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[00:00:00] savings plan, which is o managed by Fidelity invest a state authority that wa Commonwealth of Massachus the plan to help families pay for college due to th program is very similar t was a natural fit as the The ABLE program here in Massachusetts. The Steven Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience, or ABLE Act, amended the federal tax code in 2014 to add section 529A.

Again, this is very similar to what many people are familiar with as college savings accounts in that a 529 college savings account is an investment account for qualified education expenses. A 529A is a investment account for qualified disability expenses. The legislation established would have now Generally been called able accounts, which are tax exempt investment accounts for eligible individuals with [00:01:00] disabilities to be used for qualified disability expenses while keeping their eligibility for federal public benefits.

That’s all federal public benefits. That is not explicitly just social security. So it also applies to federal housing waivers. Uh, it means that the money in your able count doesn’t count against your snap benefits. It will not be counted, uh, on your FAFSA. There’s many ways in which the, uh, able account can assist with, uh, with benefit protection.

Uh, there are 49 active able programs currently United States of America. You’re only allowed to have one able account at a time, but you are able to open them in any state that you wish. We have quite a few people who have opened their accounts here in Massachusetts due to the fact that we have some very strong benefits here that they might not be able to have in their home states in Massachusetts.

Accounts from the Able Act are called attainable savings accounts. The attainable savings plan was launched in 2017. MEFA is the state sponsor, and Fidelity Investments is the program manager. [00:02:00] Who is eligible for an attainable count? Individuals are eligible for an attainable count if the onset of disability occurred before the individual turned 26 years old.

We did pass the Able, uh, Age Adjustment Act a couple years ago, uh, which is going to make, on January 1 of 2026, that go up to 46 years old. Again, that is, onset, not current age. So if you have a diagnosis that you’ve had since birth and you’re currently 80, you can open an ABLE account. Um, the reason for the ABLE Age Adjustment Act is we have a lot of folk who are becoming disabled after 26, particularly in the case of acquired brain injury, where that, you know, so being able to open an account, uh, when you, because I had my accident when I was 30 years old or some such would be very beneficial.

Um, you should be eligible to receive SSI or SSDI due to their disability or self certified meeting requirements requires a diagnosis with functional limitations to your day to day abilities, [00:03:00] such as those in the Social Security Administration’s Blue Book. A really quick glance way of thinking about how those guidelines work is generally if you can Maintain a 40 hour a week job.

Uh, that would be one of the guidelines that might be considered for do or, or, or where your limitations are. And do you qualify? Um, this also accounts for the compassionate allowances conditions. There are a wide variety of conditions that would qualify you for being able to open enable account, uh, every ranging, you know, mental health disorder, developmental disorder, musculoskeletal, long term cancer recovery, many, many, many different.

Things that might, uh, open that possibility for an individual, uh, attainable accounts allow the account owner or beneficiary to save above the, uh, the current 2000 S. S. I. Asset limit without affecting federal benefits. Um, so, uh, 2000 in assets, and I believe it’s 1970 in income limits that are currently [00:04:00] established.

Uh, family and friends are also allowed to contribute to an attainable account. Beneficiaries have relatively immediate access to funds. When you take money out of an attainable account, you are doing a small scale investment trade, so it can take up to 24 hours or so to process. So you should make sure you leave that leeway available to you.

These counts do provide individuals with both financial independence and several tax benefits.

Um, of all the screens that I will do in the course of today, this is my most screenshotted. Uh, this is, uh, but don’t worry, again, we are going to be sending the slides out. These are our qualified disability expenses for attainable accounts. They include, uh, any costs associated with education. That is, uh, your tuition, that’s your books, that’s your lab fees.

Uh, your housing. Um, I’ve got, my next screen is actually all about housing because we’ve received its extensive clarification on housing. Uh, transportation. Uh, that is Your public transportation, you can use your attainable account funds to pay for, [00:05:00] uh, ride share programs. You can use them to buy a car, um, employment training and supports, uh, assistive technology and related services, which includes apps for your assistive technology.

So if you already have an iPad and you found that there is an app that you really need, like an augmentative communication app that might cost several hundred dollars, you could utilize your attainable account to pay for that. Health costs, prevention and wellness costs, funeral and burial costs, uh, basic living expenses, which we did clarify a couple of years ago to include food.

And I mean all food, no matter where it comes from. So groceries, delivery, takeout, uh, restaurants, if it’s food, you’re allowed to utilize your attainable account to pay for it. Uh, and personal support services, which, you know, might be one on one community supports, but it also might be financial management, legal fees, or even expenses for able account oversight.

These should all generally be broadly understood. The idea is that you should be thinking about these in terms of assisting someone in being [00:06:00] able to get the most out of their lives. They should not be considered like hardcore limitations. They are supposed to be there to lend aid to an individual.

Additionally, you should be aware that You still have the 2, 000 in addition to your ABLE account that you’re allowed to save. So you’re allowed to have 2, 000 in a checking or savings account doesn’t meet these guidelines in addition to whatever money that you put into your ABLE account that does need to follow these guidelines.

