code R. 65A-1.701(57) require a compliant trust to contain, cited clause by clause to the actual policy text -- written so you can evaluate an attorney's engagement and read a drafted trust with informed eyes, not so you can draft one yourself.
8 required provisions — every one of them has to be in the document your attorney drafts:
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Established on or after October 1, 1993, for the individual's benefit
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Irrevocable -- amendment is permitted, a power to revoke is not
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Composed only of the individual's income -- no assets, no one else's money
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Names the state as remainder beneficiary -- generic language is enough
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Funded monthly with enough income to bring the individual under the standard
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Must allow monthly disbursement of all funds for the individual's benefit
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Executed by someone with the authority to do so
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Trustee provides quarterly statements to DCF
That's the checklist — what has to be covered. The guide explains each one clause by clause, in plain language, with the exact DCF citation behind it, so you can read a drafted trust against it line by line instead of taking your attorney's word that it's complete.
The two questions families ask most after this are about opening the bank account in Florida and the funding timeline — see how long setting up a Florida Miller Trust takes.
Before you go to the Florida bank
Most wasted trips are a bank-procedure problem, not a trust problem. This free one-pager has the questions to ask on the phone before you drive to a branch — emailed now. We'll also send 4 short follow-ups over the next 3 weeks (why most denials are paperwork not eligibility, the trustee role, when to call an attorney) — then we stop. No ongoing newsletter.