Planning the future of a child with disabilities requires bringing together aspects that are often addressed separately: housing, care expenses, parental assets, maintenance after reaching the age of majority, and the decisions to be made when those who currently provide assistance can no longer do so. The Dopo di Noi Law can be an important tool, but it is not an automatic answer to every need.
I want to help you distinguish what the law permits from what must be concretely built within the individual family. We will see who may fall under this regulation, when trusts and destination bonds make sense, what changes if parents live apart, and why care expenses must be carefully regulated without relying on generic formulas.
What the Dopo di Noi Law Actually Provides
Law no. 112 of 2016 protects persons with severe disabilities who lack family support or are destined to lose it. Its scope does not coincide with every situation of disability: the rule concerns severe disability not due to natural aging or senile pathologies, when both parents are absent, when they are not in a position to guarantee adequate support, or when it is necessary to plan the future before that support fails. This is provided for by article 1 of the Dopo di Noi Law.
The starting point is the person, not the assets. The law links assistance, care, and protection measures to the individual project and also aims to avoid exclusively institutional solutions. For this reason, it is not enough to decide to whom to leave a property or a sum of money: it is necessary to understand where the person lives, what help they receive, what activities they retain, which therapies are ongoing, and which expenses may grow over time.
The requirement of severity must result from the assessment provided by law. Law no. 112 refers to article 3, paragraph 3, of law no. 104 of 1992. The regulation of the basic evaluation is in a transitional phase: the modifications introduced by legislative decree no. 62 of 2024 operate in the experimental territories and, in the remaining national territory, are foreseen starting from January 1, 2027. For correct planning, therefore, the concrete content of the already issued report and the applicable regime in the interested territory count. The regulatory reference is article 3 of law no. 104 of 1992.
Before Choosing a Tool, the Life Project Must Be Defined
Asset protection only works if it finances recognizable needs. Living in one's own home with home care requires different resources and rules compared to cohabitation with a sibling, a housing project with other people, or assistance organized by an entity. Even the same sum may be sufficient in one context and inadequate in another, because services, frequency of care, transport costs, and the presence of family members change.
The person's preferences deserve space in planning. If they can be gathered, they are not an emotional detail: they help indicate the desired housing solution, the habits to be preserved, trusted individuals, and the needs that cannot be reduced to a monthly amount. The Dopo di Noi Law requires that measures be built respecting the will of the person with severe disabilities, when this is possible.
Some documents immediately clarify the decisions to be made. Normally useful are the assessment report, any separation or divorce proceedings, agreements on children's expenses, a reconstruction of actual care and assistance expenses, the situation of real estate and savings, as well as wills, policies, or already prepared deeds. They are not used to create an indistinct file, but to prevent a new deed from contradicting existing commitments or rights.
Trust, Destination Bond, and Special Fund: Different Tools
The trust is not the only solution provided by the Dopo di Noi Law. Article 1 of the law mentions, alongside private disbursements and policies, the trust, the destination bond, and special funds governed by a fiduciary management contract. These are tools that can allocate assets to the care and assistance of the beneficiary person, but they operate with different rules and subjects. Calling every arrangement a “trust” does not eliminate these differences.
In a trust, assets are managed according to rules established in the deed of trust. The deed must clarify which assets flow into the structure, who administers them, which expenses can be incurred, who controls the manager, and what happens to the residual assets when the beneficiary person passes away. A destination bond, on the other hand, can concern real estate or registered movable property and makes a specific destination enforceable against third parties; the special fund is based on fiduciary management. The choice depends on the type of assets and the concrete function to be ensured.
Tax reliefs require cumulative conditions and do not depend on the name of the tool alone. Article 6 of law no. 112 requires, among other things, a public deed, the exclusive purpose of social inclusion, care, and assistance of the person with severe disabilities, the indication of needs and assistance activities, reporting obligations, a person in charge of control, a duration linked to the life of the beneficiary, and the destination of the residual assets. These conditions are described in article 6 of the Dopo di Noi Law.
A will may still be necessary even when an assistance arrangement exists. A will can regulate assets that do not enter the trust, the bond, or the special fund, but it does not automatically replace the rules on the daily management of resources. Before transferring assets, it is also necessary to consider their actual ownership, any debts, other family members interested in the succession, and the sustainability of the arrangement over time.
Maintenance of the Adult Child with Severe Disabilities
Reaching the age of majority does not automatically terminate the protections provided for the child. In proceedings concerning separated, divorced, or unmarried parents, article 337-septies of the civil code establishes that the provisions established in favor of minor children apply in full to adult children carrying a severe handicap. This means that the need for care and assistance cannot be settled with demographic data alone. The current text of the civil code contains the regulation of relations between parents and children after family crises.