Uh, again, I did want to tell you about housing expenses that can include housing or in a down payment for a mortgage. Um, so that includes the property insurance required by the mortgage holder. You’re allowed to pay your rent with it, including first, last and security in order to take over a new rental space.

Uh, real property taxes. Those are the property taxes that stay on a property. Even after you leave. So usually like the buildings and the land as opposed to personal property taxes, uh, heat, [00:07:00] fuel, gas, electricity, water and sewer, garbage removal. All of those things can be paid for out of your attainable account.

Um, housing expenses for enable account are similar to household costs for in kind support and maintenance. And in fact, ABLE can be utilized to create a very clear paper trail if someone needs to demonstrate in kind support and maintenance. It is generally recommended by the Social Security Administration that people who are doing that pay directly out of their account.

So instead of paying a parent or shared living person back, so I paid 800, you owe me 300, they would prefer them to directly pay 300 and you pay 500 in order to keep the record keeping clear. Who’s allowed to open an account? Accounts can be opened by the individual with the disability, the person with their power of attorney, their legal guardian, their spouse, their parent, their sibling, their grandparent, or their rep payee.

This is a hierarchy with legal ramifications. Essentially, you know, if you are signing that you were [00:08:00] taking over this responsibility, you are stating legally that no one above you wanted that responsibility. And as we can note, the individual with the disability is always on the top of that list. So people cannot take over their finances without their permission.

I did want to actually mention here that, um, for legal relationships, you do need to provide the documentation, uh, that you have a legal relationship with that individual. So if you’re a person with the power of attorney, uh, Fidelity only accepts durable power of attorney, and you’d need to provide that.

For legal guardian, you’d need to provide the court documents. Uh, but for, uh, F Familial relationships, you are going to be able to just open the account, uh, with the fact that you are signing illegally, uh, stating that you have that relationship and that you are have that, uh, that permission to be taking over that portion of the finances.

A rep payee, again, would need to provide their rep payee, uh, paperwork. Um, the person, [00:09:00] so these are our doc. Actually, this is our documents, uh, requirements. Uh, so essentially what I just said, and I apologize, I forgot that I put this in here, . Uh, but yes, you can see that we. Require again, the durable power of attorney, the copy of the court documents, copy of SSA documentation, granting status, but there’s no paperwork required for spouse, parent, sibling or grandparent.

Um, contribution limits have increased in 2024. They’ve increased fairly steadily ever since these accounts were created. The total annual contribution right now cannot exceed 18, 000 due to the Able to Work Act. If employed, the beneficiary can contribute up to an additional 14, 580 as that is the current federal poverty limit, and it is the lesser of the person’s gross income.

Or that poverty limit. So if somebody is only making 10, 000 a year in their job, then they can add 10, 000 on top of the 18. That’s what they’re allowed to put into their able account. So 28 if [00:10:00] they’re making 20, 000 a year, they can put the full 14, 580. Plus the 18. This is it. Once again, it’s in addition, not instead of.

So that would be 32, 580. That would be allowed to be contributed into your able account that year. Um, the account balance cannot be added to once it exceeds 500, 000. And SSI, instead of being affected when you hit 2, 000 in assets, will is not suspended until the account exceeds 100, 000 in an ABLE account.

Uh, you cannot have an attainable account and a actively being contributed to by your employer retirement account at the same time. So if you have created your own like Roth account or something outside of your employer, that’s a separate thing, but you just cannot be receiving income from for retirement from your employer at the same time as you have an ABLE account.

There is actually legislation being worked on right now to allow employers to contribute to attainable accounts instead of [00:11:00] retirement accounts. Uh, here in Massachusetts, we have no annual account maintenance fee. Uh, these are investment accounts though. So there are investment fees that vary based on the investment portfolio that you select when you set up the account.

And those range from 0. 2 to 0. 86 percent of assets. Um, getting into a little bit of the specifics about attainable, um, without the able act, as we’ve noted, their individuals are only allowed to have the 2000 in assets for all expenses. Due to this, savings are actively discouraged for a lot of individuals.

Unexpected income or even routine savings could easily exceed that limit. Uh, people are saving for surgeries. People are saving just to be able to, you know, go on a trip, something and they’re often caught by this, this limitation. Um, We had a lot of this hit due to the COVID influx of funds that people received in relief monies.

This often necessitates what’s colloquially called a spend down, where money has to be spent to [00:12:00] get assets under 2, 000 to preserve benefits. And if you’re in a shared living or a residential placement or anything like that, it can’t be money spent on something that becomes an asset. So it can’t be anything, you can’t buy a silver bar or something with it because that’s Still runs into the same problem.

It’s still an asset limit. So people buy, you have to buy something and it has to be somewhat useless. Um, which I think is just truly terrible scenario for people to be caught in. So we see a lot of bedroom sets being bought that aren’t needed. Um, attainable provides the opportunity for individuals to save for larger expenses without fear.

You can put money into it to save for I would like to move because there’s a specialist. I want to be able to see. I want to be able to buy a decent car instead of whatever car I can afford when I only have a very small amount of money to be able to contribute to that cause. I want to be able to save for my medical care.

