>> Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us today for our ABLE Best Practices for Working Age Adults, that is hosted by the ABLE National Resource Center. My name is Miranda Kennedy and I'm very pleased to have all of you here with us. For those of you who this may be your first webinar, to give you a little bit of background, the ABLE National Resource Center is funded through a grant from Prudential, and if we go to the next slide this is a little bit of information about who we are as a center. The ABLE National Resource Center, also known as ABLE NRC, is 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. our pioneering work in this area and subject matter expertise makes us the foremost authority on topics related to the Achieving a Better Life Experience, also known as 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 and I'm hoping that many of you have checked that out or will after this webinar. So let's go ahead and go to the next slide, and we'd like to give a special thank you to our ABLE to Save week sponsor this week for our third full week of our ABLE to Save month campaign, attainable, the attainable-- the ABLE Savings Plan that's offered by the Massachusetts Educational Financial Authority, which is managed by Fidelity. So, we thank our sponsors. Let's go ahead and go to the next slide, and I'm going to hand things over to my colleague, Al Milioto who's quickly going to go through some logistics for today's webinar, and then we'll dive in. Al.

>> Thanks Miranda. Good afternoon everyone. Listening to the webinar. The audio for today's meeting can be accessed using computer audio or by calling in by phone. If you select computer audio, please make sure your speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or prefer to listen by phone, you can dial in to 1-929-205-6099. The meeting code is 957-152-335. Captioning. Real-time captioning is provided during this webinar. the captions can be found by clicking on the closed caption icon, which is located in your Zoom controls at the bottom of the screen. If you do not see captions after clicking the button, you can alert us via the chat box, and you can also view captions in your browser at the following address; streamtext.net/player?event=NDI. Submitting questions. Please use the Q and A box to submit any questions you have during the webinar. We'll try to get to every question that comes in. And if your question is not answered during the webinar, you can also-- or if you're listening by phone and not logged in, you can also visit our site for many many answers to most of your questions, hopefully. We have a lot of resources there so check us out. We're at www.ablenrc.org. Technical assistance; if you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, use the chat box to send me a message or you can email me directly and my email address is amilioto@ablenrc.org. Please note the webinar is being recorded and the materials will be placed on the ABLE National Resource Center website, along with all of our ABLE webinars at ablenrc.org/resources/webinars. And with that, I'll turn things over to Miranda.

>> Great. Thank you Al. Once again, my name's Miranda Kennedy. I'm the director of the ABLE National Resource Center. I'll be serving as the facilitator for today's discussion and I'm very pleased to have with us here today my two colleagues, Marlene Ulisky and Laurie Schaller. They serve as subject matter experts for us here at the ABLE National Resource Center and with our parent organization, the National Disability Institute, where they are managers of financial empowerment and incredibly knowledgeable about disability benefits, all of the ins and outs and ABLE accounts. They devote many many hours of their days researching and problem solving and coming up with great solutions. So, they're a wonderful resource for us to have here with us today. We also have two ABLE account owners who are working age individuals, one of whom is also a part time student in working age individuals. So, we're very pleased to have here with us Hector Ramirez and Shane Wegner. They are two of our 2019 ABLE National Resource Center ambassadors and they give us a lot of insights into, you know, moving forward as ABLE account owners, the strategies they're using, and so forth, and we're really happy to be able to share their experience and devote some time today to hearing their stories as working age individuals who have ABLE accounts. Before we move forward and I tell you a little bit about our agenda I do want to note that hopefully as you came in you downloaded the PowerPoint for today. If you did not, it will be located in the chat box, the link to download that PowerPoint and print it off. The reason I mention this is because if you've been here with us before earlier this month you know by now, we break a lot of PowerPoint rules. We really do want to have structured information for you, much of it is on those slides. The hope is that you don't have to furiously take a lot of notes or listen to this again. You can print that off and take it with you. Much of the technical information that myself, Laurie and Marlene will be speaking to will be written down on the slides, along with resources and links for you to use. So please print this off or save it electronically to your files. And Hector and Shane will not be-- have a lot of narrative on their slides, but they'll be speaking a little more extemporaneously about their experience too, so. We'll be-- we'll have a little bit of everything here. Alright, let's go ahead and dive into the next slide, which is going to tell us a little bit about what our-- what our agenda is today. We're going to cover briefly what is ABLE to Save month, in case today's your first time joining us here on this month we're having, this nationwide campaign. Obviously, our topic today is working age individuals. We're going to start out just giving a little context about working age individuals and data on people with disabilities who are working age and poverty. And then move in to talking about-- Laurie will take over talking about Laurie-- about ABLE account contributions and she and Marlene will talk about key decisions for success. We'll be hearing from our ABLE account owners throughout this and also ending with how to introduce ABLE to your employer or if you're an employer joining us this will be good information for you as well. And for those who are receiving means tested benefits and working, are looking to transition off of those means tested benefits through employment. We'll talk about how to integrate ABLE into your employment related service plan to help meet those goals. And, of course, we'll be talking throughout about best practices and ending with some great next steps and resources for you, so we've got a packed agenda here over the next hour. Let's go ahead to the next slide and talk about ABLE to Save month. ABLE to Save month, it's a nationwide, grassroots awareness campaign that's taking place throughout this month of August, providing information about Achieving a Better Life Experience, or ABLE accounts, as they're known, so people with disabilities and their families can become more knowledgeable and really comfortable enough to enroll in the program of their choice. The campaign really uses a set of diverse tools to maximize our nationwide outreach, to get the information out there, including weekly webinars, such as the one you've hopped on right here today, where we provide ABLE information and resources to different targeted audiences, both those receiving benefits and those not receiving benefits, family members, advocates, service providers, employers, others who support ABLE eligible individuals. We have one more webinar in our series, next Thursday, August 29th. We hope you'll join us on that. We've got the registration link right there for you on the screen, hyperlinked to that. And that's-- we're going to be talking about celebrating all the ways you're ABLE, announcing the winners from our ABLE to Save video context-- contest, and Next Steps, so we hope you'll be joining us again next week for that. With that, let's go to the next slide and talk about a perspective on working age individuals with disabilities and poverty. We just wanted to share this one slide to kind of give us a little bit of context, get us on the same page. Many of you may be really familiar with this. Others, this may be new information for you. But just to let you know, here's some data on working age people with disabilities. Americans with disabilities make up an estimated 20% of the U.S. population, or 40 to 57 million people. Many people with disabilities live at or near the poverty level. So, one in five families have a family member with a disability, and of those 35%, or 22 million, working age adults, have a disability; that's individuals between the ages of 16 to 64 for working age. Working age adults with disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty than those without disabilities, at a rate of 28% versus 13% for those who are not-- who do not have a disability. And a major cause of poverty among disability beneficiaries is the low rates of employment within that population. So our discussion today, we plan on talking about how ABLE accounts can assist those who are eligible for those ABLE accounts out of that number, in supporting employment goals and can support people with disabilities who are employed either receiving benefits, receiving benefits and planning to transition off of those benefits, or who are not receiving benefits at all and how that can help-- how ABLE accounts can help. So, with that, I'm going to go ahead and hand things over to my colleagues, Laurie Schaller who's going to talk to us about if you're working or wanting to work, why would you save in an ABLE account. Laurie.

