>> Well hello everyone and thank you so much everyone for being here with us today as we have our celebrating all of the ways that you are able final webinar of our Able to Save month. Today we'll be announcing the winners from our Able to Save video contest and talking about next steps that are coming out of this month and this journey we've been on these five Thursdays of August. The ABLE National Resource Center is funded through a grant from Prudential and we can go to the next slide. And for those of you who may be joining us here for the first time today, or who have been with us throughout, just a little bit of information about the ABLE National Resource Center and myself. I'm, my name is Miranda Kennedy. I'm the Director of the ABLE National Resource Center. But let me tell you just a little bit about ourselves before we head into our webinar and our discussion today. The ABLE National Resource Center 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. The ABLE National Resource Center does not open Able accounts nor manage state Able programs, however, we do work with Able programs at the state level and our mission really here is to educate, promote, and support the positive impact that 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 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. And you can reach us on our website at ablenrc.org. And I'd like to, if we could go to the next slide, thank our sponsor for this week four of our Able to Save month. This week's sponsor is Fifth Third Bank and we'll be sharing more with you about Fifth Third Bank and their work in the Able space at the end of our presentation today. But we'd like to give a special thank you to them right here at the top of the hour. So before we get started I need to hand things over to my colleague, our project coordinator at the ABLE National Resource Center, Al Milioto who's going to walk us through just some logistical information for listening to the webinar today. So Al?

>> Thanks so much Miranda. Welcome everyone. Listening to the webinar. The audio for today's meeting can be accessed by using computer audio or by calling in by phone. If you select computer audio, please make sure your speakers are turned on or headphones are turned in. If you do not have sound capabilities on your computer or if you prefer to listen by phone, you can dial in to 1-929-205-6099. The meeting code is 263005845. Captioning. Real-time captioning is provided during this webinar. The captions can be found by clicking on the closed captions icon in your Zoom controls at the bottom of the screen. If you do not see the captions after clicking the button, please alert us via the chat box. You may also view captions in your browser at the following address: streamtext.net/player?event+=ndi. Submitting questions. Please use the Q & A box to submit any questions you have during the webinar and please try not to use the chat box. Our experts are monitoring the Q & A box and we want to make sure that all your answers get, all of your questions get answered, so the Q & A box is the best option for that. And you could also explore the ABLE National Resource Center website for any answers to questions you may have or additional information within our archived webinars, resources, and newsletters. Our address is www.ablenrc.org. Technical assistance. If you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar you can use the chat box-- that's right the chat box this time-- to send a message to me 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/webinars. With that I will turn things back over to Miranda.

>> Great. Thank you so much, Al. Today joining me on our presentation are my colleagues Maureen Ulisky who's the Manager of Financial Empowerment-- one of our Managers of Financial Empowerment with the National Disability Institute and she serves as a subject matter expert here with us at the ABLE National Resource Center. You'll also see responses in that Q & A box from our colleague Lori Seyler [assumed spelling] who is managing that and has done such an excellent job doing that throughout this month and supporting us from that end. So we also have our 2019 ABLE account owners and family members who serve as our ABLE NRC ambassadors. We have three of those folks here with us today. You're going to be hearing from Davinna Christian who's the parent of an ABLE account owner, and Denise Gehringer who's also a parent of an ABLE account owner as well as Taylor Carty who's a student and a working age ABLE account owner and we're very happy to have them joining us and appreciate them joining us for multiple of the webinars throughout this month. So you'll be hearing from them. And if we can go to the next slide, what we're going to be covering today, we'll do a quick recap again of our ABLE to Save Month and where our materials are located on our website, some things that we've covered this month and what the point of this month was. We're very happy to have been able to engage in this with you. It's been very exciting for all of us. We'll be talking about our lessons learned from this month. The things that we've covered. We've covered quite a lot and maybe you've been here for every one of our webinars or some of them, but we'll do a very quick recap of that with Marlene. And then we'll be talking about getting started and visiting our newly redesigned ABLE NRC website where we can find some of the great resources that we've been sharing and acquaint you all with that. We'll do a desktop share and show the homepage and where to go. Then of course we're going to be hearing from Davinna, Denise, and Taylor, our ABLE account owners and their family members who serve as our ambassadors and hearing some final advice and, you know, comments from them. And the piece de resistance, right, here at the end we're going to celebrate our ABLE to Save video contest winners! That's going to help us bring to the end our ABLE to Save Month. We've got contest winners who submitted some pretty creative information about their ABLE stories and ABLE goals and we'll be celebrating them and talking about our third, second, and first place prize winners and introducing all of you to them. And then we'll be following up with just next steps. What to do next? What do we do after all of the great information we've been sharing this month? So with that, let's go ahead and take a look at the next slide where you're just going to see-- and again, with all things ABLE to Save Month and lessons learned I'm going to just cover this next slide here on ABLE to Save Month which was really a nationwide and-- which an annual nationwide-- we're doing it the third year. We've done it this year. It's an awareness campaigns, a grassroots awareness campaign that's taken place throughout this month. This is our last week, our last webinar of the month and the goal's really been to provide information about Achieving a Better Life Experience or ABLE accounts, so that individuals with disabilities and their families and supporters, all of you who are joining us here, can become more knowledgeable and comfortable around opening an ABLE account and going to your state program of choice to do so. And as part of that, as I mentioned before, we were promoting our ABLE to Save video contest and today's the day we're going to announce the winners. So let's go to the next slide. Got a little ahead of myself there. Okay. Thanks Al. So our weekly ABLE to Save webinars that have been taking place through this month. On this slide you're going to see the link to the place on our website where you can get the archives-- and we'll show that to you when we go on our website as well-- to our first webinar, our welcome webinar, the orientation to what you need to know about ABLE that took place on Thursday, August 1st. Our first full week was August 8th where we talked about opening an ABLE account and key decisions for success. Our second week was August 15th. We had a webinar on ABLE best practices and action steps for family members and supporters or circle of support and we were sharing information all throughout that week with that targeted audience. Our third week was focused on ABLE best practices for working age adults. And here we are week four, the final Thursday of the month, celebrating all the ways that you are able, announcing winners from our video contest, and next steps. And there's links to where that, those archives can be found and all the materials to go along with that. So, Marlene, can you tell us in terms of hashtag Able to Save Month, what have we learned?

