I built this because I lived it.
I'm Eric Jorgensen - a CFP®, a retired Navy Chief, and the father of a son with autism and intellectual disabilities.
My wife Christine passed away in 2012, the same month I retired from twenty years of active duty. In the middle of grief, I was handed a stack of government forms, a list of phone numbers, and very little guidance on what any of it meant for my son's future.
That experience — navigating SSI, Medicaid waivers, Special Needs Trusts, and the dozens of decisions that come with raising a disabled child without a roadmap — is what eventually led me to build Special Needs Navigator.
What I've learned over more than a decade of disability planning.
I've spent more than ten years working with families across the country on disability planning. The same problems come up again and again:
Families miss benefits they were entitled to — not because they didn't try, but because the information wasn't in one place.
Decisions get made in the wrong order — a well-meaning gift from a grandparent, an inheritance handled incorrectly, an SSI application filed too early or too late — and the consequences take years to undo.
Nobody tells you about the Age 18 redetermination. Or Disabled Adult Child benefits. Or what happens to your child's Medicaid when you move to another state.
The guidance exists. It's just scattered across agencies, attorneys, financial planners, and government websites that weren't designed with your family in mind.
What Special Needs Navigator is — and what it isn't.
Special Needs Navigator is an AI-powered planning tool built on my real-world experience. It won't replace an attorney or a financial planner. But it will help you walk into those conversations knowing what questions to ask — and it will help you catch the issues that people miss before they become expensive mistakes.
I'm the host of the ABCs of Disability Planning podcast and the author of the Waypoints newsletter. Both exist for the same reason Special Needs Navigator does: families deserve better access to this information.
What we're working toward
The guidance families need to protect their child's future shouldn't depend on how much money they have, where they live, or whether they happen to know the right attorney.
That's the simple idea behind Special Needs Navigator. Every family deserves a clear starting point. Every caregiver deserves to walk into a benefits office, a planning meeting, or an attorney's consultation knowing what they're dealing with — not finding out after the fact what they missed.
We're not trying to replace the professionals. We're trying to make sure every family can actually use them effectively.