>> Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Miranda Kennedy, I'm the director of the ABLE National Resource Center, and I'm very happy to be bringing you together for our webinar on opening an ABLE account, key decisions for success. This webinar is brought to you by the ABLE National Resource Center, which is funded through a grant from Prudential. Let's go to the next slide. Many of you may be familiar with us, but for those of you who are new, I want to let you know a little bit about the ABLE National Resource Center, or ABLE NRC. We are the leading comprehensive source of objective, independent information about federal and state-related ABLE programs and activities, including guidance on tax-advantaged ABLE savings accounts. Our mission is to educate, promote and support the positive impact ABLE can make on the lives of millions of Americans with disabilities and their families. As part of that, and as part of our pioneering work in this area and subject matter expertise, that is what makes us the foremost authority on topics related to the achieving of better life experience, or ABLE Act, ABLE accounts, state ABLE programs, ABLE-related policy developments, and comprehensive integration of ABLE and financial capability strategies for people with disabilities into public service delivery systems. Our website is ablenrc.org, that's a-b-l-e-n-r-c dot o-r-g, and we hope you will be accessing that site regularly for great information and content we have there. So, let's go ahead and go to the next slide. We would like to thank our sponsor for this week of hashtag ABLEtoSave, Ascensus. So, thank you to Ascensus, we'll be giving more information about them at the end of our webinar. Let's go to the next slide. I'm going to hand you off now to my colleague, Al Milioto, who is the project coordinator for the ABLE National Resource Center, to walk through a few logistics before we get started with our content and dive into those key decisions for success in terms of opening an ABLE account. So, Al, take it away. >> Thank you so much, Miranda, and welcome everyone. Like Miranda said, I just wanted to go through a couple of housekeeping slides here to make sure we have no technical snafus or avoid any complications listening to the webinar. So, listening to the webinar. The audio for today's webinar, today's meeting, can be accessed using computer audio or by calling in by phone. If you select computer audio, make sure your speakers are turned on or headphones are plugged in. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer, or you prefer to listen by phone, you can dial in to 1-929-205-6099. The meeting code is 629-266-306. Captioning. Real-time captioning is provided during this webinar. The captions can be found by clicking on the closed caption icon in your Zoom controls at the bottom of the screen. If you do not see the captions after clicking the button, you can let us know via the chat box, and you can also view captions in your browser at the following web address, which is streamtext.net/player?event=NDI. And using that web address there, you can also play around with the font size and other preferences for captions. Submitting questions. We ask that you please use our Q&A box to submit any questions you have during the webinar, and we will try to answer any and all questions that we can get to. Please explore the ABLE National Resource Center website for answers to all of your questions and for any additional information within our archived webinars, resources and newsletters. Again, our site is www.ablenrc.org. Technical assistance. If you experience any technical difficulties at all during the webinar today, please use the chat box to send a message that will go directly to me, or you can email me directly, and my email address is amilioto@ablenerc.org. Please note, this webinar is being recorded and the materials will be placed on the ABLE National Resource Center website, along with all of our other ABLE webinars at ablenrc.org/webinars. And with that, I am going to turn things back over to Miranda, the director of the ABLE National Resource Center. >> Great, thank you Al. I'm going to be joined today in presenting with my colleague, Marlene Ulisky, who's the manager of financial empowerment with the National Disability Institute. Marlene serves as a subject matter expert on disability benefits and ABLE accounts here with us at the center and she has 35 years of background at many levels with social security administration, so we are in great hands with Marlene. We also have with us two of our 2019 ABLE National Resource Center ambassadors who are also ABLE account owners and are family members, so they bring that unique perspective to us from the viewpoint of having an ABLE account and being early adopters of ABLE as well. We have Taylor Carty, who is a student, and she's a working-age individual who is also an ABLE account owner, as well as Denise Gehringer, who is a parent of an ABLE account owner. We're going to be hearing from both of them. Let's go ahead and take a look at what our agenda is for today. We're going to be talking about, first up, what is hashtag ABLEtoSave month? Just covering that quickly. We will also then be doing a dive into ABLE account eligibility, choosing an ABLE program and opening an account, savings and investing options, best practices, next steps in resources, and questions. And I want to let you in on something here, and Al, I'm actually going to ask you if you can provide the link to where the PowerPoint is in case folks didn't download it or print it off as we head into today's presentation. We're going to break all the PowerPoint rules and we're doing that on purpose because we want to give you a very explicit step-by-step guide, and we really laid out a lot of information in the coming slides, okay? And we did that on purpose, because we want to have all our cards on the table and for you to be able to see all of this and be able to follow this and refer back to this. We're going to have some great resources, some great strategies, checklists of things to consider, and so forth. So, don't feel like you have to take tons of notes, hopefully you don't have to take too many notes. If you've got that PowerPoint available to you, that will be your guide. So, I just want to give you that heads up right out of the gate. And hopefully as well, as you have questions, you know, as we're going through this presentation, hopefully we'll get to a lot of those answers as we move through the presentation today, that's our goal. Okay, so with that, let's go ahead and take a look at the next slide. What is ABLEtoSave month? ABLEtoSave month is a nationwide grassroots awareness campaign that's taking place throughout the month of August. The goal is to provide information about achieving a better life experience, or ABLE accounts, so that individuals with disabilities and their families can become more knowledgeable and comfortable enough to open an ABLE account through the state program of their choice. This year we also promoted our ABLEtoSave video contest in the month of July as part of the national campaign. Our winners are going to be announced at the end of the month on our final webinar, and we're going to hear their ABLE goals, and the top three will receive cash prizes in their ABLE accounts