Things like this that people really need that able can provide an opportunity for and also provides a place to move [00:13:00] funds, even if you’re not using it actively to save a lot or to spend for your bills when you’re getting close to your 2000. Instead of spending it on a spend down, you could just put it into attainable to be able to pay your bills later.

Instead, attainable allows individuals to save. Um, when it comes to education again, you can use it for all sorts of education expenses. You can use it to go to community college. You can use your savings to, uh, pay for your tuition. You pay for your textbooks, assistance of knowledge, one on one assistance.

Uh, one of the things that we often run into as people are transitioning from the high school experience into the college experience is that in high school, All supports are initiated by the teacher. The teacher says, Oh, you need this. Let’s go get that for you. Uh, when you go to a college experience, everything has to be self initiated.

I need to go to disability services. I need to ask for the things that I need. And then I need to then take the accommodations that are developed by disability services. And frequently I need to personally bring them to each of my professors and explain them and be able to [00:14:00] advocate and explain what my needs are.

Um, That all can be very difficult and sometimes the assistance that you need can be expensive. So again, having the ability to have an account put aside where some money can be put aside for these needs can be very, very helpful. Data can be used to provide those opportunities for education equity. Uh, finally, uh, do the SSI asset and income limitations.

Many individuals limit themselves to a 20 to 25 hour work week because if they work more. They might lose their benefits. That might mean they lose their housing, lose their doctor, lose so many things that they really, really need to survive and thrive. Um, attainable does offer a unique opportunity for someone to attempt working more if they want to.

So somebody feels like they can work full time. Uh, they could put enough money into their attainable account to save up to cover their bills for several months and then say, okay, boss, I’m ready. I’m going to try working full time. And if it works, fantastic. They’re working full time. They’ve got [00:15:00] that, that independence, that joy, and they have a nest egg put aside to cover some bills.

If it doesn’t work, then they can go, okay, I need to go back to part time and I have the money to cover. my bills while I get SSI reestablished. Now, if SSI is restarted within 12 months of suspending it and your conditions haven’t changed, generally speaking, you can restart it without issue. Um, because everyone’s individual, I highly recommend running this idea past a benefits counselor who can look into your specific situation before you do that.

I’ve worked with for many years with work without limits here in Massachusetts. That is a free nonprofit that provides that service. Um, just make sure that before you Do something that might seriously impact your your benefits and such that you might want to run it by a benefits counselor, but it does offer for many people that path to independence that didn’t previously exist.

Um, one of the base questions I get when I’m tabling and talking to families in the community about these accounts [00:16:00] is okay. We set up the account. I’m not sure how to get the money back out. So we wanted to talk to you a little bit about how to use your attainable account funds. Um, you’re allowed to transfer funds from your attainable account into any bank account in order to spend them.

So you cannot spend directly out of the investment account. It needs to be transferred in order to to spend the money. Just keep track of the receipts. Um, one of the simpler situations that we found that people can do is they can set up a cash management account with fidelity, which essentially means you’re opening a bank account with fidelity at the same time as you’re opening your attainable savings account.

And what that allows you to do is using the fidelity app, you’ll be able to move money back and forth from bank account to to the to the savings account. fairly simply. Um, that those accounts also do come with a visa logo debit card so you can move the money, wait for the trade to take place again, give it that 24 hours at least.

And then, but then someone can swipe a card or use it for an online payment or whatever it is that [00:17:00] they’d like to be able to spend the money and makes it a very clean and simple transaction system. Once funds leave the account, if they are redeposited, they will still count towards the annual limit. So if I take a dollar and I put it into my attainable account and then I take it out and then I put it in and I do that 18, 000 times, I can use up my entire contribution limit with the same dollar.

So be aware that if you try to put money back in that you’d previously removed, there’s no way of tracking which money is which money. So. If it goes into the account, it’s counted towards the annual contribution limit. Um, there is a rule from the IRS and that funds withdrawn for housing must be used within the same calendar month that they are withdrawn.

So do not take money out on the 30th to pay your rent on the first. Take it out on the 28th. Remember, give it 24 hours. Pay your rent on the 30th. No landlord is going to be upset about being paid a day early. Um, A question that I’ve received a couple [00:18:00] times, so we’ve integrated it here is about bonds.

Some families were saving for their Children’s future with bonds. You cannot roll a bond directly into an able account. You do need to cash it out first. Take whatever penalties or associated things that happen when you cash out the bonds, and then you can put the cash into the attainable account.

Opening an account is a fairly simple process. You’re going to go to Fidelity dot com slash able if any of you have a very strong redirect protection on your on your web explorers, that’s actually fidelity dot com slash attainable slash overview. But Fidelity dot com for most people slash able will get you there.

You’re going to want to download and read the PDF, uh, Fidelity Attainable Savings Account Disclosure document that essentially has a page written on it for every sentence I say in the course of this presentation. It has all the details in minutia. Uh, you’re going to want to decide how to allocate funds in the account among the nine portfolio options.[00:19:00]

That should include a money market portfolio. I’ll actually show you the portfolios in just a moment. Um, it is often helpful to make that decision before you’re in the process of opening the account, because that can often be a point where people get, Oh, wait, I wasn’t ready to make that decision when I was opening the account.