>> Okay thanks Miranda. Okay, Able to Save Month and what have we learned? And we've learned a lot. Our goal throughout the ABLE to Save Month was to provide you with accurate information and to answer a lot of your questions so that you're ABLE ready and more comfortable with opening up an ABLE account. And also with using your account. We talked about what is ABLE, why ABLE, five steps to ABLE and we learned who is eligible. And with who is eligible, individuals actually have wrote into us at the ABLE National Resource Center and they said that they were happy to learn that an individual with a disability who may not be receiving a public benefit from social security may be ABLE eligible. And we were glad that we could pass along that valuable information. We also learned about shaping an ABLE account and opening an account. And I know many of you have learned that we at the ABLE National Resource Center actually don't open the accounts. The states actually administer the accounts and you can open an account at the state website. We also learned about savings and investing options. And again, many participants were real surprised to learn that some programs have an FDIC savings account option available which allows your money to grow. A lot of folks didn't know that and they wrote in to us about that. You may want to save there while you learn more about investing choices or perhaps while you follow the rate of return. Many of you had questions about qualified disability expenses and we talked about them and we gave you some examples of qualified disability expenses so that you would understand them better. Also last month we took it a step further and we talked about nonqualified disability expenses so that you would understand some of the tax implications if you use ABLE funds for a nonqualified purpose. We've learned about funding the ABLE account either through a special needs trust or a pool trust. We learned about how working individuals can contribute more money into their ABLE account through ABLE to Work. And I have to preface that with qualified individuals contributing more money to their ABLE account. And finally we learned about integrating ABLE into your service plan or introducing ABLE to your employer. Throughout the month we talked about best practices and next steps and we've given you a variety of checklists or questions to ask along with some resources. So you can read a little bit more and maybe conduct your own independent research on topics that interest you. On the next slide, get started and visit our website. And I'm so excited that in this segment you'll be introduced to our new website which you can still access at the same link that Miranda had given you earlier. It's ablenrc.org and it's the same URL that you've always used. But before we do that, let's briefly talk a little bit about getting started. And one of the best ways to get started, and we've talked about this a little bit in the past but it's so important I wanted you to familiarize yourself with this, and that's our road map to enrollment. And that's still a part of our website. It contains valuable information when you're making that decision, when you're in the beginning stages, and when you're gathering information on opening the ABLE account. The road map contains five steps and they will largely answer most of your questions when you go to that link. Each step on the road map it does contain brief videos, and by brief I mean about three to five minutes. It contains fast facts, and the road map answers the questions shown on your screen. The five questions. What is ABLE? Who is ABLE eligible? How can ABLE funds be used? How do you manage your ABLE account? And how do you enroll? Now if you click on the link on this slide you will arrive at the road map on our website. If you're visiting our website, that information-- or this information rather-- is found under get started on the menu bar. On the next slide. Okay on this slide, as a resource, the link for each step on the road map is listed. So you can just click on each slide-- on each link rather-- and it will bring you to that appropriate step on our road map. Once you review that information, if you find that you need or you want additional information on that particular step or that particular topic you can actually use the search feature on our website. And to find the search feature you would go to the main page on our website and in the upper right hand corner you'll see a small magnifying glass. And if you click on it, it will bring up a search box and you can search for whatever information you need. So on the next slide. On this slide it's shop the states with the comparison tool options and when you're shopping the states in which you're trying to make a decision on where to open your ABLE account, you'll find three comparison tools and they're listed on your screen. And each of them are very helpful. They're all found again on the website under the get started link on the menu-- get started portion of the menu bar. And they can also be accessed at each of these links on this slide. The first tool is the three state comparison tool and it allows you to select and compare up to three states side by side. There are 12 preset characteristics of the state programs including items such as whether or not that particular state allows enrollment by out of state residents, whether there's an income tax deduction for state residents or credit. It includes restrictions on disbursement. Whether there's a debit card, an annual fee, and so on. Now the second tool shown as tool tool-- tool two on your screen-- it's a way to customize your search and it's a new tool on our website. We've spent a lot of time compiling this tool and organizing it. And when you use this tool what you'll do is you'll select the state you live in and then you'll select one or more of the features which are important to you. It allows you to customize your search. The search can include things like a debit card, Medicaid payback waived, whether or not there's a tax deduction or credit for in state residents, the deposit hold period, whether the account is FDI- insur-- FDIC insured, and whether there is a financial advisor. Now once you make your selection, your state, if they have an ABLE program, will appear first and the other states which meet your search criteria are listed below it. Now this tool allows you to view all of the information or you can download that information. Or you can actually download a file which contains information on all of the states across the country with those features. So that's really really a great tool as well to compare and select. Now the third tool or the last tool shown on your screen under tool three-- again, it's under the get started on the menu bar-- it's the map of the country, it's shown on your screen, and it allows you to click on a particular state to get that state's particular plan details. The details include the limit for ABLE accounts. And remember, the state limit for all ABLE accounts is different in each state across the country and it's tied to the 529 college savings account limit so it varies. It also provides the program name, the link to the state website, and so on. If you'd like to dive further into the state program, that page also includes a state disclosure document that provides even more detail. Now if the information is unclear to you or if you need additional information, you're encouraged to contact that state ABLE program and you could find their contact information on their website which you can find here. So on the next slide. Now in addition to the road map and the state comparison tool options, we have a variety of other helpful resources on our website and one of the resources is a case summary series. It was written by attorney Jim Sheldon of New York who is a national expert on benefits. He wrote the six case summaries and they explain ABLE accounts and how savings in an ABLE account and using an ABLE account can complement eligibility for public benefits or complement a special needs trust. It's really really-- these six summaries are really a great addition to our resources. Now Miranda, I'd like to say that our website is very resource rich and I want to thank you for leading our team which has worked very hard to provide everyone with the resources they need to understand ABLE better. So Miranda, can you tell us a little more about any other resources available on our website?