to help them achieve their ABLE goal. ABLEtoSave month consists of weekly webinars that are held every Thursday in August from two to 3pm eastern, you're on our first full week today, and these webinars will provide ABLE information and resources to targeted audiences, which include eligible individuals who receive benefits along with those who do not receive benefits, and family members and supporters of ABLE account owners and ABLE eligible individuals. We're spreading the word about ABLEtoSave via Twitter and Facebook to maximize the nationwide reach of this campaign, and we're going to give you those links so you can follow them and share them with your networks at the end of today's presentation. The goal of our webinar, again, is to increase your understanding of ABLE accounts, so please do register. Thank you so much for all of those who are joining us today, we have great numbers here, we really appreciate your time. Next week, August 15th, we're going to be speaking about ABLE best practices and action steps for family members and supporters, we will be hearing from ABLE account owners there as well, on all of these presentations, really. On August 22nd, the following Thursday, we're going to be hearing ABLE best practices for working-age adults. Those who are receiving benefits, those who are not receiving benefits, maybe those who are transitioning in between, we'll have great resources and best practices and strategies there. And finally, as I mentioned before, on August 29th we're going to be celebrating all the ways that you are ABLE, announcing those winners from our ABLEtoSave video contest, as well as next steps for all of you. So with that, let's go ahead and talk about ABLE account eligibility, and I believe I'm going to be turning that over to my colleague Marlene Ulisky. Marlene, the floor is yours. Marlene, you might be on mute. >> Okay. Okay, sorry about that. Okay, let's first talk about who is eligible to open an ABLE account. But first, before we talk about that, let's talk about what is an ABLE account. And we know that it is a tax-free savings account, it's established under section 529A of the IRS, Internal Revenue Service tax code, and it is owned by the person who has a qualifying disability, and that disability must have begun before the age of 26, before their 26th birthday. So to qualify, the individual must meet one of the next two bullets. The first is they must be either receiving supplemental security income benefits, or social security disability insurance benefits, and SSDI, that also includes disabled adult child benefits and disabled widow or widower's benefits, or if they don't receive any of those benefits from social security, they must obtain a disability certification from a licensed physician, and that would be either an MD or a DO, that states that they have a qualifying disability, and it can be a physical disability or a mental disability, or blindness, and it results in marked and severe functional limitations which have lasted or can be expected to last for 12 months or more or result in death. Now, when I said functional limitations, I just wanted to throw out there that that can mean things like the ability to walk, or to talk, or to sit or to stand, perhaps to see, to hear, to breathe, to stoop, to learn, to work, to care for yourself, and so on. Now, if you don't have disability certification, you can request one from your doctor. And as a reminder, if you do receive benefits, disability-based benefits from social security, you do not need a disability certification. On the next slide. Now, why save in an ABLE account? Well, we know who's eligible, and we also know that millions of individuals with disabilities and their families depend on a variety of federally-funded mean-tested benefit for either their income, their healthcare needs, like their Medicare or their Medicaid, their food or their housing assistance. Now, with an ABLE account they can maintain eligibility for programs, like supplemental security income benefits, Medicaid, SNAP, which is food stamps, and other federally funded means-tested benefits while saving and accepting contributions into their ABLE account. There is a resource limit of $2000 for most means-tested benefit programs, but the first $100,000 in an ABLE account is totally disregarded by the supplemental security income benefits program. Now, that's a huge change. And the other means-tested benefits programs don't count the ABLE savings as a resource; another big change. I also included on this slide, because there were so many questions in the past about SSDI benefits, that the SSDI program is not a means-tested benefit program, so you can have any amount in the ABLE account, and it doesn't affect the means-tested benefit. Now, Miranda, I'm going to turn it back over to you, and perhaps you can tell us what are some of the other reasons someone may choose to save in an ABLE account. Miranda? >> Can you-- Oh, thank you, Al, for unmuting me, great. So, yes, thank you Marlene. So, some of the other reasons to save in an ABLE account: contributions that are not due to the ABLE account holder are not counted as income. And when we talk about not due to the ABLE account holder, that would be contributions that are made into that account by family, friends, supporters, others, due to the ABLE account holder, you know, in terms of income that's earned income or unearned income, you will definitely want to hop on to our webinar for working-age individuals to learn a lot more about, but that's actually a pretty crucial piece, and it's very important to keep in mind those contributions, again, which are not due to the ABLE account holder, are not counted as income. Income eligibility still remains in place for eligibility for programs, so please do, if this connects with you or your family member, you're going to want to hop on to our working age webinar that we're going to be having two weeks from now. But that's a really good key point, and again we'll be expelling that out a lot more in depth two weeks from now, and we've got a lot of material and information on that, because that makes a lot of difference to folks and people need to know the difference. The other thing is that the funds in that ABLE account are meant to supplement, not replace benefits that are provided by private insurance, Medicaid, supplemental security insurance, the beneficiary's employment and other sources. So, it's not meant to replace, but it can supplement in a really significant way with some great outcomes. There are also tax advantages for having an ABLE account. That income, the account income, grows tax-free, so that can be really significant, that's an opportunity to not just save but also invest and make money potentially. There's a level of risk you have to be aware of with that as well, but there's an opportunity there that a lot of people with disabilities have not previously had an opportunity to engage in. So, additionally there are tax credits for saving, and we'll be talking about that on coming webinars more in depth as well. But the thing to know about ABLE is that saving in that ABLE account can really help move to providing for that more secure future for yourself if you're an ABLE eligible individual, or for your family member. Let's go to the next slide. We also wanted