Um, if you are a rep payee, the social security administration requires that you must title the able account to show that the payee has a fiduciary interest in the funds and the beneficiary owns the funds, but has no access to them. So the S. S. A. Recommends that the account be titled Uh, either beneficiaries name by pays name representative payee or pays name representative payee for beneficiaries name.

Additionally, Fidelity is a very large company. A lot of them are not familiar with Abel accounts. The phone number that you see here is also available on fidelity. com slash Abel 844 458 2253 TTY 800 544 0118. That number goes directly to the attainable trained. [00:20:00] team at Fidelity. If you try to go to a Fidelity branch to talk to them about ABLE, it is very likely that no one there will be able to assist you.

They will not know the ins and outs of this program. Your best way of accessing assistance, whether it’s asking questions about an account that’s already been established or seeking assistance with setting up an account with Fidelity for ABLE, is to call that phone number. Attainable savings can be invested in professionally managed portfolios that match the beneficiary’s savings goals and risk tolerance.

It is the stock market. There is, so the level of risk that you would like to have in the stock market is sort of what people choose their portfolios based on. We have nine possible portfolios currently. They are all municipal fund securities, are subject to the market. Uh, they have market volatility, gain or loss can occur when limits are sold.

Um, and you beneficiaries are allowed to change their portfolio twice per calendar year. Uh, there is a lot more [00:21:00] information on each of these on Fidelity’s website. Um, now, you can see that we have these nine portfolios and you can put money into any of them. But you don’t have to put all of your money into one of them.

You can actually percentage it out, should you so choose. So, you could say, I’m going to put 50% in the able money market portfolio. I’m going to put 30 percent at the 20 percent uh, conservative portfolio, and I’m going to put 30 percent at the, uh, the balanced 50 percent portfolio. So you can break it up if you so choose.

You certainly don’t have to do that though. And again, those options are allowed to be changed twice per calendar year. Uh, the wide majority of folk tend to be sort of in this middle row here of a moderate or balanced portfolios. Uh, and you should do whatever it is that you feel comfortable doing.

Table accounts are eligible for direct deposit, including of your SSI or SSDI benefit funds. Direct deposit of a paycheck must stay under the initial 18, 000. [00:22:00] This is, you know, an IRS rule. It’s not something that came from me. I can’t change it. I’m sorry. So even though, uh, the fact that an individual is working and is, uh, through able to work allowed to contribute that additional 14, 580, only the initial 18, 000 can come directly from their employer.

The other 14, 000 plus has to be, you have to cash your paycheck and put it in manually. Uh, direct depositing into attainable account is just like any other account. It has a routing number and an account number. However, you might need to have a discussion with human resources. If you’d like to do direct deposit into your attainable account because it’s an investment account.

So it has a different number of digits than a savings count or a checking account. So it doesn’t fit in the little boxes that you get from your boss. Um, they can definitely do it, but you might have to have a discussion with somebody in payroll. Um, I believe under current Department of Labor standards, you’re allowed to break up your paycheck into up to five places before they can say they’re not gonna do anymore.

So you could put half of your [00:23:00] paycheck into attainable and a half of it into checking or you could put a third of it here and a quarter of it there, whatever you’d like to do. Um, directly deposit of that work income can be split that way. SSI and SSDI, however, are only allowed to go to a singular account.

Um, you could certainly pre authorize a different financial institution to move some into attainable, but generally speaking, if you don’t want all of it to go into ABLE, then it all has to go into whatever account you want it to go into. Um, as these are investment accounts, they have the potential to grow.

Um, they do their best when they are growing and they can show a return. Um, there is therefore an automatic contribution system that can be set up. There’s no pressure on you to do so. Uh, what is generally set up is either 15 per month or 45 per quarter, but you can open an account with zero money at all, you can put 5 at a time into it.

You can. There is no limit on how much or how little would you could put into the account. It [00:24:00] should be understood though that there is a protection that was put in place on these accounts in that, um, because you can only open one ABLE account in the country, and if you open more than one, it can create significant issues with the government and with the IRS, uh, that if the account goes down to zero, Has no money in it.

And then after it’s gone down to zero, no one looks at the account. Nobody touches account. Nobody tries to add or withdraw or whatever. There’s no actions on the account for four months in a row. Solid after it’s gone down to zero. So zero money, no action for four months. The account gets automatically closed because at that point.

We have seen, uh, from our experience that that count has sort of been forgotten about and someone’s going to try and open another one. It’s going to create problems for them, um, record keeping, of course, especially when it comes to rep payees. They’re responsible for keeping records on how they spend or conserve benefits.

This goes for people who are just receiving benefits in general as well. Not [00:25:00] necessarily just the rep pay, but also if you’re assisting an individual who is doing it themselves, be sure to keep accurate record records of the contributions and subsequent use of the funds provided by your benefits. If the pay mixes social security benefits with.

