ABLE Account

Making Special Needs Planning Easy with the Texas ABLE Program

Published on: August 12, 2020 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

Texas ABLE Program

Having someone in your life or family who has a disability can often mean disability-related expenses. For some, it can also mean needing additional assistance in order to maintain the individual and family’s personal and collective health, independence, and quality of life. The Texas Achieving a Better Life Experience (Texas ABLE) Program exists in order to encourage and support individuals with disabilities and their families. The program helps individuals with special needs save money that can be used to pay for disability-related expenses. The program is established and maintained by the Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board with support from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.

To be eligible to receive assistance through the program, an individual must be a Texas resident who developed their qualifying disability before the age of 26. Texas ABLE’s website also includes an Eligibility Wizard, which is an easy online tool that can determine your eligibility to open an account with the program. To open an account, the individual must be 18 years of age and manage their own account. If the eligible individual is under the age of 18 or is unable to exercise signature authority over their account, they will need an Authorized Legal Representative who will help with opening and managing of the account. This individual can be a parent, legal guardian, or a trustee or agent acting under power of attorney.

Special Needs Planning and ABLE Accounts

Published on: May 24, 2019 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

How the “Achieving a Better Life Experience” Act, known as ABLE, provides a mechanism to create a tax-advantaged savings tool for individuals with disabilities and their families.

The benefits for income, health care, food and housing for disabled Americans are awarded based on a resource test, so that individuals who seek benefits are typically limited to have no more than $2,000 in savings or assets. This includes eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), SNAP and Medicaid.

In 2014, Congress passed legislation allowing people with disabilities to establish an account, similar to a special needs trust and with some similarities to a 529 college savings account, to accumulate funds to pay for qualified disability expenses. The legislation was named the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act (ABLE).

Before You File Your 2016 Taxes, Review These Tax Breaks for the Disabled

Published on: March 13, 2017 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

There is some kindness in the tax code, especially when it comes to the disabled and their care givers. There are a few tax breaks that are intended to alleviate some of the financial burden.

Even when a disabled person is able to work, they or their caregivers must incur many additional costs, from transportation needs to medicines and special supplies for care. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that one out of every five Americans lives with a disability. If this includes you or someone you care for, you’ll want to know about some tax tips that are designed to help. A recent article in Yahoo Finance, “8 Tax Tips for People With Disabilities (and Their Caregivers),” offers some useful details.

ABLE accounts. These accounts are newer savings vehicles for those who become blind or disabled before the age of 26. The accounts are like 529 college savings accounts—the account grows tax-free and can be spent on eligible expenses with no taxes. Contributions to these accounts don’t qualify for a federal tax credit or deduction. However, Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska offer state tax benefits for contributing.

Longer Life Spans for Special Needs Children Impact Parents’ Retirement Planning

Published on: July 29, 2016 | By McCulloch & Miller, PLLC

A dramatic increase in the number of adults with developmental disabilities, coupled with their increasing life spans, presents planning challenges for parents.

Special needs families are accustomed to things being more complicated, and retirement planning is no exception. Parents must plan for their own retirement as well as ensure that a plan is in place for the time when the parents are no longer able to care for their special needs child. That includes everything from the basics, like making sure that beneficiary designations are up-to-date, to ensuring that the child’s inheritance does not make the child ineligible for means-tested government benefits.

A recent MarketWatch article, “Parents of special needs children plan for two futures,” says that special needs parents are really planning for two lifetimes. In 2030, there will be approximately 1.2 million adults age 60 and older in the U.S. with developmental disabilities. That’s about twice as many of the 642,000 who fit that profile in 2000, according to 2012 research by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Also, according to the National Down Syndrome Society, today people with Down syndrome have a life expectancy of 60, compared with just 25 in 1983.