As explained in previous blog posts here, here and here, an Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) account is a tax-advantaged account that can be used to save funds for the disability-related expenses of the account’s designated beneficiary, who must be blind or disabled by a condition that began prior to the individual’s 26th birthday. By using an ABLE account, family members, friends, or persons with special needs may to place up to $100,000 into an ABLE account that functions much like an IRA or 529 College Savings Account. Importantly, the funds in an ABLE account are not countable in determining eligibility for public benefits based upon financial need.
Many persons with disabilities receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA). Along with SSI benefits, disabled persons also often receive Medicaid to pay the costs of medical care. These are critical public benefits based upon financial need that many persons with disabilities rely upon for support.
SSA has recently published regulations governing the treatment of ABLE accounts owned by SSI recipients. The regulations are publicly-available via the SSA.gov website and may be accessed using this link: <https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0501130740>
Significant regulations include the following:
Contributions: Any person can contribute to an ABLE account. However, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) limits the total annual contributions any ABLE account can receive from all sources to the amount of the per-donee gift-tax exclusion in effect for a given calendar year. For 2016, that limit is $14,000. SSA excludes contributions to an ABLE account from the income of the SSI beneficiary.
Income earned by ABLE account investments: SSA excludes any earnings an ABLE account receives from the income of the SSI beneficiary.
Distributions: Distributions may be made only to or for the benefit of the designated beneficiary. Further, an ABLE account may distribute to pay for Qualified disability expenses (QDEs). QEDs are expenses related to the blindness or disability of the designated beneficiary and that are for the benefit of the designated beneficiary. QDEs include the following types of expenses:
- Education;
- Housing;
- Transportation;
- Employment training and support;
- Assistive technology and related services;
- Health;
- Prevention and wellness;
- Financial management and administrative services;
- Legal fees;
- Expenses for ABLE account oversight and monitoring;
- Funeral and burial; and,
- Basic living expenses
Balances in ABLE accounts: SSA excludes up to and including $100,000 of the balance of funds in an ABLE account from the resources of the SSI beneficiary. SSA counts the amount by which an ABLE account balance exceeds $100,000 as a countable resource of the SSI beneficiary.
The Federal Register Notice regarding the information that the agency will seek from state ABLE programs was also recently published, on December 14th, at 80 FR 77404 <https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-12-14/pdf/2015-31351.pdf> .
Categories
- Affordable Care Act
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Arbitration
- Attorney Ethics
- Attorneys Fees
- Beneficiary Designations
- Blog Roundup and Highlights
- Blogs and Blogging
- Care Facilities
- Caregivers
- Cemetery
- Collaborative Family Law
- Conservatorships
- Consumer Fraud
- Contempt
- Contracts
- Defamation
- Developmental Disabilities
- Discovery
- Discrimination Laws
- Doctrine of Probable Intent
- Domestic Violence
- Elder Abuse
- Elder Law
- Elective Share
- End-of-Life Decisions
- Estate Administration
- Estate Litigation
- Estate Planning
- Events
- Family Law
- Fiduciary
- Financial Exploitation of the Elderly
- Funeral
- Future of the Legal Profession
- Geriatric Care Managers
- Governmental or Public Benefit Programs
- Guardianship
- Health Issues
- Housing for the Elderly and Disabled
- In Remembrance
- Insolvent Estates
- Institutional Liens
- Insurance
- Interesting New Cases
- Intestacy
- Law Firm News
- Law Firm Videos
- Law Practice Management / Development
- Lawyers and Lawyering
- Legal Capacity or Competancy
- Legal Malpractice
- Legal Rights of the Disabled
- Liens
- Litigation
- Mediation
- Medicaid Appeals
- Medicaid Applications
- Medicaid Planning
- Annuities
- Care Contracts
- Divorce
- Estate Recovery
- Family Part Non-Dissolution Support Orders
- Gifts
- Life Estates
- Loan repayments
- MMMNA
- Promissory Notes
- Qualified Income Trusts
- Spousal Refusal
- Transfers For Reasons Other Than To Qualify For Medicaid
- Transfers to "Caregiver" Child(ren)
- Transfers to Disabled Adult Children
- Trusts
- Undue Hardship Provision
- Multiple-Party Deposit Account Act
- New Cases
- New Laws
- News Briefs
- Newsletters
- Non-Probate Assets
- Nursing Facility Litigation
- Personal Achievements and Awards
- Personal Injury Lawsuits
- Probate
- Punitive Damages
- Reconsideration
- Retirement Benefits
- Reverse Mortgages
- Section 8 Housing
- Settlement of Litigation
- Social Media
- Special Education
- Special Needs Planning
- Surrogate Decision-Making
- Taxation
- Technology
- Texting
- Top Ten
- Trials
- Trustees
- Uncategorized
- Veterans Benefits
- Web Sites and the Internet
- Webinar
- Writing Intended To Be A Will
Vanarelli & Li, LLC on Social Media