Other funds that belong to the beneficiary. You have to keep a record keeping system to differentiate because the Social Security Administration’s funds have stricter rules on them than able does. So if I have my able account and I put 1000 from Social Security and 1000 of my personal money, I need to remember That what I’m doing receipts for my reporting purposes that I when I spend that 1000 in there that it was under the Social Security Administration’s guidelines.

The other 1000. I just need to follow able, um, due to the, uh, the systems that we have in place that check to make sure that our the individuals are being protected and things are being mismanaged. We generally recommend that pays should keep these records for at least two years. [00:26:00] Um, my background is in human services as well.

So I generally say three. for having me. Because I’ve seen frequently seen quest ask for at least three years of records. There are a few times where the distributions are going to be subject to taxation. If a withdrawal is made for a non qualified disability expense, say you bought an Xbox as a gift to your friend, uh, the subject, the only, or might be subject to both regular income taxes and a 10 percent fee on the earnings from investment.

The majority of the times when this might occur is only if you’re spending. The growth on the account. So let’s say you’d put over the course of 20 years, like 20 grand into the account. You know, you’ve done 100 a month or so. Um, and in that 20 years, you’ve the account has grown an additional 15 to 20 grand, um, in, uh, in growth.

Um, because that growth is income tax free. If you spend it on something that’s non qualified, then they’re going to Say, okay, well, we gave you a break because you were supposed to follow [00:27:00] the rules. You didn’t follow the rules with the growth. We’re going to charge you the income tax, and there also might be that 10 percent penalty.

There are circumstances where they will not be charging those things. Uh, distributions made on or after the death of the beneficiary. to the state, the air, the legatee. Um, also distributions constituting the return of excess contributions to the contributor on or before the due date. So essentially paying back if you receive too much, uh, including any extensions of the designated beneficiaries federal tax return for the taxable year in which the excess contribution was made.

Do the Able Financial Planning Act, uh, provided the beneficiary is the same on both accounts, or one beneficiary is a family member of the other. It is allowable to roll funds from a 5 29 college savings plan into an ABLE account without any incurring any taxes or penalties. This program is currently due to Sunset on January 1st, 2026.

There is legislation currently being [00:28:00] pushed and voted on by the guys who. wrote it, uh, the initial legislation to make it permanent, but it has not passed yet. Please reach out to your congressman. But as of today, um, that program is going to end in, you know, a year in a couple of months, and it is still subject to the annual contribution limit.

So if the individual is not working, you can do 18, 000 until the end of December, and then you could do another 18, 000 in 2025, and that would be the max you could roll over. Um There are savers credits available for contributions into a ABLE account if the ABLE account order meets certain criteria.

They’re eligible if you’re 18 or older, not a full time student, and not claimed as a dependent on a person’s tax return. Um, as long as withdrawals are spent on qualified disability expenses, using again my example from a moment ago, I put, if I do 100 a month for 20 years, that’s 24, 000. If I put it under a mattress, right.

And on a 6 percent [00:29:00] return, that would be about 42, um, just sort of like round numbers, make it simple math that extra 18, 000, uh, from doing it, that of having that savings, and then having the growth on the account and the return that growth is federal income tax free. Um, there is a system available through Fidelity called third party access.

The person with signature authority is allowed to give another individual access to the beneficiary’s attainable account. Uh, given that there can only be one person with signature authority, this can often be a second parent. This could be a registered investment advisor, a residential provider, whatever, there’s a lot of different people who might be in someone’s life who might want or need access to a person’s accounts and by access, I do not necessarily mean the ability to spend money, just maybe being able to see that the account is active, being able to see how much money is in it.

There are several levels of access that can be granted in this system. [00:30:00] Um, you, the person with signature authority. Would complete an account authority form at fidelity dot com, review it, determine what would be the appropriate account access level. Um, sign it, send it in, fax it. Um, much like when you’re reporting something to, uh, you know, like DDS or DMH or what have you, you would probably want to call and make sure that they received it.

Uh, that status stays until it is revoked. So if you, if the person who you were working with got promoted, it’s no longer in that role. If something has changed in an individual’s life, the exact same form is used. Once again, you fill it out, you sign it, you send it in to the program manager. Again, the program manager for this account is Fidelity.

This is not their residential program managers. It’s not their community program manager. We’re talking about. The financial program manager of able. So you’re going to send that in again, call, make sure they got it. And that’s how you remove that authority from somebody. [00:31:00] Um, you are giving access to someone’s bank accounts by doing this on some level or another.

So I highly recommend, uh, a lot of, uh, consideration before doing so.

Um, this is my morbid screen. I apologize for that fact in advance. Um, so if an individual with an able account passes on the beneficiary or the person with signature authority can assign a successor beneficiary in the event of that death who will receive the account balance in their own attainable account, uh, after all actions on the account have been completed.

Uh, the beneficiary can also assign someone to just receive the funds as part of that. Individuals, a state in the event of the death who were created the account balance after a call account actions have been completed. Naturally, if that person is not qualified to have an able account, the funds will need to be removed from the able account in that instance.

Now we said after all accounts, all actions on the kind of been completed. When I say that, what I mean is after the [00:32:00] death of the beneficiary, the account is restricted for 12 months during that restricted time. Any outstanding attainable qualified disability expenses can still be paid. So they still owed the rent this month.