>> Thank you, Miranda. Next slide. So, why save in an ABLE account? If you live or are near the federal poverty level, working and saving in an ABLE account can transform your life. Millions of individuals with disabilities and their families depend on a variety of public benefits for income, health care, food and housing assistance. There is a resource limit for most means-tested benefits, including benefits like these. Eligible individuals may establish ABLE savings accounts that will largely not affect their eligibility for federally-funded means-tested benefits. Next slide. The finds in an ABLE account can supplement and they're not meant to replace benefits provided by private insurance, including Medicaid, Medicare, SSI, food stamps, housing assistance, vocational rehabilitation services, financial aid, employment and other sources. There are also ABLE account tax advantages. Your savings can grow in your ABLE account and you can begin to accrue assets as your savings grow. And your future may be more secure, of course, being able to save more money than what, in the past, beneficiaries were allowed to save, but now ABLE offers a new opportunity for protected savings, while people retain eligibility for federally means-tested benefits. Next slide. First step is to learn the facts. So, an ABLE account will allow you to save over the $2000 resource limit and still keep means-tested benefits like SSI and Medicaid. An ABLE account does not affect benefits paid under entitlement programs such as disability insurance benefits. Individuals who do not receive a public benefit may also qualify to open an ABLE account. There are resources to help you choose work and maintain monthly benefit payments and or health insurance while you either supplement your benefits or transition off benefits while you're working. Next slide. A Community Work Incentives Coordinator, they're called CWICs, or maybe a WIPA; they can help you to analyze all the public benefits that you are currently receiving and may be eligible for. And they'll ask you, for example, what your goals are related to your education, your employment, and building assets or savings for your future. And the CWIC or WIPA provides free benefits counseling services to individuals who receive disability-based benefits from Social Security Administration. So that's either an individual who receives SSI benefits or a person who receives SSDI benefits. To find a certified counselor, please visit choosework.ssa.gov/findhelp and use the find help tool to help you locate your local provider. So, you can find your local provider by simply putting in your zip code, and then you'll see different options for agencies and individuals to reach out to. So increased savings in an ABLE account, combined with working and using work incentives and tax credits, both at the state and federal level, is one of the best tax-advantaged ways to accrue assets and provide for a better future. ABLE account savings can be used for qualified disability expenses, and some of those expenses are employment-related expenses. Okay, next slide. Okay, so qualified disability expenses, or QDEs, fall into 11 broad categories and they are not restricted to employment-related expenses. But the following QDEs are examples of employment-related expenses that can help an ABLE account owner secure and maintain employment. So, savings within an ABLE account can be used to cover costs associated with getting maybe a training certificate or an accreditation or job-related trainings. Also, QDE includes education, continuing education and college and certificate program training opportunities as well in your community. It can help with interview preparation and resume development. You can use the savings for employment training and support, for job coaching, for transportation, which also includes purchasing a vehicle so that a person can get to their job reliably. And it also includes assistive technology. So, in this list, though, I want to urge that you can see that many of these expenses may be paid for by other entities. For example, you might want to reach out to your local department of labor to see if they have certificate training programs that they would pay the cost for. You might want to reach out to your vocational rehabilitation agency to see if they could provide free training or assist with whatever financial aid you may be eligible for, and other out of pocket expenses so that maybe you can still retain your ABLE savings and while you're taking advantage of those other funding opportunities. Okay, next slide. When you have expenses related to working, always research no-cost funding sources before using your ABLE funds. In particular, if you need assistive technology, for example, AT, investigate how the following organizations, work incentives, or programs can help you to save more money from your earnings or to help preserve your ABLE savings longer. So, for example, the Social Security Administration has work incentives specifically around assistive technology, such as impairment-related work expenses, the Plan to Achieve Self-Support, Property Esses-- Essential for self-support, and that is for individuals who are seeking self-employment to either begin their own business or to expand their business. And that also includes the student earned income exclusion. That work support in-- is one of my very favorite work supports. So, many youth, under the age of 22, for example, who are attending a school program regularly, are allowed to work, and if that person receives SSI, their SSA-- SSI, excuse me, may not be reduced while they are working. For example, in a month's time, if they earn up to $1870 that would not reduce that youth's SSI payment for that month, and that youth can use that work support until they've maximized that amount by $7550 within that calendar year. So, that's a huge work support that allows that youth to retain eligibility for their SSI, and as a result they will have additional monies that they could save within their ABLE account. And then we have a link for that student earned income exclusion that relates specifically to ABLE at the end of the slide deck today that we'll be sharing with you. And then, of course, there's the assistive technology loan programs, or alternative financing loan programs and those are located in many states across the country. And so, an individual who may want to purchase their own assistive technology if other sources of funding are not available, the person can apply for an affordable loan, meaning that the interest rate is zero or maybe up to eight percent in most cases across the United States. So, there's a full list of the alternative financing programs posted here. And, in addition, you may want to reach out to your vocational rehabilitation center locally to find out about other assistive technology funding that they may be able to assist with. Okay, and then we'll go to the next slide and pass the presentation onto Marlene.