>> Certainly Marlene, and we're going to show you where these are shortly but we also have our road map to enrollment, our three state comparison tool which we touched base on, and the comparing program features tool and the case summary series that Marlene just covered. Those are all available to you 24/7 on our website. We also have federal guidance from the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Agricultural Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, and Housing and Urban Development or HUD. So we've got guidance from each of those federal agencies around ABLE accounts specifically and how that interacts with those programs and those services. We've also got information on ABLE accounts and tax time savings. We have multiple different ABLE toolkits and we also have ABLE accounts and a special needs and pooled trust comparison chart that we developed in coordination with the special needs alliance. It's a nice side by side comparison chart so you can see, you know, when you might benefit from having one or the other or in many instances you might benefit from having both. And it gives very specific details. So these are some additional resources. They're hyperlinked here. And they're also available on our website which we're going to go to here in just a moment as Al queues me up for that. So, welcome everybody. We're going to check out ablenrc.org's newly redesigned website. You see a picture of it here and Al is queuing us up and setting us up so that we can check out the home page. I'm not going to do a deep dive into the website but I want to show you all what it looks like and where are some of the resources we just talked about that Marlene just covered that I've just referenced and that we've been talking about quite frankly all month, where you might find those. So up here in the left hand corner, this is always going to take you back to the home page. And when you click on the logo for ablenrc-- for the ABLE National Resource Center in the upper left hand corner, you'll also see under what is ABLE, you know on the menu bar you'll see some of those resources that Marlene identified, what is ABLE that'll give you information about the history of the ABLE act, debunking myths, federal guidance, some of those resources we just mentioned. You click on those, that'll take you to those resources. Under the get started button on the upper menu bar you'll see that's the road map to enrollment with those five steps to get to enrollment. And also which program is best for me? Those three tools, you can find them right here off of this main menu bar. The manage the account is actually for the road map to independence which is once you have an ABLE account opened, what do you do to make the most of that ABLE account? And this toolkit-- this road map, sorry-- will give you another set of five steps with three to five minute videos, very similar to the road map to enrollment, and details around setting those financial goals, building that circle of support who can help you reach those goals, making smart financial decisions, monitoring your account and making adjustments as well. And celebrating financial independence. If we go back up to the upper right hand corner, we're going to be building out more materials under our service providers and our employers pages here as well so that service providers and employers can come here to get great best practices, promising practices, good resources as well. If you look at under the resources, that's where you're going to find, you know, news, webinars, tools. The webinars will be archived or upcoming webinars. You can find those here. Different tools to use. Newsletters. Policy information about ABLE. That's all going to be located under resources. There's more information about that in terms of about us, how to subscribe, you know, or donate, contact information. There's resources in Spanish. We have many of our toolkit resources that are available in Spanish. And there's a search function on the upper right hand corner as well. I'm going to see if I can wrest control of this from Al. If we scroll down-- Al if you can scroll down-- we're going to see here on the screen, you know, information around who we serve, what we do, you'll find that information as well in the about us section at the top. But if you keep going below you'll find you can click on news, information that's coming out about ABLE accounts, webinars that are upcoming, how to sign up for those. And if we keep scrolling down you're also going to find on our home page a lot of the same things you'll find in that menu bar in the upper right hand corner, right? But you can find those three tools here in another format that you might click on. Those three tools that Marlene just referenced in terms of, you know, which state has the best program for you? What are those features that might be in place that are helpful to you that you might be interested in learning more about? How to do a three state comparison. How to look at all the programs or compare them by feature. And again, you'll see over on the right hand side, steps to get started and managing your account-- this is mimicked similar to the top toolbar. We want to make sure you can't miss this great information. So, you know, as with any good website there's some redundancy here to make sure you're not going to accidentally skip some-- skip over something by not being able to find exactly where it's at. But if we scroll below that, you're going to see very excitingly-- and in fact, as luck would have it-- the three ABLE account owners and family members of account owners who are going to be speaking here in just a moment, they're the top three pictures that we see here. You've got Denise, Davinna, and Taylor there at the top, and below them three more of our ABLE ambassadors. And if you click here you can read more of their stories. We've got nine this year. We've got nine from last year. You can find the links to the previous nine from last year and their stories by clicking on this and reading more about their stories and some of the strategies they're using, the goals they have that they're living into. It's such a wide diversity of ABLE experience and what people are saving for and where they're at in their lives and how ABLE is helping. If we scroll below there, we just have some additional information on how to support us with the ABLE NRC mission, how to sign up today for our newsletter-- we have a monthly newsletter, the AchievABLE Newsletter that goes out-- and then below that you're going to find information just about our wonderful sponsors who sponsor the work we do here at the ABLE National Resource Center. So the one other thing I want to mention is in the upper right hand corner-- this is a little trick that I think might make things easier for folks-- you'll see the little magnifying glass. There you go, Al. If you click on that magnifying glass-- and I'm just going to give a quick example here-- so click on that magnifying class Al, and if you would just type in case summaries into the search bar that shows up. Yeah if he clicks on that then when he types in case summaries into the search bar that's going to show up--

