PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) today
announced the roll-out of its Families of Children with Disabilities program,
designed to address the unique financial challenges facing the 14.7 million
Americans with severe disabilities.
    The program is the first of its kind to be offered by a full-service
financial services firm and combines the expertise of the firm's financial
consultants, trust specialists and financial-planning experts.
    "Merrill Lynch research has uncovered a wide gap between the financial
needs and the financial preparedness of families of children with
disabilities," said Christopher D. Sullivan, vice president and manager,
Retired and Assistive Client Services.  "This gap is often due to a lack of
financial planning and advice on these issues.  That's why Merrill Lynch is
undertaking a nationwide effort to inform and serve these families through
the efforts of local financial consultants and specialists, as well as our
new web site, http://www.plan.ml.com/specialneeds/ and a local seminar
program."
    Families of children with disabilities may benefit from Merrill Lynch's
customized financial planning and local trust specialists, who can structure
and administer a special-needs trust if it is determined to be the best
option to preserve assets for future care expenses.
    Several trends are converging to make financial planning for families of
children with disabilities more challenging in the future.  Today, for the
first time in history, many severely disabled children are outliving their
parents and an increasing number of caregivers are facing sandwich-generation
issues -- caring for older parents as well as a child with special needs.
    At the same time, children with disabilities could lose eligibility for
government benefits if their assets are not properly coordinated. "There is a
deep-seated need for careful financial planning and education for families of
children with disabilities, which will enable parents to ensure the future
financial security for their special needs child," said Rick Berkobien,
Assistant Director, The Arc (Association for Retarded Citizens).
    Merrill Lynch has been a leader in reaching out to the special-needs
community.  In 1990, the firm introduced its Deaf/Hard of Hearing Investor
Services, which has guided thousands of financial consultants in serving
deaf or hearing-impaired clients.
    The Merrill Lynch Private Client Group serves more than four million
households and small- to-mid-sized businesses using a
financial-planning-based approach.  Among the many services available to
Merrill Lynch clients are brokerage, personal credit, insurance, home
financing and trust services as well as retirement and
group-employee-benefit services and business financing.
    Merrill Lynch clients are served by more than 18,200 financial consultants
in more than 900 branch offices worldwide.  As of the third quarter of 1999,
investors had entrusted Merrill Lynch with more than $1.5 trillion in client
assets.

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