>> Okay, thanks Laurie. On the next slide, this webinar, as we know, it focuses on ABLE best practices for working age adults, and one of the best strategies I know of that an account owner can use to increase their ABLE savings is through employment or becoming employed. An ABLE-- an employed ABLE account owner can increase their ABLE savings by employing a variety of strategy as shown on this slide. They can use Social Security work incentives, and you will hear these referred to as employment support programs. Those two are used interchangeably. Also, saving additional earnings from employment under the ABLE to Work Act, using the Saver's Credit, using the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit, or if your state has a state Earned Income Tax Credit, using that, and also by educating third parties, such as an employer or a service provider about your goals and the value of contributions to your ABLE account, and in just a moment we'll talk about each of these strategies individually so that you understand them just a little bit better. Okay, on the next slide. Before we talk about each of these strategies, I think we need to talk a little bit about a basic concept, and that's income contributions to an ABLE account. And on this slide, we're talking about contributions by a first party, and when I say first party that means the ABLE account owner. So, an ABLE account owner, it may be someone who is or who is not receiving a disability-based benefit. And earlier in the presentation we heard Miranda talk about this, saying that someone may be eligible for an ABLE account if they are receiving or if they are not receiving a disab-- disability based benefit from Social Security. And I just wanted to point that out because it's a huge point because some folks believe that you have to be receiving a disability benefit from social security in order to establish an ABLE account, and that's not true. If you have a significant disability and if you meet the age requirement, the onset of disability must have occurred before age 26, then you would qualify. So, on this slide, what we're saying is that earnings, also called earned income, that money can be contributed to an ABLE account, by the ABLE account holder, or ABLE account owner. And then we're saying, in addition to that, unearned income can be contributed as well, and we gave you some examples of unearned income on this slide. That would be things like alimony or child support, pensions, annuities, veteran's administration payments, unemployment compensation and the like. Though, one of the most important points on this slide, and there's two important points, most-- one of the other most important points is the fact that there's no change in the way means-tested benefit programs and non-means-tested benefit programs count earned or unearned income contributed to an ABLE account. So, if you have unearned income, if you have earned income, if it's contributed to an ABLE account there is no change in the way it's counted or considered. An ABLE account, it's not a way to show income, but it's a wonderful way to increase your resources and build assets. When benefit programs look at income and they look at reser-- resources, you have to know that those two things are different and those-- those terms can't be used interchangeably. So, on the next slide, Social Security work incentives can help. So, when someone has earned income or earnings, they can use Social Security programs called work incentive. They allow a working beneficiary to supplement their benefits and they can either transition off benefits or they can maintain their monthly payments and or their health insurance, their Medicare or Medicaid. Using work incentives provides a beneficiary with an opportunity to save additional money in their ABLE account. Examples of some of the work incentives, which can help, and we heard Laurie talk about some of these on a prior slide, it can be a trial work period, impairment related work expenses, the plan to achieve self-support, or student earned income exclusion, among others. And all of the work incentives can be found in the Social Security Red Book. At the end of this presentation we provide you with some resources so that you can do some independent research and read up or learn more about everything we're talking about, and one of the links is to the Social Security Red Book, which you can find online. And you can also download a hard copy if you choose to do that. We also heard Laurie talk about certified Work Incentive Counselors, or I'm sorry Community Work Incentive Counselors, and they can provide benefits counseling and help you to learn how to use the work incentive. And to find a counselor you would visit the choose work website and choose work website, that-- that actually is a website of Social Security; it's their ticket to work website. But if you are not using the ticket to work, you can still use the work incentives and you can still work at whichever level you choose, and that website will provide you with additional information on the work incentives, in addition to finding a CWIC to help you. You would just use the find help tool and you would locate a provider just using that. Okay, on the next slide. Income contributions to an ABLE account third party. So, in addition to ABLE account contributions to an ABLE account by the account owner themselves, contributions can be made by third parties. And what's real significant about this is the fact that contributions do not count as income to a beneficiary who receives they means tested benefit. Now, when I refer to a third party I'm talking about family, friends, an employer, a special needs trust or a pooled trust, if they are not counted as a resource by Social Security and if you want to learn more about that we did a really great webinar in January of this year on ABLE accounts and special needs trust and it is posted to our website under the resource link. And the state also can contribute to an ABLE account. Now a third-party contribution can also be a rollover of a 5-- 529 account, and that's a college savings account, or a 529 ABLE account; that's-- that is if you decide to move your account from one state to another. Now you don't ever have to move your account from one state to another, but if you find another program best suited to your needs you can easily do that. Now total contributions, annual contributions, the limit is $15,000. It was $15,000 last year. This January we'll see if that either remains the same or it goes up. And that would include all contributions and it would be whether they're made by the ABLE account's owner or a third party. Now an employed account owner may be able to contribute more. Now if you have questions about this hold on because we'll be talking about that in a moment specifically. I think we have two slides on that, on ABLE to work. And finally, the total lifetime contributions to an ABLE account cannot exceed the state limit for 529 college savings accounts. These vary from state to state, from a low of 100,00 to a high of $529,000. So, if a higher limit is something real important to you you may want to visit our ABLE National Resource Center website and use our new comparison tool to find out what states have what limits and to find out what the information that you need. Our participants in the past have really appreciated hearing from real life ABLE account owners, and as you know, the ABLE National Resource Center selects ABLE ambassadors each and every year as the face of ABLE. Hector Ramirez is one of our ambassadors and you've heard from him on prior webinars. So Miranda, I'm going to turn it back over to you to talk to Hector because he is an ABLE-- is a working ABLE account owner and I'm certain he has a lot to add to this conversation.