You can pay it. Uh, their funeral and burial expenses. You can pay it out of the attainable account. Uh, they were in the hospital for a week before they passed on. You can pay their medical bills out of the, any savings that are in the attainable account. All of that goes first. After that, The subject is subject to Medicaid recapture.

So Medicaid is allowed to say we paid X amount of money for their health insurance for X amount of years. We would like to be paid back for some of that. Um, that is the scariest sentence for a lot of individuals when I’m doing this. But I do want to point out all those other things get paid first. So there’s not going to be a lot left.

Generally, after all, that is completed regardless. However, that being said, the two things that I can say is I’ve had a I’ve, uh, [00:33:00] Fellow colleague and another organization who had a legal reading doing this, and he is under the belief that if there’s less than 25, 000 in the account, Medicaid probably isn’t going to bother.

Unfortunately, I cannot give a really strong data. point of view on how aggressive Medicaid will be about that recapture. Because this program is so new, we haven’t seen a lot of it. We have seen not very much in the way of them actually seeking that recapture so far. We meet on a regular basis with state treasurers all across the country.

That has been true for the country so far. I cannot speak to what might happen in the future, but at the moment, that is how That is currently being looked at. Um, MEFA has a new program called, uh, Gift of College, the MEFA U Fund Gift of College card. You can see it in your local CVS’s and it’s, what you can [00:34:00] see on this is it is geared towards people being able to give money to contribute to college savings.

However, the same card, even though it says U Fund 529 College Savings Plan, You can give to someone to put into their five 29 a, uh, attainable account. Uh, if you are out of state and liked, would like to do the same thing, you can also go to gift of college. com. They actually have a wonderful whole page explaining how to be able to give to someone’s able account, uh, on their website, but it is a way to be able to give funds directly to someone who might need them for their bills or their, or to assist them, um, that also doesn’t have any.

Real implications as far as asset challenges because you’re not giving cash. You are simply giving a gift card that explicitly can only go into these accounts. There are lots of places where you can get more information about these of these programs if you’d like, uh, there is this wonderful place called MEFA.

They have a [00:35:00] MEFA. org slash attainable. There’s a decent guy with a beard who will show up and talk to folk if you’d like, and he’s fairly accessible. The ABLE National Resource Center is also available at ABLENRC. org. Fidelity has a fantastic amount of information. The Social Security Administration is it.

Our partner in this, they actually really appreciate that able programs exist. Some people think they should be, um, in sort of an adversarial role, but not having to chase people down and waste resources on making spend downs take place that benefits them greatly. And they actually generally do want to help people.

So they have quite a few web pages now, including the spotlight page about able. And we also do have a me for attainable email sign up. Once again, we’re going to be sending the slides out. So you’ll be able to grab that if you don’t want to grab it now, which will allow us to let you know about any legislative changes that might change how these accounts operate.

We’re also all over social media. We’d love to see you there. We try to put out quality [00:36:00] information for your thing, especially anything that might Uh, improve how people might be able to use our programs. Uh, you can also reach out directly, uh, 800 449 MEFA. You can leave a message or you can email us directly at attainable at MEFA.

org. That will, I’m one of the people who maintains that, uh, that address. So, if you have questions, we can certainly do our best to answer them. Particularly if it’s something more personal than you want to talk about in this, uh, in this webinar. All that being said. Um, I would be, uh, happy to answer questions.

I see that we have two currently in the thing, uh, Hale Pulsifer, uh, can you elaborate on retirement account ownership? Is it you can’t have a 401k account at all, or you can’t have one that is being contributed to and or matched? You cannot have one that is being contributed to and or matched, um, is the, uh, specific answer to that.

Um, So if you have an account and you have left that position, a lot of times we have people who have left positions due to their disabilities, uh, they, you [00:37:00] can still have that account sitting on the sidelines, but it cannot be actively being contributed to by your employer at the same time as you are, uh, operating your attainable account.

It said that part of SSDI can be put into the yes, you can put your SSDI income into your able account. If you so choose SSDI naturally has a lot less restrictions than SSI, but they does have some of the same restrictions as far as rep payee. Dispensation. Uh, you know, you need to make sure that it’s in the designated account.

Um, there’s a lot less restriction on how it can be utilized, but you can certainly use it as an investment savings program with S. S. D. I. As well. Adam, there were a couple other questions that I answered. I typed, but it might be worth since we have a few minutes to, uh, to just throw them out to the group.

How old. Can you be to start an ABLE account? [00:38:00] You need to have had the onset of disability as in like you need to either say the disability started or even if you’re might be older than that now and you can have a physician say oh that’s been true for you for a decade and the onset needs to be before age 26 right now.

On January 1 of 2026. That is going up to age 46. So if you had some sort of accident or condition occur when you’re 30 right now, you wouldn’t be able to open that account, but you would be able to open that account. Um, in another year in a couple months. Uh, and that would be continue going forward.