to add this piece, because it's important, we know many of you may for yourselves or for your family member or for the person you're supporting as a service provider be thinking about special needs trusts, and we want you to know that saving in an ABLE account can complement a special needs trust, or an SNT. The ABLE National Resource Center and the Special Needs Alliance, which is made up of special needs trust attorneys, have worked in partnership to develop an ABLE account, special need trust and pooled trust comparison chart. And you've got the link to that chart here, we encourage you to check that out, it really spells it out. And we also have an archive of a presentation on ABLE accounts and special needs trusts, and that's located on our website and the link for that is here as well. So those are some additional resources and tools and insights, and now I'd like to hand it over to Marlene to talk to us about the roadmap to ABLE. We have two of them, you're going to talk about the roadmap to enrollment, and then also talk about opening that account. So, Marlene. >> Okay, thanks Miranda. If you visit the ABLE National Resource Center website and if you click on how to get started, you'll arrive at the roadmap that's shown on your screen, and that roadmap gives you information on each step along that road or along the way. It provides information on what is an ABLE account, who is eligible for an ABLE account, how can funds be used, how do I manage my account, and how do I enroll? Now, each step contains a variety of information along the way, along with a short video on that step. If you'd like to see a more in-depth or comprehensive webinar, or if you'd like to view more information, you can always go to the webinars tab on our website and view the archived webinars. Ultimately the purpose of the roadmap and all of the information on our website is to educate you and those who support you with enough information so you understand what is an ABLE account and be comfortable with making that decision to open an ABLE account. The next slide. Choosing an ABLE program and making a decision. We'll first talk about opening the ABLE account. First of all, an individual can have only one ABLE account, the ABLE account is owned by the person with a disability, and it's opened in the name of the individual who has the qualifying disability. It's nothing like other accounts you may be more familiar with, like the social security representative payee accounts and the various titling requirements. Again, it's opened in the name of the individual with a disability and it is owned by that person. The ABLE accounts can only be opened by certain individuals, either the individual who has the disability, or if he or she lacks capacity, and what that means is they're not capable, it can be opened by an agent who has a power of attorney, or it can be opened by a parent, and that is if the individual is under age 18, or by a legal guardian. Now, I wanted to mention two things in relation to this particular bullet, and that is even if the individual does have capacity, it may be beneficial to establish a power of attorney for the future. Miranda referenced us working with a special needs alliance in a webinar that we did this past January, and attorney Steve Dell took part in that webinar along with me, and he is a special needs attorney and a member of the Special Needs Alliance, we have a partnership with them. And we did a webinar together and it focused on ABLE accounts and special needs trusts, and in that webinar, which is on our website, he discussed this particular point. So, if this is something important to you, I encourage you to go back to the website and review that webinar, it's really, really a good webinar and he provided a lot of great information and a lot of resources. Now, second item I wanted to mention is with some state programs they do have a power of attorney form that you can download and use from their website. I know that in the past I've mentioned that I do have a family member who has an ABLE account, and me and his father have power of attorney, and in our case we're all getting a little older and we wanted to ensure that our family member has the support he needs in the future and the support he needs with his ABLE account. Next Thursday our webinar will talk a little more about the circle of support, so if that's something you're interested in, then I hope that you register for that webinar. Now, once you do select the state in which you want to open your ABLE account, it is open through the state program website. Now, some states do have paper applications, but in most instances you register online, but you have to check with your chosen state. The next slide. We'll continue with opening the account, opening the ABLE account. Now, that account, the ABLE account, can be opened in any state which has an ABLE account or an ABLE program open, as long as the individual meets the residence requirements if there is one. And most states across the country do not have a residence requirement. Online enrollment usually takes ten minutes or less, and in our family's case it was about ten minutes, it was very quick, it was self-explanatory and it was very easy. Now later if you find another ABLE program that's better suited to your needs, you can roll over the funds in your account to a new state program if they have an ABLE account program. In most states across the country they do have a program up and running, and we'll see that when we go to the next slide, but just know that there may be a fee involved in that. If you relocate, and lots of us have relocated, you are not required to roll over those funds to your new state or move your account to your new state, but you can if you choose to do so. Speaking of rollovers, next Thursday on our webinar, it's on best practices and action steps, we will talk about funding and using the ABLE account, and you also learn about 529 college savings rollovers into the ABLE account. Now, this slide contains information, it'll help you to choose an ABLE program, and as you can see, most states in the country and the District of Columbia have programs open and running. If you go to "choose a state" on our website, you'll come to this map. To find details about that particular state program, you would click on that particular state from that map or from the listing of states. Now, you can also use a tool that we have on our website, it's a tool that compares state programs, to see the programs which offer something like a debit card or the state income tax deductions or credit if that's something important to you. And if you want to compare states that offer state deductions or credits and your state doesn't have income tax, your state won't come up on the search tool. Also remember that a person needs to be a resident of the state to qualify for the state reduction or the credit. And also I just wanted to mention that the state of Wisconsin, even though they don't have an ABLE program up and running just yet, the state does offer Wisconsin residents a state tax deduction for any contribution to any ABLE accounts across the country. Now, once you've selected the state ABLE plan, click on the state, you'll find the program website, and it will direct you to the ABLE program enrollment page to open that