>> I think you're right Marlene. Okay, yeah, let's go ahead and go to the next slide. And so those of you who haven't met him on earlier of our webinars this month, I'd like to introduce you to Hector Ramirez. Hector is an-- has a CalABLE account owner, who is Latino, Cherokee Spirit to Spirit, member of the Board of Directors for Disability Rights California National Disability Rights Network. And Hector is saving funds in an ABLE account to maintain a safety net while working to be self-sufficient. Hector says that by the time I turned 44, I had moved over 40 different times. Imagine that, having lived in a nice big house and in a closet, and in a car on the streets. And the main reason that Hector wanted to open an ABLE account is so that Hector could finally have a place to call home. And Hector's already achieved one goal, the purchase of a home, and you can see a picture of Hector's home and Hector and Hector's mom out in front of the home there on the slide in front of you. The strategies that Hector has been using to fund the ABLE account are employment earnings, SSA and SSI back payments, and accessing a circle of support and using the gift of independence. So, the questions that we have for Hector are that Hector is someone who works and receives, or has received benefits from SSA, did you use the SSA work incentives and find value in them, and did they help you to save more in your ABLE account?

>> Thank you. I-- I recently got also my ticket to work and I'm just finding these new resources, I think. It really-- it's going to help me a lot more down the line. I went to work and I was making good money, but sometimes my benefits would severely get impacted if I made too much money or if I saved money in my bank account. And that meant that sometimes I had to choose between being able to work and being able to get my meds, and it was a very challenging thing. This particular program actually really is going to help me to be able to maintain both of those options, and not really have to choose between my independence and my health. And so, being able to work while also being able to work with my employers to have them contribute and to be able to save money is a totally different strategy. It completely changes the-- the ball game for people like me. And I-- I've gone form working a lot and making money to being on the street because life happens. And so, I think I really want to be able to have a fantastic safety net so that as I'm getting older, I don't really have to be worrying as much of that.

>> Thank you for sharing that Hector. You know, on past webinars, you've told us also that you've employed a number of those strategies to save money in your ABLE account, and we haven't talked yet about some of the other savings strategies that Marlene referenced earlier, like ABLE to Work Act, the Saver's Credit or the Earned Income Tax Credit, and I was wondering because you're very savvy about this, you've already put the down payment on a home, you're achieving those goals, I was wondering, have you heard about ABLE to Work Act, Saver's Credit or EITC and if you have heard about them, have you used them?

>> I have heard about them a lot. I have not had the opportunity to use them because I really wasn't even thinking of working, because I didn't think I could do it. And I hear them for other people [inaudible], some of the benefits they're getting, but now I'm really starting to begin to implement them and, you know, researching them and talking about them, you know. I-- I do a lot of consulting. I do a lot of independent work. I'm my own boss. I think have to kind of really develop that, and so utilizing those new skills to not only be self-sufficient, but to kind of be my own entrepreneur with the services that I do are definitely a fantastic thing. As a disabled person, to be able to say that I'm my own boss and that I'm going to be self-sufficient and not-- not really have to be penalized for those things, that-- that's fantastically uplifting. And so, I think the first was really for me just getting my home. And I think now I'm beginning to regain my life back, and I'm glad that I have all this support network in place, and my family is completely, you know, flabbergasted, with a lot of this information, and so is my community. They're seeing the possibilities.

>> Right.

>> And so, they're really really interested.

>> Well that's wonderful to hear, and, you know, Hector, in a-- as well, moving forward, you know, in the past webinar that we learned about how the purchase of a home, using those ABLE accounts, and you spoke about it just now, has really changed your life, as anyone here can imagine, and an opportunity that you would not have had without the ABLE account resource. Can you give us a quick update on whether you're continuing to contribute earnings to your ABLE account and how you think it will continue to enhance your life?