Excellent. And you, your second part of that answer was another question I was going to ask you, but when it was going to go up, so that was another question we had. Another good one that we can throw out there to folks was whether ABLE accounts can be used for graduate courses and does the person need [00:39:00] approval from SSA, Social Security Administration.

You don’t need any approval from the SSA about how you use your funds as long as it’s qualified disability expense and all education expenses are qualified disability expenses so you can absolutely use them for graduate level courses. Excellent. And I think we have a new question in there, Lynn, if you want to answer that one.

Can you fund enable and give a gift to the same person in the same tax year? Um, so I’m going to try and interpret what I think you’re saying. And please tell me if I get it wrong. I think you’re saying, can you fully fund like, you know, put like 18, 000 into the account and then also give someone gift of college, uh, like a card or what have you to add more to it?

The contribution limit is the contribution limit. So you can certainly put money into an ABLE account and you can also give them a gift of money to go into their ABLE account or to be their own personal funds either way. But they are going to be subject to the contribution limit for ABLE, which again is 18, 000 per year if the individual is [00:40:00] not working and up to the lesser of their gross income or 14, 580 in addition to it if they are.

And additionally, they are allowed to have that 2, 000 in their personal account that doesn’t have the restrictions on it. So, you know, those are the, uh, how that would operate as far as, uh, the contribution limits. Now, again, that might, the gift might impact their, um, income limits for a given month. So that would also be something you’d have to work on on an individual basis.

Excellent. And we have had a few folks ask if. They’ll get the slides. And the answer is yes, we are going to send a link to the recording, as well as a copy of all the slides to everybody who registered. So don’t worry about that. We’ll definitely get that out to you. We have another. Do we need to report able count money in the guardian annual report document.

Again, I’m going to do my best for my interpretation of this. Um, it. Places where you need to report how much money a person has [00:41:00] because of federal programming that might be affected by it. Um, there are some, and I’m going to put this sort of more widely because this is both rep payee, guardians, et cetera, um, where you’re going to want to report that that money is an ABLE account and that should be understood by whoever you’re reporting to as separate.

Um, there are several places where that actual money doesn’t have to be reported at all. Places like, um, if, uh, money is in a FAFSA, like a FAFSA reporting for a sibling, uh, that money does not belong to the family, um, and is belongs to the sibling and therefore would not be counted that way. And it also wouldn’t be counted anyways, because it’s enabled.

So there are, um, some ins and outs to that, but generally speaking, you can certainly report it, but you want to be explicit about the fact that it is enabled. Um, and that should, I think, clear that particular issue. Um, do we need, can I use able dollars to pay for a vacation? Oh, you are, you have just asked one of the top three [00:42:00] questions by the way that we, that we get asked, someone always asks vacation and I’m going to be very honest.

This is something that comes up all the time and I’m going to tell you the, the, the best answer that I can give to it. Yes and no. Um, the challenge of it is, is that, um, The QTEs, as they are acknowledged, do not have vacation writ on them, right? Um, so, these are the ways that you can sort of utilize it, though, beyond that.

Transportation is an explicit qualified disability expense. Housing is an explicit qualified disability expense. And the fact that those cost more for any individual with a disability is the reason they are. So, Traveling to vacation destination and perhaps the hotel there are kind of explicitly in the Q.

D. E. List. Additionally, if you have someone that you would like to have be able to experience those things in order to better their life experience to increase their social and mental [00:43:00] and, you know, psychological well being and what have you make it an I. S. P. Goal. Uh, put it, it would be my recommendation.

Talk to your service coordinator, whomever, uh, build it into their service plan. And that way you have it on a state document that this person has needs that are being, uh, reconciled through that, uh, that payment. And therefore, I believe that that is, it is a very much a gray area. I’m not going to pretend that it isn’t, but that will give you a really strong leg to stand on about making the argument.

Even if you don’t feel like you can make that argument to the IRS, which is who this would argument would have to be going to, um, again, if you did transportation in a hotel, and then that person is still allowed to have 2, 000 in savings outside of their needs, uh, that could be where you pay for tickets for, um, events or, you know, uh, theme park or what have you.

So that combination can sort of accomplish the goal in a little bit of a roundabout way. Um, again, generally speaking, you don’t want to do [00:44:00] reimbursement. The social security administration really doesn’t like reimbursement. The, they prefer it if the person can pay directly their share of any bills or things directly out of the account.

So that’s not a one step removed. You got to trust me about how much it costs, uh, and how much we paid and how much they paid of it, um, situation. And this would be another good reason for that financial, um, cash management account because then you could once again, transfer the money, let it clear and then be able to swipe the card for that individual share

questions. We did have, um, you can read the question about auditing and documentation because we had another question that I answered that was similar. So that’s a good one. All right. Well, with my way down the Free that are that are currently alive in the chat here. Sure. If you have a quick follow up on documentation of distribution being used for qualified and expense a tuition or you say keep our records are up to three years, but the receipts need to have anything beyond typical info and do they need to be submitted or just held in case of audit?

Just held in case of audit. [00:45:00] Generally speaking at the moment, um, much like, uh, Because we have this really excellent, uh, very broad list of qualified disability expenses. Uh, my suggestion is in your record keeping is I would just put a note onto the receipts saying this is the QDE that it’s associated with.