account. In general, the following information is entered for the individual, and is applicable for the individual assisting them. They would have to enter their name, their address, and other contact information, the date of birth, social security number, and bank account information. You'll also choose how you want your money saved or invested, and we'll be talking about that piece in another slide. Now, Miranda, on this slide, we referenced the tool which compares the state program, and we mentioned a little about tax deductions or credits if someone may want to consider when they're opening their ABLE account. But can you take us a step further and talk about some additional things that someone may want to consider when they're making that decision? >> Yes, thank you so much Marlene, I'm happy to do so. We'll be reinforcing and referencing some of the things that Marlene just touched on, but giving you that in a checklist form and adding to those items as well. One thing I do want to reference as a point of clarification, sometimes we get some confusion at the ABLE National Resource Center, we're a resource center, we're here to support the state ABLE programs, here to support all of you who may be ABLE eligible or who are ABLE account owners or family members, or supporters, in being able to access the information about how to choose a state program and use that tool on our website as well as other best practices and good information for you to feel more confident moving forward. We do not manage those state ABLE programs, they manage themselves. And you'll find information, we do have spotlight webinars where we give them an opportunity to talk about themselves on our website as well, and other materials, and certainly you can access any and all of their websites off of that state comparison tool to learn more about them, but those are independently run, and I felt like that was an important point to clarify, wouldn't you say Marlene? >> Yes, Miranda, it's very important to clarify that point. >> I think we maybe should've had a slide on that, but looking at this I was thinking I should mention that for folks right now in here. Okay, great, thank you. So, now let's go ahead and talk about this checklist of things to consider. So, opening an ABLE account, first things to consider. We get this question all the time, I don't think I've been anywhere where someone hasn't asked me the question about, well, which ABLE program should I choose, Miranda? And I know you get that too, Marlene, as does our team. The first thing we would encourage you to consider is, is there an ABLE program in my home state? Always check this first, and be sure to take into consideration your home state's program when reviewing your options. Additionally, if you're in one of those few states that doesn't currently have one, if one opens up, you might want to check it out, and here's why. Marlene mentioned and referenced some of this before. But there could be a question around is there an ABLE state-level income tax deduction in your state for contributions made into an individual's ABLE account? That's not going to matter if your state doesn't collect state-level income taxes, okay? So, know if you're in a state where this is a non-issue, you know, my state doesn't even collect income taxes, that's not going to be-- If they don't have it but they don't collect income taxes, you know, you're okay to be begin with, right? Also, the next question is, is there a Medicaid payback provision, and if so, has it been waived or is it even important to you? And I know we're going to talk more about that on future upcoming calls, but that would be another question to consider. And there's going to be information from your state on their website available to them even from our comparison tool about whether they've addressed details around that, and we'll be touching on that again in our future webinars here. So, important, I think I mentioned to you before, those above two provisions, they only apply to individuals residing in that state in most cases. Marlene did mention Wisconsin, which doesn't have a state ABLE program at this point in time, but they have made a state-level tax deduction into an ABLE account for if their residents are putting money into an ABLE account in another state. But for the most part, if you see, oh, that state has a state-level income tax, but if you're not a resident of that state, that's not going to apply to you. Similarly, if you're looking at a program that has a Medicaid payback provision that they've addressed, if you're not a resident of that state that's not going to apply to you. So, keep those things in mind. And the other thing, of course, is if you're looking at an ABLE program that's not in your home state, and there might be benefits to that as well, consider does this state offer enrollment to out of state residents. Many, but not all, are open to out of state residents, but there are definitely some that are limited to in-state residents. So, let's go ahead and go to the next slide, because we're only on slide one of three here. Let's see what's on the second of three slides for our checklist. So, for both in home state and out of home state ABLE programs, here are a few more things to consider. Is there a fee to enroll and is it different for in state and out of state residents? What is the state account limit or the most that you can save in that account? Is there a checking account option available? Is there a debit card, and is there an added cost for using this debit card? What is the state plan limit? They can vary from 100,000 to 529,000. I do want to mention here-- actually, I think I'm going to mention this on the next slide. This one we're on here, thank you, Al. Other things to consider for both in home state and out of home state ABLE programs when you're maintaining and using an ABLE account, is there a hold policy for deposits or processing time for withdrawals, and if so, is that going to be important to you in terms of perhaps benefits that you're receiving and time prints on that? Are there any restrictions on how often you can withdraw money, or are there any fees for withdrawals? Also, how can you make a withdrawal? A debit card, a checking account, a third-party check? Are there fees? Examples could include annual maintenance fees, withdrawal fees, paper statement fees, checking account fees, debit card fees, or any other fees such as rollover fees or a termination fee. Now, all of this information that might seem, where would I even find all of that information? We have all of the state ABLE programs disclosure documents available on that state comparison tool, and they're a decent read, but you'll find all the information in there. They've got a very good table of contents, and the information is organized and categorized, you can find all of this information in those state disclosure documents for that state ABLE account program. Another thing to note is that if you want to change to different ABLE program for any reason, you can make changes such as rolling over to another ABLE program. You can't do it multiple times a year, but you can do that, so you're not locked in and that's important to know. So, when you're making that decision, don't feel like, okay, now I'm with this forever. Marlene mentioned before, you