>> Oh yeah, definitely. You know, I did this through my birthday, but I think overall, as I-- as I gather more money and more resources, I'm really investigative because I'm investing in my future, which is kind of the biggest health benefit that I had. I'm not used to, kind of, making plans for that last that long, and now I'm able to really make plans about, you know, years to come. And so, this is definitely a really fantastic opportunity.

>> Well, thank you so much for sharing your story here with everyone on this call, Hector, and we will definitely be staying in tune as your goals and milestones continue to evolve and congratulations again on the home purchase. I know you've made some renovations and certainly already experienced some of the real health benefits that can come from, you know, putting down roots like that, and achieving such a significant life goal. So, thank you so much, Hector. I'm going to hand things over now to Marlene, because we've talked a little bit about those able to work contributions. Let's go ahead and dive in to the next couple slides to talk about those. Marlene.

>> Okay. Thanks, Miranda. Talk-- let's talk a little bit about ABLE to Work, and that provision was based as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and it actually allows certain ABLE account holders who work and earn income to contribute above and beyond the $15,000 annual contribution limit. A beneficiary is not eligible to make those additional contributions in a calendar year if a contribution was made to a workplace retirement plan on their behalf, and specifically the workplace retirement acts are identified on this slide; a 401a, defined contribution plan or a 403a or b annuity contract, or 457b eligible deferred compensation plan. Okay, on the next slide. Okay, on the next slide if no contributions were made that tax year then the ABLE account owner can contribute an additional amount over and beyond that $15,000 contribution limit from whichever is less, either their gross income for that taxable year, or the amount equal to the federal poverty level for the 48 contiguous states for a one-person household for the year prior to when the contributions were made. And those amounts are shown in the three bullet points. For in the continental United States, that about is $12,140, Alaska is $15,180, and Hawaii is $13,960. And again, those amounts are subject to change as the federal poverty level changes each year. The earnings that are the result of employment, again they're still counted in terms of earned income, or substantial gainful activity, and taken into consideration when determining eligibility for certain public benefits, and that's real real important to remember, like I emphasized on the prior slide. On the next slide. With, at this point, I hope that you're beginning to see some of the benefits of an ABLE account when you're working and you're saving in the account. So, in addition to all of the other benefits that we've already talked about I want to talk just briefly about the tax advantages. First of all, that account grows tax free; we've talked about that on prior webinars. There's no income tax on any growth in the value of your investment or your savings, and you pay no income tax on interest earned so long as the funds are used for qualified disability expenses. If you take the money out of your ABLE account and you don't spend it on a qualified disability expense you may have to pay income tax on it, plus a 10% penalty on the earnings portion of that withdrawal. And if you're more interested in learning more about that and you didn't participate in last Thursday's webinar, I encourage you to go back, print off the slides and take a look at them. We don't have that webinar posted yet, but we do have the slides posted if you'd like to take a look at that. Some states offer state income tax or other benefits for contributions to an ABLE account established in the contributor's home state. Wisconsin is an exception; if you receive state income tax benefits for investing in an ABLE account, make sure you review your plans disclosure documents for additional information. If you work, you may qualify for the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit, and also for a state Earned Income Tax Credit. If your state has one, I think there's around 29 states or so, plus the District of Columbia, who have a state Earned Income Tax Credit. And if you work and save earned income in your ABLE account, you may qualify for a Saver's Credit. So, at this point, Miranda, I'm going to turn it back over to you to talk to another ABLE account owner, another working ambassador. I believe he's a law student and he's someone who has a particular interest in taxes. So, Miranda, back to you.

>> Thank you so much Marlene. Yes, our ABLE account owner we're going to speak to next who's one of our 2019 ABLE ambassadors is Shane Wegner, and you're correct. So, let me give you a quick back story on Shane before we dive into some details. Shane is actually a Tennessee ABLE account holder who lives in Minnesota, and who opened his account in Tennessee before they closed it to out-of-state residents. And he chose Tennessee because, at the time, it offered the lowest fees and a choice of investments. So, taking a look through that. And as an existing account holder, he was allowed to maintain his account thereafter. So, some of the things to keep in mind; strategies that Shane is currently using to fund his ABLE account are really employment earnings, as someone who's not receiving any means-tested benefits or any disability benefits. And a goal is really retirement; that's the primary goal, and we'll hear some more about that from Shane as well, who's also very-- very savvy about the tax situation and everything, as you referenced Marlene. But our questions for Shane is; Shane, you know, you're working as a senior accessibility consultant, and as Marlene mentioned, you're also a part-time student, not just any student, a law student at Mitchell Hamlin Law School, and you've been blind since birth. When you came on board with us as one of our ABLE National Resource Center ambassadors you told us about some issues you were concerned with related to taxes and differences between 529 accounts and 529a accounts. Can you tell us why these deductions are important to you?

>> Hey, Miranda. Thank you. Yeah, being a law student just-- just means I'm a glutton for punishment really. So-- so the-- so the state I'm in, the state of Minnesota, offers a tax deduction for contributions to a 529 account, so that's a-- a college savings account, but it doesn't offer the same deduction for contributions to an ABLE account. Now, because of the new Tax and Jobs Act, we can now roll over funds from a 529 to an ABLE account, and so I've decided to employ a strategy during the what I call the accumulation phase of my ABLE account to-- to contribute $3000 to the 529 account, which is the Minnesota tax deduction limit for MSJ-- MFJ filers, married filing jointly filers, of which I am, and then 12,000 to the ABLE account. And then during the withdrawal phase, I'll be able to roll over that-- the 529 funds into the-- into the ABLE account. I'll only be able to do it up to the gift tr-- the gift tax limit, which is currently 15,000. Who knows what it'll be at the time of the withdrawal phase, but-- but that's the strategy I'm using currently and it's-- it's a little bit of a round-about way of-- of getting that-- that tax deduction. So, I'd really like to see states, mainly my own state, but, you know, other states too, give the same tax benefits that they're offering to-- to 529 accounts to ABLE accounts; it just makes sense at this point.