>> Technology at its finest. I don't think it's going to--

>> Okay. Are we having a little [inaudible]?

>> Yeah we're having [inaudible].

>> So, yeah it might be that it's interfacing with the webinar. So I'm just going to walk you all through this. If you're not operating on a webinar and you're on the website it should be very easy that you click on the tool-- the little magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner that Al's got the cursor pointed over. It's in the uppermost right hand corner. And what you're going to do is in the box that shows up you could type in case summaries, right? Something that maybe-- where is that on here? This site is very highly searchable. So if you know the name of what you're looking for or you can, you know, put in some keyword details, that'll be able to pull up that case summary page that all of those resources are going to be listed on that Marlene walked through. So, that's how that works and I want to encourage you to use that function frequently because I know I do. Okay. All right, with that let's go ahead and go back to the PowerPoint because we are joined today by Davinna, Denise, and Taylor who have learned that they are ABLE ready. We actually have, as we're queuing up the PowerPoint here, we have over 45,000 ABLE accounts that have been opened across the United States with $260 million in management in those ABLE accounts. And this is data as of the end of June 2019. So our question to you is do you want to open an ABLE account one day or maybe make today day one. It's your decision. So let's hear, as we're making those decisions, from some of our ABLE account owners and their family members who are serving as our ambassadors. So our first ABLE account mother-- the mother of the ABLE account owner Dushon Christian is Davinna Christian who serves as one of our ambassadors. And Davinna, you joined us throughout this month and we've talked to you and we've heard from you on past webinars, I'm going to just ask you two questions. The first question is, what if anything have you learned during ABLE to Save Month. And the next is, do you have any advice for other parents who've not yet opened an ABLE account for their son or daughter? Davinna?