know, and certainly when the first ABLE accounts were opened around the country, residents of other states where thinking I want to be part of this, and so they may have opened an account with one of the first ones that opened, and it could be that their state opened an ABLE program and then they wanted to roll the funds over to their state program, or they may have chosen to keep with who they had, you've got some flexibility here, and we've seen absolutely all of those kinds of scenarios roll out, where someone's rolled it over or kept it where it was because they were doing well and they felt confident and comfortable with that. So, there's some real flexibility here. Let's go ahead and go to-- Oh, I want to mention too, with that checklist. If you could go back for a quick second, Al, to the previous slide. One of the pieces with debit card or checking account, I did want to mention just this quick example, you know, that debit card, that's really great for ease of access, and that can be very helpful if you're wanting that for your ABLE account, if that's part of your scenario. However, if you don't want to have ease of access if maybe that's a little too tempting, because you want your investments to grow to achieve some long-term financial goals and a debit card can make that too easy to access those funds and undermine those goals, you might want to go with just an investment option, there's a lot of flexibility there. And, you know, we've certainly had one of our ABLE account holders who was one of our ambassadors last year who wanted to save up for an accessible vehicle for their 11-year-old son and for their family, something they really needed, and they've been able to do that. And she wasn't sure if she could manage to pull that off with the ease of access that a debit card might've provided her, so she went with a program that didn't have that. So, there's a lot of different things to think about. There's not any one right solution for everyone, it is your own personal scenario and situation that you're going to have to take into consideration, which is why we give you these checklists and why knowledge is power, and why I'm handing off this next slide to Marlene. Marlene? >> Okay, thanks Miranda, and knowledge is power, that's a lot of great information, Miranda, and I'm glad that you id reference the disclosure document, because that's an important piece as well, and we're going to talk about that a little bit more. The first thing that I'd like you to know, though, is to learn the ABLE account worlds for your program and ask questions before you enroll. Compare the state ABLE programs, as Miranda said, take a look at the cost, take a look at the options, and find the program best suited to your needs to enhance your savings opportunity while still meeting your goal. Miranda gave you a great checklist that you probably want to consider, you may want to print it out, maybe make notes on it when you're comparing programs. If your state does have an ABLE program up and running, as Miranda had said a little earlier, we always encourage you to review your home state ABLE program first because there may be some tax benefits or other benefits to that program. Review the state program disclosure document, that tells you all about the cost, it tells you about all of the rules in the program. Now, that document, it can be accessed two different ways, either from the state program website, or it can be accessed through the ABLE National Resource Center state comparison tool. Either way, you can access that tool and it contains a lot of great information. Some of it's a little heavy reading, but it's really good. It's good information, it provides you with all of the information you need to know to make an informed decision. Your situation, your needs, your goals are all unique. Create a circle of support, talk with people you trust, gather information and ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it, but always be cautious when you're trusting those who you don't know well. Miranda, we've gone over so much information. At this point I think it would be helpful if we could talk to actual ABLE account holders or family members and get their perspective on ABLE accounts, and some of the information we've provided thus far. So, Miranda, I'm turning it back to you. >> Great. Thank you Marlene, yes. I agree, let's hear from someone real. Not that you and I aren't real, but we've talked about a lot of technical things and checklists, and let's stroll down, I think first up let's have us all meet our ABLE account owner, Jacob Gehringer, his mother Denise is here with us, and she's one of our ABLE National Resource Center ambassadors. We heard a little bit about Jacob's story last week, for those of you who joined us there, and Denise and her family and their story, and what Jacob is working on towards his ABLE goals. I'm going to give you a little refresher about their family and about Jake, but then I've got some questions for Denise, and we want to hear from her. So, for those who haven't met Denise or Jacob, Denise is Jacobs mom, and Jacob is a 23-year-old ABLE account owner, he works 15 hours a week as an office assistant at Little Leaf Learning Center, and he deposited his first paycheck into his ABLE account. Now, Jacob has down syndrome and was the first ABLE account owner in Nebraska, opening his account in June 2016 with help from his mom, Denise, who's here with us today. So, you can see they were very early adopters. And you can see as well, pictures of Jake here over on the side with his dog Miller, and the picture of Denise, and also a picture of their big family, Jacobs brothers, and father, and family animals, they're dog-lovers you can tell. But the question we have for you, Denise, is Jacob's ABLE account has been open for a while now, since mid-2016, and we've talked in your role as an ambassador for us here at the center about ABLE providing Jacob with opportunities that he might not have had otherwise if he didn't have an ABLE account. Now, we just covered on the previous slides, that checklist of things to cover and how knowledge is power, can you tell us what you think about that information and if there's anything you'd like to reinforce or anything else you'd like to add to that information from your own experience or your family's perspective. >> Thanks Miranda, and good afternoon everybody. I think the information you provided is very valuable, and I sure hope that we'll ease any concerns families might have about opening an ABLE account. My advice would be to get an ABLE account open as soon as possible and start to enjoy the advantage ABLE accounts offer to the account holder. We have an N-ABLE account for my son, that's Nebraska's plan, and I believe it's available to anyone across the country, and I found the application process very straight-forward and generally easy, we were able to start saving right away and access the funds when the need came about. So there really wasn't-- I know in the disability realm we often have arduous application processes and a lot of difficult paperwork that we have to fill out, and it really wasn't that involved, it was quite easy, so I think that's important for people to know, that it's not a huge hassle, you can get it done in a generally quick timeframe. I also speak