>> You know, it's interesting you should reference that too. I know that Miles Lesson [phonetic], who's another one of our ABLE account owners, who's an ambassador with us, uses a similar strategy as well where he lives in New Mexico, I believe, that they don't have that. So, yeah, it's something to think about, you know. There's some-- there's some flexibility here and some strategies where you can have some real benefits to it, and where it's worth taking the time to do that. Until we-- until things, you know, potentially evolve, if they were to do so. But otherwise, you found a way to make that work. And I can see that you're probably doing well in law school if you're figuring out those kinds of strategies and such a glutton for punishment. But thank you for sharing that strategy with everyone here. You know, my next question is that I'm sure we're all interested in knowing what, if anything, you've used your ABLE funds for, particularly related to accessibility in your employment situation, or has your employer or others provided what you need? You know, you talk about your goal here is retirement. Do you have what you need around employment and this is used toward that retirement goal? Can you speak a little bit to that?

>> Yeah. So-- so I-- I do have what I need around employment and accessibility and-- and, for me, the real benefits of the ABLE account is that tax free growth. And so, if I start taking money out of the ABLE account, I've lost the benefit of that tax-free growth. So, if you put a dollar in and take the dollar out, you've-- you've-- you've not really. Well, at least, as far as my situation goes, I've not benefited from that-- from that tax-free growth, unless that dollar has time to turn another dollar while it's in there. So-- so, for me, taking money out of the-- the ABLE account doesn't-- doesn't make a lot of sense. That being said, the-- the ABLE account does offer significant flexibility in the future where, say, for example, an emergency situation to come up it offers a lot more flexibility than my Roth IRA for example or my 401K or, you know, that-- even that 529 account, I have to use it for education expenses if I don't want to roll it over, of which I have plenty, by the way. But, yeah, the ABLE account is one of the more flexible withdrawal options I have available to me in-- in an emergency situation, but I haven't-- I haven't had to use that yet and hopefully I won't need to.

>> Well and, you know, everyone's situation is so unique, but it is helpful, and the reason we share these is, you know, because there are so many different stories, and stories like your own, of an individual who, you had many of your needs met, but this really does significantly contribute to your future financial stability and empowerment in retirement and what you'll have available for you. And like you mentioned, if anything were to come up, it is very different than other tax vehicles towards retirement in that you can pull that out with more flexibility and less in terms of penalties and such. So, thank you so much for sharing your story with us Shane and-- and we'll be hearing more from you. We've got a highlight on you coming up later this year for folks to check out in our AchievABLE newsletter and hear more specifics from you, but we appreciate your time here joining us on this presentation today Shane.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> And with that, I'm going to hand things over to Laurie to talk to us a little bit about that Saver's Credit we've been talking about. Everybody's been hearing that earlier in today's webinar, so let's dive into that. What is the Saver's Credit, Laurie, and can you tell us a little bit about that?

>> Sure. Thanks Miranda. So, the Saver's Credit has a formal name with the IRS; that's Retirement Savings Contributions Credit. It is a tax credit which allows qualified taxpayers who make contributions to certain retirement accounts, including the ABLE account, a tax credit, which can be deducted from the taxes they owe. The new tax law extends the credit to ABLE account owners who contribute to their own ABLE account and who meet eligibility criteria for the Saver's Credit. So, let's go over that. The person needs to be age 18 or older, not be a full-time student, and these eligibility criteria are set by the IRS. And they need to have a situation that they have not been claimed as a dependent on another person's income tax return, and their adjusted gross income cannot be more than if they're single status, $31,500, and that extends to filing status single, married filing separately, or qualified widower, or if that person is married filing jointly, then that adjusted gross income cannot be more than $63,000. So I love these tax credits that the IRS offers, and whenever I am working and planning for my taxes for the next spring, I try to utilize as many tax credits as I possibly can because it reduces my tax liability, in many cases, and allows me to save more money, and that has helped to position our family on firm financial ground. Okay, next slide. The amount of the credit is 50%, 20% or 10% of that person's contributions to a retirement plan, an IRA, or to an ABLE account, and that amount depends upon the person's adjusted gross income for that household. The percent of your contribution you are allowed to take is reduced as your adjusted gross income increases. So, the maximum credit for the Saver's Credit is $2000 for an individual or $4000 for a couple filing jointly. The 529 and 529a rollover contributions into an ABLE account do not qualify. So that's in an instance where a person has established an ABLE account with another ABLE program across the United States and they roll it over into a new state's ABLE program, that contribution is not tax qualified, and if an individual has a college savings account, a 529 college savings account, if they roll up to $15,000 of that savings into their ABLE account that calendar year, that would not qualify that individual for the Saver's Credit based upon that contribution. So eligible contributions may be reduced by any recent distribution received from your ABLE account. So, the IRS calculates that and they can see information regarding these ABLE accounts and they compare it across their records when they receive our income tax forms that we file each year. So, this tax credit is not a refundable credit, which means you must owe taxes to use the credit, and the maximum value would be reduced by the taxes you owe, down to zero. So, if someone, for example, already has their withholdings set that they're not going to get much of an income tax refund for the next spring, that's all great, but because of this credit that person may still receive this-- this saver's tax credit as a refund when they file their taxes. And if the Saver's Credit results in a tax refund you can save that refund in your ABLE account. And this also applies towards, for example, Earned Income Tax Credit, too. So, any type of income tax refund can be saved with an ABLE account. Okay, next slide. And here we talk about the Earned Income tax credit. So, this is an important boost for many people across the United States. This income tax credit can lift a family up out of poverty. So, the Earned Income Tax Credit is a tax credit for low to moderate income workers who are age 25 to 64 without children or are age 18 to 64 with one or more children in that household. To utilize that credit, the person needs to be working. So, if you have earnings from work, file and qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, you can receive up to 6431 for tax year 2018, 6318 for tax year 2017, and 6269 for tax year 2016. So we're listing these dollar amounts because many individuals who have a disability and worked for those years did not realize that they may be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit for whatever reason, maybe simply because they thought they had to have a child to be eligible for Earned Income Tax Credit; that is not the case. So, a person can file their taxes any time now, and we urge you to call 211 to find a local free tax preparation site, or you can go back to your tax preparer and ask them to double check and see if you were eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit for any of those years, and then you can get a refund for all three of those years, in addition to filing your taxes for 2019. So, you can file for it even though you didn't earn enough to have to file taxes. So, many times a person will go to a tax preparer and say I'm ready to submit my taxes, but maybe they only worked part time or part of the year and the tax preparer tells them, oh, you really don't have a need to file your taxes, but wouldn't it be nice to file your taxes, maybe at a free tax preparation site, and get that extra money back because of the eligibility for Earned Income Tax Credit. Your state may have enacted their own version of the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit as well. So, for example, I live in New York state and New York state offers a supplement to the Earned Income Tax Credit. You can file for the credit even if the tax year has passed, up to three years back. An Earned Income Tax Credit refund can be deposited into your account. And then we'll move forward and Miranda would you like to speak on introducing your employer to ABLE?