>> Hi. Can you hear me?

>> I can hear you great, thanks.

>> Okay. I learned a lot of things but one of the things that impacted me most was that funds can be rolled over from a 529 account to an ABLE account. I did not know that. Dushon does-- or did have a 529 account, so I am now in the process of getting that done. That was one of the most important things I learned this month. Suggestions I have for parents or caregivers of loved ones that's living with a disability is don't wait. Open your my ABLE account or your ABLE account now and then do the research as you go. There is so much to learn about ABLE accounts. If you wait you'll never open it because you will forever be doing research. There is, seems like changes all the time, especially when you start looking at the different states that offer them. So my suggestion would be to open an account with the basics, the bare minimum, and then as you do research, you can broaden your horizons in the ABLE world.

>> Right. And Davinna I would say, I mean you opened one fairly early on and you've been learning as you go, and even sending out that link to your family and friends to Dushon's graduation and sharing that so others could contribute to achieving some of the milestones and the goals that you have set for yourselves. That can make a real difference. So I know that even as one of our ambassadors since January, you've learned something this month and you've been learning as you've been going too but benefitting. Because I know even at the very beginning when we first started working and talking with you, you talked about some of the financial issues that the ABLE account really helped you to address or were very helpful. So thank you so much Davinna for joining us this month and for sharing your insights and your recommendation to others who might be in your similar position. Okay, well with that we're going to go ahead and next up we're going to hear from Denise Gehringer and we've got-- Denise is the mother of Jacob Gehringer and he is an ABLE account owner. They're in Nebraska. And Denise I'm going to ask you as one of our ABLE NRC ambassadors, the same question that I just asked Davinna. And you were an early adopter. Jacob was the first person to open an ABLE account in Nebraska. But I'm going to ask you those same two questions. What, if anything, have you learned from ABLE to Save Month? And do you have any advice for other parents or family members or caregivers who've not yet opened up or helped open up an ABLE account for their family member?

>> Well, what I can say is I'm going to echo a little bit of what Davinna mentioned. Primarily I've learned that across the board ABLE accounts are quite easy to set up online and if you want to get more complex or into the weeds a little bit more, you can. Just like Davinna mentioned, go ahead and get it set up and then learn more about how to utilize it to its full potential as you go. And that leads me into my advice. My advice is always to open an account as early as you can. I'm often asked by parents of younger kids, you know, looking back what would you do differently? And although we weren't able to do this differently because ABLE accounts weren't available, this is my advice. And I know when families, children with special needs are little, your days, weeks, months are full of just trying to become an expert on all that applies to your child's diagnosis. You're trying to become an insurance and a benefits expert. You have to become an education specialist as well as an expert on related therapies and services. Just saying all of this out loud gives me anxiety. All of this while trying to balance work, family commitments and sibling's needs and activities as well. Most days, and I remember all of this and some days they're still that way, are just about getting through the day. And the win for the day is that everyone made it through and everyone's in bed. And so I understand that your energy or what there might possibly be left of it is spent on immediate needs and that things that can wait often must wait and get pushed down the list. But my advice is to make it a priority, to carve out just one hour of time to get your ABLE account set up for your family member. If you have to, just so you can think because I know there's some days that having your own thoughts and time to process things can be challenging, get a sitter. Bribe a sibling. Beg grandparents to provide that support your family member might need. Or, you know, do your best to find the strength to stay up one more hour after the kids go to bed so you can go online, get that ABLE account set up. It will not be stressful, I promise you. You can even set up automatic transfers so near around your time when your paycheck comes you can have even a small amount if you start with that transfer automatically into the ABLE account so it's not something you have to think of. I so wish I would've had that tool available for me over the years when Jake was growing up. I just really would've done anything to have that. And, you know, we are now using his account to plan for his future and additional present needs. He's 23 now but, you know, many years of savings have passed because a tool like ABLE was not available prior to recent years. So that's my advice from a mom who has a few years of navigating the many disability related systems under my belt. Don't let any more time go by to get that ABLE account started. It gets lost in the daily chaos because it's not an immediate need and it's very important to get that set up. You'll be so glad that you did. You'll look back one day and pat yourself on the back and say I'm glad I made that a priority. And that is my advice to families.