with a lot of parents of young children with disabilities in my role as an advocate in a professional and disability realm, and when they ask me what would I have done differently in hindsight raising my son with down syndrome, I'm always happy to share lessons that I've learned along the way, but one of the things I always tell them is that I wish I would have had the savings opportunity that ABLE offers when Jake was younger, it would have been nice to put even a small amount of money away monthly in order to start saving for his future needs, and to tackle unexpected and unplanned expenses related to his disability just along the way, things that pop up that really weren't planned for the family budget. For example, when we first learned about the benefits of assisted technology, and I know it's very common now, but at that time it was very innovative, and things like a personal computer, or an iPad, and the relating software applications that would lead to better communication skills for Jake, and learning possibilities, we wanted to get these items right away, and having an ABLE savings would have allowed us to have those funds at hand to get that assistive technology started in his life right away so no time was lost in his learning process or communication development. Later in his school career, we purchased a smartphone with a complementary smart watch that allowed him to have reminders set for class, and he didn't have to have anything that looked different than anyone else, he could look at his smart watch, it could set off a reminder, he could navigate his environment and his after school activities with that assistive technology, it also helped him to practice some tactics that he might use in a workplace, for planning when he joins the workforce. The smartphone added a little bit of safety for us, allowed us as parents to feel more comfortable with Jacob navigating his school environment and campus on his own. We could track him with the tracking software, and he would also contact us when it was needed. So, having funds set aside for those types of tools to help his goal to be as independent as possible is something that we think an ABLE account is very useful for. Jake was able to save in his ABLE account the amount that was needed for him to pay for the expenses to get a second, or his successor, service dog. So, the dog in the picture that you see is his second service dog, and this dog he hopes to be able to help him elevate his quality of life, and it will be a big part [inaudible] efforts to be as independent as possible in the community. Service dogs, fully-trained service dogs, are not-- they're an expense, and being able to save for that expense in his ABLE account was very helpful. He was able to get the successor dog shortly after he opened his account, so he did have some money that we were able to use from the account to pay for those expenses and the related [inaudible]. He uses a savings pool to plan and pay for travel expense for an out of town modeling audition that he had his [inaudible]. He wanted to try being a model and he used some of the funds there to help him get to the audition that was out of town, and then also the subsequent show that came following the audition. He saves every year to purchase season tickets to cheer on his favorite college hockey team, the UNO Mavericks. This is one of those activities that he participates in that allows him to have the quality of life that he desires. He wants to be immersed in the community, but he wants to do it at his choosing. So, the funds in his ABLE account allow him to have that extra life-enhancing activity in his world. And he's currently, well has always been saving for his big goal, he wants to live in a house with a back yard for his dog, he very much desires to have that autonomy and be what he calls his own man, and I want to be able to help him with the tools that he need to reach those goals. And then of course as parents, having the savings tool available to put money aside for the day when his brothers will be his guardians, aiming to make sure that they are not financial burdens in their efforts to support his needs as they cannot or are no longer able to. And then the last thing I want to mention, in my role as executive director at an independent apartment complex-- complexes for people with intellectual disabilities, I've gotten feedback from many families who have shared that having an ABLE account has made supporting their family member and handling their finances so much more manageable, and many of our [inaudible] families are using ABLE accounts as a tool to help them live independently in the community and be an integral part of their community that they live in. That's a little bit about our experiences, Miranda, I hope that gives folks an insight as to how ABLE accounts can be used, and hopefully will encourage them to open them because it's something I would [inaudible] able to have available many years ago. >> Yes, thank you so much, Denise, that was really helpful, it's always great to hear from someone's lived experience, and you have such a background and there's such depth to your story, as there is to everyone who's listening and their stories, for themselves, for their family members, for those they're supporting. Thank you so much, Denise, really appreciate that. We're also going to be hearing from Taylor a little bit later on in our presentation, but before we get to Taylor, we're going to lead up to her similar to how we did with Denise, and I'm going to hand things off to Marlene to start talking to us about understanding saving and investment choices within an ABLE account, and then we'll also provide a checklist and then we'll hear from Taylor. So, go ahead, Marlene. >> Okay, thanks Miranda. We wanted to include this piece when we talk about opening an ABLE account, because we've learned that so many folks really want to open an ABLE account, but they back off or they hesitate when they see that they have to make certain choices with regards to savings or investments, so that's why we're including this information so that you understand it a little more and know that it's really simple and you have various choice, and we're going to talk about some of those choices. So, the ABLE accounts, they allow eligible individuals with disabilities the opportunity to build their assets through savings and through investment. And I know some folks cringe when we talk about investment, but we're going to go on. We mentioned a little earlier when you open an ABLE account, you'll have to make choice about the money you save, and the choices may include a savings account, some ABLE savings accounts are FDIC insured, and you can't lose by saving money in them. Some offer limited interest, and that interest does not count as income for public benefit programs, or accounts toward income taxes when the funds are used for qualified disability expenses. Funds in savings accounts, they do have the least opportunity to grow by earning a low interest rate or low rate of return as compared to an investment account. Now, funds in an investment account, they have various degrees of risk associated with them. They have the risk of losing money, but they also offer a greater opportunity for those funds to grow by earning a higher rate of return as compared