Because it’s possible that, you know, especially if it’s at a more generalized location, it’ll be hard for you to remember exactly what it was for, um, you know, three years from now. You know, having that accurate record keeping with some notes of, you know, about which cutie it might be. You might even do tabs for each of the cuties and accordion folder and line them up.

You have this transportation. This was food. This was, uh, would probably be a real clean way to make sure that you have that. And then you have one for 24 23 22, you know, each for each of the years. And that gives you a real clean approach for for auditing. Um, I’ve, I’ve worked with quest auditors for 20 years.

Um, so I think we’re all very familiar that, you know, they like all that stuff to [00:46:00] be lined up and if it’s very well, uh, presented, then they’ll usually work well with you. Um, my friend wants to start an able act account for her daughter, who is a lunch monitor, but the school puts some of her earned amount into a teacher’s account.

How can this be protected by putting it into a. Able account, uh, by teacher’s account. Do you mean that they have a, a retirement account? If it’s a retirement account, then you can ask for a special dispensation or for contributions that would normally go into a retirement account to go into able instead.

Um, if it’s just a more generalized account, um, then if it would depend on her level of access to that money, because if it’s not a asset for her, then it really wouldn’t affect her abilities in either way. Please let me know if you need further clarification. I’m not sure exactly how the relationship is there.

Unfortunately, I was not aware that my son, who works part [00:47:00] time as an employer, matched 401k. Now for a year, cannot have both enabled 401k. Um, I’m going to have to do a little bit of research about what kind of corrective action you might want to do there. I would think that probably, uh, depending on, you know, how, how well funded they are, because I know a lot of people who were working part time with a 401k are getting like 5 a year put into their 401k, that you again might want to talk to them about, uh, cashing that out and then putting, asking them to contribute to the ABLE account instead, or if there’s a, uh, Okay.

Ability to, uh, not participate in that. That might be a way to go with it again. You want to make sure that it is something that you’re comfortable with. If he’s actually getting a really strong, um, employer match 401k and he’s actually getting a good amount of money into it, then you might want to go the other direction.

Um, but that’s going to be, you know, very much about what kind of finances are involved. [00:48:00] Um, again, there is legislation to try and make. Able be a alternative in those instances, and you might be able to ask them if they’d be willing to do that as a way of working with you. Can I save and use the money for down payment for house through my?

Yes, you can buy a mortgage. You can pay for the required insurance by the mortgage holder. You can also pay for rent. You can pay is to all you pay for the real property taxes again. Taxes on the land and the buildings can all be paid out of money that is in an ABLE account. Um,

it’s a specific teacher’s account. I don’t know what a specific teacher’s account refers to. I apologize. If you could clarify that, I would appreciate it. So is it better to pay the dentist who only accept out of pocket directly from able? Uh, yeah, what you would want to do is, um, Once again, you’re keeping clear receipts is either [00:49:00] through whatever bank you’re paying it to, or through cash management, however it is that your money is coming out of the account, you would pay directly to them from that account.

And then you could say, this is a health expense. It is a qualified disability expense. It is a protected thing. And that means that you wouldn’t have to be using up the 2, 000 asset limit, saving money in those, in that account, in order to be able to pay for the dentist, um, which, you know, dental. Costs can be extraordinary.

So that’s actually a really great place where you could save money and you’re able account to be able to cover those those expenses. No open questions. Great job, Adam. We have gotten all the questions. All right. I’m going to give it another minute to see. Thank you very much. Are there any other last questions before we finish up for today?

I do again remind everyone attainable at MEFA. org. Please feel free to reach out. I’m very happy to [00:50:00] answer any question that I can. If I don’t have the answer, I will seek out the answer and try to get it to you. Um, And, uh, you know, we, this is a fairly new government program. So there’s still a lot of stuff that is in flux.

Uh, you know, there’s, there are some senators who are doing some really great work on trying to push forward, uh, further information and, uh, furtherance of the, these accounts and increasing their viability. Um, so it’s a, it’s a thing that you might want to look into and addressing with your, with your Congressman and what have you.

Because once again, I would love to see, uh, the ability to roll over 529 to 529 a be permanent. Um, I’d love to see, uh, all of these accounts be able to continue to grow in our clarifications about what things like vacations and Medicaid and more. Clear, uh, restrictions on what Medicaid recapture is going to be able to do.

Um, and unfortunately that’s all above my pay grade. Um, but we’re very happy to be able to give this [00:51:00] information to you and, uh, help as much as we can. So please reach out if you have further questions that I can help with.

Well, that being said, I think, uh, we’re gonna, we’ll finish up there again. Thank you everyone for your time and your attention. And, uh, we hope to see you in our future webinars. Thank you everybody. Have a great day. Thanks. Oh, wait, I see one last couple things. Uh, and the thing, uh, any idea when we get the recording, uh, that, that, that turnaround is fairly quick.

I can’t say exactly, but it’ll be, you know, in, in the relatively near future. Um, and you’re very, very welcome.

All right. Thank you, everyone. Have a wonderful day.