>> Thank you so much Denise. I think even, you know, the concept of what you're talking about where letting people have your Ugift link so that, you know, all those years of family members feeling like they couldn't give Jake, or Dushon for Davinna, you know 20 bucks or what have you in a birthday card or for different milestones they might achieve. You know you can throw that money into an ABLE account now and grow it slowly. You know if you're just getting started, it's a way to start and a place to put that that's not going to be problematic in terms of any other benefits that you might be having. So, thank you so much for Davinna and Denise from speaking from the perspective of, you know, of family members of ABLE account owners. Next up we're going to have Taylor Carty speak. And Taylor is young, in her early 20's getting started off in life and giving it quite the start. And Taylor, you're an ABLE account owner yourself who's a student as well as a working age adult. And from your perspective, can you share the s- I'm going to ask you the same two questions. What, if anything, have you learned during ABLE to Save Month or even throughout your time here as an ABLE NRC ambassador? And also do you have any advice, what advice might that be for those who've not yet opened an ABLE account for themselves or for a family member.

>> Hi Miranda, can you hear me okay?

>> I can hear you okay. It's a little low so maybe put the mic a little closer to the mouth.

>> Hi everyone. So one thing I took away from ABLE to Save webinars this month is especially with the Medicaid payback extension is that it only counts if you do it in the state where you open an ABLE account. So like if you have a Cal ABLE account, then the Medicaid exemption would only count in California. I also learned a lot about rollovers and some things about the qualified disability expenses that I didn't even know. One thing I would say when you're first opening an ABLE account is the compare tool on the ABLE National Resource Center site is really, really helpful. I know it helped me a lot when I was picking between plans and I think it's also really good to look over the plan disclosure documents. I know Miranda and Marlene mentioned a couple of webinars ago that they are really, really long-- like 100 pages-- and they are, but I think if you just, you can skim them, they're really, really helpful. And I just want to reiterate what Denise and Davinna said in that it's a really good idea, even if you're just hesitating about opening an ABLE account, just do it because, I mean it's so helpful. When I-- I wish my parents and me had done it when I first started with college because I think it would've really helped my parents just have more freedom, I think financially. So even if you're just thinking about [inaudible] just pull the trigger and do it. Yeah.

>> Okay great. Thank you so much Taylor for sharing your insight as well. I think there's a theme there between the three of you. And by the way, none of them are paid representatives of any ABLE program in particular. They really just are ABLE account owners who are benefitting from this or family members who are seeing, you know, the applicability of this resource, this new tool that, you know, our legislators have given us through an act of congress that allows people to finally save and, you know, invest as well, funds above those means tested benefits limits that have existed. You know the one thing you mentioned too Taylor about those disclosure documents, and everyone does need to read their disclosure documents. I will say this-- while they might be 100 pages long, generally I found that their table of contents are pretty clear and you can find the section you need to look at pretty quick. So it's not like you have to, if you're-- read through it once but then if you need to find something later on, you'll be able to find it very quickly by reading, by checking in on that table of contents and just going straight to the page where it'll give you a pretty clear explanation of whatever it is you're looking at from the program level. And all of those disclosure documents were hyperlinked in those tools that we've identified for you. So be sure to check those out. And thank you, all three of you, for being here with us throughout this month and this year and the insight you give us into these accounts and your experience with them and being able to share your goals with us. If we go to the next slide we're going to show just again, and I know we've shared this throughout other webinars this month, there's the links to, you can find more about Taylor and Davinna and Denise's and their families stories and the ABLE NRC ambassadors from this year, 2019. There's a link to check out their stories. Also as you just saw, they're right there on the home page of our newly redesigned website. And as well you can get the link off of that to our ambassadors, our alumni from last year and their stories. So there's lots of different stories to check out and we encourage you to do so. So now we are moving to celebrating ABLE with our ABLE to Save video contest winners. In the month of July we held a contest. We asked folks to submit a one minute video telling us about themselves, about their ABLE account and their goals for their ABLE account. And we're so pleased today to be able to share with you our three contest winners. I do want to say that we had some really wonderful-- it was very hard to choose which ABLE to Save videos to-- our panels had a challenging time because there were such wonderful stories, such diversity. But I think we're really pleased with the winners that we have to share with you and their stories we're going to be sharing with you here. So let's go ahead and Al, if you could queue us up, we're going to, we'll be sharing and announcing first our third place prize winner who will be willing $100 deposited into his ABLE account. And our winner is Elliott Paine or DJ Paine as he is also known as, with Florida ABLE United. Elliott's 23 years old and is saving for future needs and to continue to make his audience's hands clap which I think you're going to understand here in just a moment as Al queues up our video and we're going to see the one minute video from DJ Paine. So Al can we let her roll? Thank you.