to the savings account option. Funds in an investment account, they're put into stocks or bonds, and some may offer a guaranteed portion. Examples may include a money market option or options with conservative, moderate, or aggressive growth or income which varies in risk. Now, all ABLE programs have different options, they vary in risk, and some may not offer that FDIC insured savings option. So, that's something, if that's important to you, something that you need to look for. The next slide. Many individuals who are not familiar with investments are very pleased to learn that many state programs offer risk-free options that they're more comfortable with or they're more familiar with, or they're more familiar with, like the FDIC savings option. If you've chosen not to open an ABLE account at this time due to unfamiliarity with these choices, we recommend searching for a state program that provides the FDIC insured option and other options you plan to use and opening your account now. As Denise had said a little earlier, she wishes that this option, the ABLE account option, was available when her son was younger, because that would provide the opportunity to save more funds and for that money to grow. Depending upon your goals, you may decide to diversify and split your savings among the savings and the investment choices. Now, you can split your choices however you choose, it could be 90/10, 50/50, or 70/30, or whatever ratio you choose and whatever you're more comfortable with. As you become more familiar with investment choices, you have the option to change your selection up to twice a year. Now, Miranda, we packed a lot of great information again into this segment on savings and investment in ABLE accounts. While it's important to always keep in mind the respective account owner's unique situation and goals, can you give us some pointers or things to consider when making savings and investment choices? >> Yes, great, thank you so much, Marlene. Yeah, let's go ahead and take a look at that checklist. So, here are some things to consider in terms of saving and investment considerations. First off, and Marlene spoke to this, is there an FDIC insured savings option available? Some ABLE programs that might be what their focus is, others might have that and an investment option, so that's something to take a look at when you're comparing those state ABLE programs. Another would be how many investment options are offered? There could be a range, some ABLE programs offer a wide range. Some people like that wide range and others want fewer options where you have low risk versus higher risk, but there's also that payoff. We do have our spotlight webinars, have really been focusing this year, and you can find them in our archives and we'll have more spotlights in the coming months as well, every other month we do spotlight webinars, and those ABLE programs, or partnerships of ABLE programs, speak to that as well in terms of things to take into consideration. So, you might want to add that in addition to this checklist, checking out those spotlights. But other things to consider would be consider diversifying your savings. The individual I mentioned earlier who didn't want to have a debit card because she wanted her savings and her ABLE account to grow, had never dabbled with savings and investments before but had put in 30% into the investment side to check out what that would be like not having been in that kind of position before, and was pleased to see how that grew and helped her meet her goals. Again, there some level of risk with that, but it's something to take into consideration, you could do both, and a lot of ABLE programs offer that ability. So, considering that as an option. In terms of diversifying savings and limiting risks or the growth or income that can be offered there. The other thing to think about, we get this frequently, what's been the history of the rate of return of the investment fund? Some of the plans post their portfolio investment performance on their state ABLE website, that could be something to check out. Also, does the state offer any unique or value added program elements such as financial literacy information, perhaps a financial advisor, you may or may not need that depending on what you're looking at, or features that can help track spending, available balance and management of the account, call center support, many other features, so you'll want to take those things into consideration as well. And with that, I'm going to go ahead, let's talk to our next ABLE account owner. Taylor, let's go ahead and meet Taylor, and we can see Taylor here. The top picture is Taylor with her father, and the one below is on the water wearing life jackets with her mom. And Taylor's goal, if you haven't-- you know, she was on with us next week, but if you weren't there with us then, Taylor, again, is one of our ABLE National Resource Center ambassadors, she provides us with insight from her lived experience as an ABLE account owner. She's 24 and a student, she graduated from University of California Berkeley Bachelor of Arts Degree in molecular and cell biology and plans to attend medical school next year. She scored 92nd percentile on the MCAT, so that was impressive, this spring. Congratulations, Taylor. Taylor also has cerebral palsy and opened her ABLE account in November of 2017, and since these accounts are still so new that can be considered an early adopter, really. So, the question I have for you, Taylor, you and I have had some in depth conversations since you came on as one of our nine ABLE account owners, and you're very savvy, and you suggested to us that you felt that we should have more information about the different investment options on our website. However, as we've just discussed, that is what the state ABLE programs do through their work. But can you tell us about how you learned about savings and investments? FDIC ensured status and about risk? Did anyone help you decide on what was right for you? And do you have any recommendations to the audience? >> Yes. Hi, everyone. So, I think my primary goal right now-- >> Taylor, you're a little low, if you could talk a little close to the mic. >> Better? >> Yes, that's better, thank you. >> So, my primary goal, two years ago, it started with wanting to save for medical school, but I also knew that I didn't want to take a lot of risks, and I started wondering what I should do, should I stick with the checking account option or should I dabble with some investments. And what I also decided to do was talk to my parents about it and get their opinions, and read my ABLE accounts disclosure statements, and Miranda and Marlene are definitely spot on when they say it has a lot of information and it took a while to get through, but it was really useful. And I also looked at the quarter and monthly end performance for my ABLE account, but I ultimately decided, you know, I don't want to take really any risk at this point, but maybe in the future when I'm saving for a longer-term goal I would want to diversify into maybe the growth or moderately conservative option, or investment. >> Okay, great. Thank you, Taylor, for sharing that from your experience, and I know we're going to be hearing from you on a future webinar we're holding in terms of your family's support to you as