The allowance must be linked to real needs and available resources. In determining the contribution, the rules recalled by article 337-ter consider the child's current needs, the standard of living, the economic resources of both parents, the time spent with each, and the economic value of care tasks performed. A contribution fixed years ago may no longer correctly describe a new therapy, home assistance, or a different housing organization.
Public benefits and the child's resources are elements to be placed in the overall picture. They do not authorize, by themselves, unilaterally reducing the contribution owed by a parent. It is necessary to distinguish the function of the benefit received, the costs that the family continues to bear, and what the judicial provision or the current agreement provides for. When the conditions considered in the provision change concretely, the modification must be addressed with the appropriate legal tool, not with a de facto suspension of payments.
Extraordinary Care Expenses: Why a Written Rule is Needed
Not every medical bill is automatically an extraordinary expense. Recurring and foreseeable expenses may already be included in the monthly contribution if the agreement or provision considers them in this way; other expenses, occasional or of significant amount, may instead require further distribution. The qualification depends on the title regulating relations between parents and the concrete nature of the service, not just the label used in the reimbursement request.
A good agreement must make expenses and the way of deciding recognizable. It is useful to distinguish, for example, scheduled periodic therapies from sudden intervention, establish which documents must be communicated, within what deadline to ask for consent, and how to distribute the cost. If treatment is urgent and does not allow waiting for comparison between parents, the necessity of the intervention, clinical documentation, and the consistency of the expense with the person's needs become decisive.
Disagreement is not resolved by ignoring the other parent. Anyone who deems a therapy, aid, or assistance path unnecessary must confront the reasons for the expense and what is already provided for in the agreement. On the other hand, whoever anticipates a cost should not presume that every choice is reimbursable in the desired percentage. Conflict prevention relies on concrete rules, especially when treatments require continuity and coordination.
Assets and Personal Representation Are Not the Same Thing
A trust or special fund manages assets, but does not automatically grant the power to represent the person. The manager may have the task of paying for assistance or administering a property, without being able to make personal decisions or sign deeds that require legal representation. Similarly, disability does not in itself entail the loss of legal capacity: automatisms that reduce the space of autonomy of the person must be avoided.
Support administration can be evaluated when a person is unable, even partially or temporarily, to take care of their interests. The guardianship judge defines in the appointment decree the acts for which the administrator intervenes and the limits of their assignment. This measure can coordinate with estate planning, but does not replace it: the former concerns personal protection and acts indicated by the judge, the latter indicates how to use assets and resources. Articles 404 and following can be consulted in the current civil code.
The most solid choice connects roles that do not overlap. Who controls the use of assets, who provides daily assistance, who represents the person for a specific act, and who receives information on expenses can be different figures. The planning document must clarify how these people communicate with each other, which decisions require control, and which resources remain available for ordinary needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Dopo di Noi Law apply to all people with disabilities?
No, it requires severe disability in the terms recalled by law no. 112 of 2016. Furthermore, protection concerns people lacking family support or for whom the fading of such support must be planned. A disability certification different from the condition of severity can give access to other measures, but does not allow presuming the application of the Dopo di Noi regulations.
Is a trust mandatory to protect my child?
No, a trust is a possibility and not a mandatory step. The Dopo di Noi Law also considers destination bonds, special funds, policies, and private disbursements. The choice depends on available assets, the need to separate them for care, the presence of a reliable manager, and the rules that must apply to housing and future expenses.
Does reaching the age of majority terminate the maintenance of the child with severe disabilities?
No, reaching adulthood alone does not end the duty to support a child. In relations between separated or unmarried parents, the civil code extends to the adult child carrying a severe handicap the provisions provided for minor children. Care needs, parents' resources, and what is established in the applicable provision or agreement remain central.
How are extraordinary care expenses divided?
We start from the existing agreement or provision. It is then necessary to understand whether the expense is recurring and foreseeable or exceptional, whether it required prior consent, and whether urgency prevented waiting. A medical cost does not automatically become extraordinary because it is high: its function, available documentation, and rules agreed upon between parents count.
Does a support administrator replace a trust?
No, because the two tools protect different aspects. Support administration grants a person powers defined by the judge for specific acts or interests of the administered person. The trust, destination bond, or special fund instead regulate the management of assets destined for care and assistance. They can be coordinated, but neither automatically absorbs the function of the other.
Where to Start for Consistent Planning
The first step is to transform generic concerns into verifiable needs. It is useful to distinguish expenses that already exist from foreseeable ones, establish which people can guarantee continuity in care, identify actually available assets, and reread family or estate acts already in force. This allows understanding whether it is necessary to modify a maintenance agreement, build an asset arrangement, or coordinate both.
Planning must be designed while parents can still participate in choices. Deciding beforehand does not mean subtracting autonomy from the person with disabilities, but preparing understandable rules, adequate controls, and resources oriented towards their concrete life. If you want to examine how to coordinate these tools in your situation, you can contact me.