>> Hello. My name is Elliott Paine, also known as DJ Paine. I live in Palm Bay, Florida. My ABLE account is with Florida ABLE United. I'm able to save my future needs so I can make [inaudible] hands clap [inaudible].

[ Music ]

>> [Singing] Turn it up!

[ Music ]

>> [Singing] Somebody save your soul 'cause you've been sinning in this city, I know. Too many troubles, all these lovers got you losing control. You're like a drug to me, a luxury, my sugar and gold. I want the good life, every good night, you're a hard one to hold. 'Cause you don't even know. I can make your hands clap, your hands clap, your hands clap, your hands clap, your hands clap, your hands clap, your hands clap.

>> Okay wonderful. Thank you so much Al for sharing that and DJ Paine, Elliott, thank you so much for submitting your video. We're thrilled that you're our third place prize winner and I defy anyone who is listening and watching that to not have been bouncing up and down in your seat a little bit if you're able. But Elliott, as he mentioned, lives in Melbourne, Florida. He's a part time employee at Jersey Mike's and enjoys interacting with customers and staff at his job. And as you can see, he's a total people person. Elliott shares that he enjoys many hobbies and avocations. He loves to kayak and clearly loves music and has an extensive knowledge base of performers and songs. He also performs improve monthly with improve at the library in Coco Beach and is an improve student with the Not Quite Right improve troop. Elliott is the inspiration for the nonprofit Blast Off Performing Arts Incorporated, a Melbourne, Florida based organization that teaches improv to people with disabilities. Elliott is an accomplished DJ as we just witnessed, and he loves to perform for audiences of all kinds. His gigs have included surprise parties, graduation parties, a wedding, open houses, the moose lodge, and theme parties at local assisted living facilities. And Elliott picked the song "Handclap" by Fitz and the Tantrums because that song is about wanting to have love in your life and making a connection. So we really appreciate him sharing his goals with us and we're thrilled to be able to have him as our third place prize winner. So thank you so much Elliott. Let's go now to our second place prize winner. Theodore Galanos is with the Texas ABLE program. He's 45 years old. We're going to be learning a little bit more about him and he's our second place prize winner winning $250 into his ABLE account where he is saving for a business providing tech support for assistive technology and creating audio scrapbooks for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. So Al, let's go ahead and watch Theodore's one minute video.

>> Hello everyone. My name is Ted Galanos and I live in Houston, Texas. My ABLE account is through the Texas ABLE program. I live in a nursing home and I have several significant disabilities, some of which are blindness, wheelchair mobility, and amputations to all of my fingers. The ABLE account allows for my family and friends to contribute to me financially without putting my benefits at risk. I am able to save to go on special outings outside of the nursing home such as adaptive water skiing, hunting, and fishing. I also hope to save enough to get an accessible apartment or house and have provider care services for my daily living needs. [beeping]

>> All right. Great. Well and congratulations again to Theodore Galanos who shares that his friends call him Ted. If we can go back to the PowerPoint. Ted shared with us that he's 45 years old and as he mentioned in his video is residing in a nursing home in Houston, Texas. Ted enjoys adaptive sports like water skiing, hunting, and fishing. Indoors Ted shares that he enjoys audio production on his adapted laptop and that he is blind from retinitis pigmentosa and uses a manual wheelchair for mobility and has much of his fingers amputated. His goal, as he mentioned, is to start a business giving assistive technology tech support. And he also wants to help blind and visually impaired folks create audio scrapbooks. Ted's mantra is adapt and overcome. And we hope that with the contribution to his ABLE account of his second place prize winnings he'll be able to continue to move forward towards that goal. Thank you so much Ted and congratulations. And with that, we're coming around the corner towards our first place prize winner. All right everyone, so I'd like to introduce you to Lily Nelson with the Maryland ABLE program. And we're going to be hearing from Lily here. Her goal with the Maryland ABLE program is to save for dance lessons, theatre classes and to achieve her dreams. She's going to be able to move forward doing that with her first place prize winnings of $500 into her ABLE account. And Al, go ahead and let's watch Lily's video.

>> [Background music] Hi, my name is Lily Nelson and I live in Bel Air, Maryland. I am 15 years and I'm going to 9th grade at Bel Air High School. My ABLE account is with Maryland ABLE. I am able to save for dance lessons, theatre classes, and my dreams.