well, and your circle of support and how you've used that as well. So, speaking of which, that segues us into reaching out to a circle of support for other on our next slide. Can you go-- thank you. So, as part of that, you do want to reach out to what we call a circle of support, that's people who want to support you as Taylor has accessed her parents' knowledge and support and information as she's dived into this, in building that better financial future and helping you to meet your financial goals, or your family members' goals. That circle of support can include family, friends, a supports coordinator, clergy, an employer, financial planner, or any others who can help you to open your ABLE account and make choices. We also encourage you to join us on next week's webinar where we're hear a little more from Taylor and other ABLE account owners and family members on building that circle of support and how to do so. So, please do register and join us next week. If you don't have a circle of support, consider asking family members, friends or professionals to help with you, and know when to get help. Of course, we always encourage you to be cautious when sharing any financial information with someone you don't know, or you don't' know well, or those you've only known for a short time, that's really key to keep in mind. So, with that, let's go ahead and take a look at next steps. Open your account earlier, I think that's what you've really heard from Denise for sure, I think Taylor would fall in line with that, any of our other ambassadors we've worked with, people we hear from around the country, they always say open your account early. We've mentioned, you know, you're not locked down into these things, you can have some flexibility and maneuver things around. So, definitely consider opening your account early through the state ABLE program of your choice, visit their website. As we've talked about, you can use our state comparison tool to find those websites for state-specific information or to ask questions about their programs. And also, keep in mind, your ABLE account, it grows tax-free and it doesn't affect most federally-funded means tested benefits. Allow your account to grow and make today day one instead of opening an account one day. We hear that from a lot of folks. They wish they'd opened it earlier, and it takes a certain amount of information, that's why we do the ABLEtoSave month. We're sharing a lot of information with you throughout the course of this months, and we have even more information available on our website and best practices, if you get on those webinars or access our case studies, there's even deeper information there for you as well. But we do encourage you to make today day one instead of opening an account one day. So, you can learn as you go with this, and you can adjust as needed, and it doesn't take a lot to buy in, to open those accounts and get started. If you can't decide on a saving and/or investment choice, you might want to consider just starting off by choosing a safer FDIC savings option. You know, I know Taylor's in that position right now where she's using the safer option because she's got a shorter term goal that she wants to be able to pay off, but she's also very young, so moving into looking at potentially saving for retirement or bigger ticket items, a home, where you would want to have that investment option, potentially, to grow. And those are just things to consider, to take into account, these are all your own choices, and you now have some choice with these ABLE accounts that may not have existed before. But do your research, learn more, and make those appropriate changes, and you can make a lot of those changes up to twice a year, the big changes with those accounts, and that information again will be in those disclosure document Marlene and I both referenced earlier. But let's go ahead and take another look at our resources, these are things to check out. We have our five things to know about ABLE, who is ABLE-eligible, our state ABLE program map, how to choose the right ABLE program, and the tool that compares state ABLE programs, and that building a circle of support. These are all resources. Webinars that are coming up or information on our website. The state ABLE program map can be located at http://www.ablenrc.org/state-review. You can also use our tool that compares state programs, that's http://www.ablenrc.org/plan_search, and the other resources are on the roadmap that Marlene had referenced earlier, so there's lots more resources for you. In today's webinar we did a deep dive into key decisions, but we may know you may have other questions if you're new to the space, the information, we have this for you. So, let's go ahead and take a look at our last couple of slides here as we're rounding out our time together. Please do help us spread the word, we said this at the beginning, you know, here's how you can help us to do that. Please share information about ABLE accounts with friends, family and community groups, let them know how to hook up with the rest of our webinars we have this month or access our archives. And you can receive up to date information on ABLE by subscribing to our achievable newsletter. If you go on to our website, www.ablenrc.org, you're going to see a link right at the top to join our newsletter, and you'll get lots of great information there on a monthly basis, our achievable newsletter. You can also connect with us on social media, on Facebook and on Twitter, with the ABLE National Resource Center, and again, participating in our hashtag ABLEtoSave webinars, and all of our ABLE NRC webinars, we've got those all archived on our site. If you go on our website, just go over to the webinars, you can scroll down and you'll see the titles of all the topics and direct links to access those webinars, get those PowerPoints that we load with lots of information, as well as potentially case studies, top questions from the webinar, and other rich information. And for other information, you can visit that website again. So, finally, I do want to end by giving a big thanks to our ABLEtoSave week one sponsor, Ascensus. Ascensus is the largest independent retirement and college savings service provider in the United States, helping over eight million Americans save for the future. With more than 35 years of experience, the firm partners with financial institutions to offer tailored solutions that meet the needs of financial professionals, employers and individuals, and we certainly appreciate their support for ABLE NRC and our hashtag ABLEtoSave month and their sponsorship of this week. You can reach them on the web at www.ascensus, that's a-s-c-e-n-s-u-s.com, or you can also connect with them on LinkedIn, or follow them on Twitter at AscensusInc. So, with that I would like to thank again my colleague Marlene, Al for your support, and certainly Denise and Taylor for you voice and your perspective and your advice that you have for our audience here today, and we'd definitely like to give a big thanks to those of you in the audience that are joining us for this, we hope the information is helpful to you as you move forward, and we look forward to you joining us on future websites and accessing our materials on our website. So, thank you so much everyone, and have a great day.