>> Great. Thank you so much Laurie. Yeah, so if we can go ahead and go to the next slide, let's talk about how employ-- an employer can benefit from ABLE. So, as we've seen, funds in ABLE accounts can be used to support an employee's ability to work and increase their productivity. Moreover, funds can support employees around their own disability and or mitigate the time and financial stress they might experience caring for a loved one who has a disability. Your employer, or if there's employers listening here with us today, welcome, the employer can elevate their reputation certainly as a disability-friendly employer taking that lead in corporate social responsibility and providing that employee support related to ABLE implementation, and also elevate the need to increase the financial capability of individuals with disabilities and their employees and employees who have family members with disabilities. So, on the next slide we can see how might you introduce your employer to ABLE. So if you're working and either, one, not receiving any type of benefit, or two, you're working and you are receiving means-tested or any other type of benefit, there's an important role that your employer can play with regards to your ABLE account, and you can help introduce them to that. Actions to take would be to consider sharing the information on the next few slides with your employer, sign up for our AchievABLE Newsletter, which you can do right up off of our homepage and our website, ablenrc.org. You can also invite your employer to join you on our ABLE NRC October National Disability Employment Awareness Month webinars where we're going to be doing more on this topic. We devoted this week to it; we'll devote that month to the topic of working age people with disabilities and employment and ABLE, talk more about these work incentives, and all of these other opportunities, tax credits and such. So please do note that the actions you're taking with your employer can really help your colleagues with disabilities or others who have family members with disabilities as well. So, it could be beneficial to you, could be beneficial to others. So, the next slide talks about how might an a-- employer integrate ABLE into their human resources packages and the support they provide to employees. In October, as I mentioned, we're going to be having webinars in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month and we're going to be sharing information strategies and resources for employers from here at the ABLE National Resource Center on how to access informational resources and NDI-led educational webinars on the benefits of ABLE accounts and strategies for better financial decision-making. NDI, again, is our parent organization that oversees the ABLE National Resource Center. We've got a lot of great resources between our two organizations. Also, employers can help to assess-- with assessing the financial well-being of their employees with disabilities and those who have family members who experience disability and incorporate access to some generic and disability specific financial education and related targeted support strategies for their workforce population who are-- who might be impacted by disability. Of course, that includes tax advantaged ABLE accounts and related benefits and incorporating those potentially into human resource benefits packages with also an option to possibly match funding for eligible employees and their families, and we hope to share more resources and tools on that in October. So, with that, I'm going to hand things over to-- well actually, I'm going to hand things over to myself to talk a little bit more about introducing ABLE into service plans that support employment for those who might have a service plan. So, if you are receiving means-tested benefits and working with a service provider towards an employment goal, so that would be a service provider such as vocational rehabilitation, the American Job Centers or one-stop or career centers, as they might be called in your area, an employment network, working with ticket to work and Social Security Administration, or an independent living center. You can ask to include ABLE in your service plan. So, service plans that support employment, those are plans outlining an individual's vocational goal and the supports, activities and resources needed to achieve vocational goals. The plan's in writing and agreed upon by the individual, their circle of support, service providers who are supporting them towards achieving that goal. But what role can ABLE play in the service plan supporting your employment? Well you're probably picking this up by now and figuring this out, but just to outline this for you, an ABLE account really can be used to augment services and supports that are already available. They're not meant to replace but to augment, to support services that may already be available or funds that, you know, or fund services or supports that are not available that could count as qualified disability expenses. And as we've seen, that can be pretty broad what those would be, and specifically we've had examples here talking about what that-- what those might be supporting employment. But here, again, some examples; we've referenced them earlier, but paying for additional job coaching beyond what might already be covered, counseling, assistive technology that's not covered, transportation, which can be a huge factor in supporting employment, work uniforms, tools, housing, a home, as Hector demonstrated. You know, those all go a long way towards supporting employment having those types of resources in place. So, on the next slide we'll see why should service providers integrate ABLE? How can it be done? Finding and sharing resources has always been a challenge, and here at the ABLE National Resource Center we really have worked and are working to make it easy to find and share financial capability resources, tools and training. Sharing that information about ABLE accounts and integrating ABLE accounts into discussions and service plan development at that individual level can heighten the services that a service provider is providing, increase their visibility as service providers, demonstrate commitment to supporting financial independence, and also strengthen partnerships, and ABLE accounts really can serve as an anchor for that type of activity. And ultimately, service providers can help those that they're serving to access and benefit-- benefit from this tool an ABLE account that really will support success in work and in life, as we've seen demonstrated by our ABLE account owners here today. So, I'm going to hand things over to Marlene to quickly share best practices and next steps, and then we'll be sharing resources with you. So, Marlene.