[ Music ]

>> Some people say I can't be a singer, an actress, or a dancer, but I'm going to show them that I can. It's my savings, my choice. I'm able to [inaudible]. I used the money in my ABLE account to help me reach my dreams.

[ Music ]

>> All right, well and we congratulate Lily on being our first place prize winner and the $500 going into her ABLE account to help her achieve her dreams. A little bit more information about Lily. She is 15 years and lives in Bel Air, Maryland as she mentioned and she's excited to be starting high school this year. She's very creative as you can all see, and enjoys all kinds of performing arts. She loves being part of inclusive dance and theatre classes and likes to write her own songs. Her favorite activity is making videos for her YouTube channel-- a skill that has clearly paid off here today-- and she aspires to be a singer, dancer, and actress. Lily's persistence and infectious optimism has helped her through many difficult and serious medical challenges and continues to be a driving force in helping her to overcome the challenges experienced by people with an intellectual disability. Lily has great plans and hope for her future and says that she will use her ABLE account to help her reach her dreams. So again, congratulations to our three winners today and also for those whose submissions were not selected as winners, the ABLE National Resource Center really wants to acknowledge your creative effort. Your ABLE story is compelling and your video submissions were very well crafted and engaging. The selection process was very challenging for our panel and we were so thrilled to receive the responses that we received and with the variety of ABLE stories and goals. And we had some very quality submissions. Thank you everyone, and congratulations again to our winners. So, how can you too join Elliott, Ted, Lily and so many others who are becoming ABLE ready? We want to give a quick reminder that the ABLE National Resource Center, you know we mentioned this at the top, while we do not open ABLE accounts nor manage state ABLE programs, it really is our mission to educate, promote, and support the positive impact of an ABLE account on the lives of people with disabilities and their families. Hopefully we have helped to do that and move the needle on that here today. If you cannot locate the answer to any of the questions you might have on our website, or if the question is state specific, we do encourage you to reach out to your state ABLE program or the state ABLE program that you're thinking about establishing your account with. In the unlikely event that they can't answer your questions, please ask them to contact us directly. It could potentially involve something that we're already working to solve because this is all very new and as our three account owners and family members referenced earlier, you know, things continue to evolve, including best practices and strategies. So keep coming back here to the ablenrc.org to follow up with us and check in as we move forward. And, on our next slide, do please help us spread the word. Please. We encourage you to share information. What we've done here, it's a very grassroots movement, sharing information about ABLE accounts. We encourage you to do so with your family and friends as well and with your community groups you might be connected with. And add the topic of ABLE within your conversations to help inform people about this new opportunity to help lift people with disabilities out of poverty and help to enhance their lives and allow them to save regularly for current and future needs. This is very important. And as our account owners, our ambassadors mentioned today, please don't put this off. You can start today. So do that by opening an ABLE account or assist someone else with opening their ABLE account. And of-- and please do. Sign up for our newsletter. Check out our website. Connect with us on social media, Facebook, Twitter. And participate in upcoming webinars that we have. And that queues us up for the next slide which is, when is our next webinar? We have a webinar coming up on September 19th. One in our spotlight webinars. We have a-- typically it's bi-- every other month we have spotlights on ABLE programs and on September 9th from 2 to 3:15 p.m. eastern we are going to be showcasing the ABLE collaboration which is Oregon, Washington state, and Maryland, and their ABLE programs that they offer. And you can register using that link. You can also register on our website by going under resources and webinars and signing up or off the home page. So please do so and join us in September as we continue with our work here. And finally, we would like to very much thank our sponsors for this week, week four of our ABLE to Save Month which is Fifth Third Bank. You can find Fifth Third Bank and their information at www.53.com/able. Sorry, again that's www.53.com/able. That's their website. And let me tell you just a little bit about Fifth Third Bank, the sponsor for this week. According to Fifth Third Bank, they were the first to offer a checking account option as part of Achieving a Better Life Experience ABLE programs. The ABLE checking option that they have offers all the features of a traditional checking account such as debit card, checks, and access to more than 45,000 free-- fee free ATMS nationwide. Now available in 20 states, the accounts helps individuals with disabilities save for their future as well as pay for qualified disability related expenses. We thank them again and we also would like to finally wrap up here thanking all of you and thanking all of our ABLE to Save sponsors for this month. Prudential [inaudible], TIAA, Fidelity, and Fifth Third Bank. And thank you again to all of you for joining us throughout this month and here today. We hope you enjoy the rest of your day and look forward to meeting you back here again on future ABLE National Resource Center webinars and having you as visitors on our newly redesigned website. Have a great day everyone.