>> Okay, let's-- thanks Miranda. We'll first talk about a couple of best practices. First of all, whether you're receiving public benefits or not receiving public benefits, as we've said, employment will enhance your financial stability and an ABLE account, in addition to employment, can further increase your financial well-being. And then, along with working, if you're eligible for them, you can combine using one or more Social Security work incentives with other support. We heard Laurie talk about the Saver's Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit and there are lots of ways to increase your savings potential. Also investigate all potential no cost funding sources for any employment-related items or services so that you can preserve, and if you're using an investment option, potentially grow your ABLE funds as long as possible, and we heard Shane talk about that for-- for a bit. On the next slide. Some next steps. We encourage you to open an ABLE account early and learn all the rules of the program. If you are working or you are planning to work, learn all you can about your benefits about work incentives and about the IRS programs and tax credits which really can maximize your potential savings. Develop a plan for saving in an ABLE account, save regularly, and create a zero balanced budget plan. At the National Disability Institute, we have a link there for you so that you can create a zero-balance budget plan; it's really a great resource. Know that you can work at whichever level you choose and you can maintain your public benefits or transition off benefits. But what's important is to always talk to a benefits counselor. We talked about CWICs and about the WIPAs. Real important to get the information you need before proceeding forward. Your situation, your needs, and your goals are all unique. Make wise decisions and maintain good records and receipts. And again, gathering information and resources is key. Next slide. Okay, Miranda, I am going to turn it back over to you.

>> Great, thanks. Yes. I appreciate it. Yeah, we're bringing it home here. We wanted to leave all of you with some resources and one of the great resources is, you know, our ABLE account owners. We've referenced to our two serve as ambassadors this year and from last year our alumni whose stories and milestones, they continue to meet their ABLE goals and work towards them as well. You can see all their nice smiling faces here on the screen in front of you. We've got a link to our 2018 ABLE NRC Ambassador Alumni stories, as well as to our 2019 ABLE NRC Ambassador stories. And check those out. We've got a mixture of folks who are working age, who are also family members, and they've got some pretty powerful stories and some great strategies as well that they've been moving forward and living into, and sharing with us here at the Resource Center and that we've been problem solving with them as well, so it's been a great journey and I think, you know, there's a great number of good stories and examples, how does this turn into action in real people's real lives. How is ABLE meaningful and what does it do for folks? So, take a moment and check some of those stories out; I think it'll be worth your time. Go ahead and go to the next slide and you'll see here we have a num-- two slides worth of resources. I'm not going to go through these resources, but they're pretty self-explanatory by name, and then there's the link right there on the screen. So, download this electronically and check some-- check those resources out. Most of them are going to link you directly back to our ABLE NRC website and some of them will reference you to other sites as well. And with that, let's go ahead and, as we're wrapping up here, please do help us spread the word about ABLE accounts. Share information about ABLE accounts with your friends, your family, your community groups. Sign up for our AchievABLE newsletter; we've got a link right there; if you were to click on it it's also on our website. You've got to scroll down a little bit on the homepage but it'll be there on the left. Sign up for news in our Listserv and that'll get you signed up for our AchievABLE newsletter as well. You can also connect with us on social media, on Facebook and Twitter, and participate in our next ABLE to Save webinar next week, on Thursday, or access our archived ones if you haven't seen them already; they'll be posted on our resource section under webinars on the website within five business days. And our website again is www.ablenrc.org. And with that, as we're wrapping up and thanking all of you so much for joining us here today, we'd also like to thank again our ABLE to Save week sponsor, which is the Attainable Savings Plan, the ABLE savings plan that's offered by the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority and managed by Fidelity. They are headquartered in Boston. Fidelity credits their customer obsession, drive to think differently, and commitment to people, communities and business and allowing them to grow from a small mutual fund company to one of the largest and most diversified financial services firms in the world and you can visit their website at www.fidelity.com/attainable. And with that, we'd like to encourage you please do fill out our post-training survey as you're exiting today's webinar and let us know what you thought of the information presented and any other comments you might have and we thank you again so much for being here with us today. Hope you will join us again next week and the visiting our website and accessing some more materials as you educate yourselves and move forward. Thank you so much everyone. Have a great day.