Special Needs Street

01/05/2026

ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) account disability age was raised to 46 (technically to the full age of 45)! Effective January 1, 2026, if you have a loved one who became disabled PRIOR TO AGE 46, they (or you on their behalf) can now open an ABLE account! Prior to this change the disability had to occur before age 26, so this is huge for those whose disabilities began in that age 26-45 span. It doesn't matter how old you are now, as long as your disability began prior to age 46.

In my opinion, anyone with a disability who is already on MEDICAID, or who likely will be after the age of majority, should have an ABLE account in their name.

If there is already a Special Needs Trust (SNT) in place for the disabled individual, they should have an ABLE account IN ADDITION to their Special Needs Trust and the ABLE account may be funded with assets from the SNT.

There can only be ONE (1) ABLE account per person and I urge you to do your research regarding what state's ABLE you wish to utilize. As much as I love LOUISIANA's 529 START program, I still am not a fan of our 529(A) (ABLE) program so I urge you to investigate other states that offer debit cards and have much lower minimum withdrawal amounts and greater limits on the number of monthly transactions. My two favorites remain VIRGINIA-ABLE now and OREGON -ABLE for ALL. (See compare tool in comments.)

There is also a great 20-minute video I posted in the comments on ABLE account basics.

07/27/2025

H.R. 1520 (Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act) has passed the House (on 6/24/25) and was received by the Senate and referred to the Commitee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. I will keep you posted…

The Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act would end the practice of denying transplants to people with Down syndrome.

05/01/2025

Kudos to the Social Security Administration (SSA) for this awesome and informative 2.5 minute video on ABLE accounts!

An ABLE account, also known as an Achieving a Better Life Experience account, is a private savings account designed for people with disabilities. It can allo...

03/03/2025

Still one of my favorite articles - and surely the name and graphics are awesome right?!

And this is why I am posting this now, it happened...AGAIN....

Client moved their IRA to a new financial advisor. Don't know all the particulars (like did new advisor have access to the "old" beneficiaries?) but the former IRA's beneficiary form was properly filled out by...yours truly. The 100% primary beneficiary was his wife and the contingents were his 4 kids equally EXCEPT his special needs daughter's 25% equal share went to the Trustee of her special needs trust. New advisor fills out the beneficiary form for client and names wife as 100% primary and checks the box "my descendants, per stirpes" as the 100% contingent beneficiary. Wife died first but shortly thereafter husband died too. Now we have a very large IRA paying special needs daughter's 25% OUTRIGHT to her instead of to her special needs trust. After all the trouble and care we went through to assure a smooth transition post death and assure that daughter's MediCAID benefits would not be adversely affected. WHAM!

Ya'll - please be sure all your beneficiary-driven assets (IRAs, 401k, annuities, life insurances, etc.) MATCH the disposition provisions of your Will or Living Trust. This is of paramount importance if you have special needs beneficiaries or beneficiaries who cannot properly manage their inheritance yet!

01/09/2025

ABLE ACCOUNT ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION

Remember since the annual ABLE account contribution follows the AGTE (annual gift tax exclusion) amount, it has been raised in 2025 to $19,000 per ABLE account recipient.

If Grandma and Grandpa are gifting the other grandkids $19,000 for 2025 (unfortunately, it cannot be $19,000 x 2 as they could do for the other grandchildren who are NOT receiving income/asset-based government benefits) then let them deposit into their special needs grandchild's ABLE account the full $19,000 too.

Remember it's now less than one year away (JAN 01, 2026) that we will be able to open ABLE accounts for those special needs persons whose disability began "before age 46" as right now we are still stuck at "before age 26". A HUGE WELL-NEEDED CHANGE!

10/03/2024

In my opinion, EVERYONE who has special needs that occurred BEFORE turning age 26 (and will increase to age 46 on 01/01/2026) would benefit from having an ABLE account. This is the most informational website there is and you could go down this rabbit hole (and I do) for HOURS on end. If you read my previous post from a couple days ago - that $15,000 "payback" situation could have been totally eliminated if the Representative Payee (R.P.) had simply moved any excess funds from the son's R.P. account into an ABLE account.

About ABLE Accounts An ABLE account is a savings and / or investment option for people with disabilities who qualify. It falls under Section 529A of the Internal Revenue Service tax code. The ABLE Act allows a person whose disability began before age 26*, to save money in the ABLE account without af...

10/03/2024

OCTOBER is DISABILITY AWARENESS month! Throughout the month I will be posting some of the best informational websites that I like and some brief educational videos. I also urge any new followers to go down this page and read some of my older postings, it's all good stuff!

09/30/2024

This situation came up on a special needs listserv that I follow and I see this happen a LOT. The Representative Payee is the father of his adult disabled son, an SSI recipient. Father has had his own health issues and has inadvertently allowed the son's account to exceed $2,000 for a little over a year. Mind you, this amount was barely over $2,000 for most months and at its highest amount was only $4,200. However, MEDICAID found out and is now demanding a repayment in the amount of $15,000 (basically going back to June 2023, when the account first went over the $2k). Yes, there are "reasons" but the fact of the matter is that the Representative Payee is personally liable for allowing the son to become "over-resourced". It's not fun being a Representative Payee, nor a Trustee of a Special Needs Trust, and YES there is a lot of liability. Again, this is why you do NOT want to rely on an attorney that only DABBLES in Special Needs/Medicaid planning.

Would a one-hour seminar/workshop (either live or ZOOM) with a topic of "So I'm a Representative Payee and/or Trustee of a Special Needs Trust, what do I do now?" be something ya'll would like to see us present? Let me know in comments...

08/27/2024

One of the things I hear fairly often from GRANDPARENTS of special needs kids (we will call her "Suzy") is that they "feel guilty" when Christmastime and Birthday time comes because they know they can't give Suzy the "same amount of money" that they give their other grandchildren (obviously for fear of going over the $2,000 balance in Suzy's bank account/representative payee account for MEDICAID purposes). Ya'll...ABLE accounts solve this! If all of Suzy's grandparents and aunts and uncles want to also give Suzy monetary gifts and Suzy has an ABLE account (she can only have ONE) then they can simply deposit those gifts directly into Suzy's ABLE account. As long as all deposits into that ABLE account do not exceed $18,000 in one calendar year (and don’t exceed $100,000 total) then everything is peachy! (Scroll down for plenty more information on ABLE accounts.)

08/15/2024

Since August 1, 2024, our law now offers a FULL or LIMITED Continuing Tutorship option. Be sure your attorney is aware (if they are not a "dabbler" they will be!) of these changes and drafts the pleadings and Coroner's Concurrence properly to avoid delays. If you are on a deadline to an 18th birthday, time is certainly of the essence!

Good changes, IMO I think the "Dustin Gary Act" (supported decision making) was a motivator here.

04/16/2024

BENEFICIARY DESIGNATIONS: Always always always name a contingent beneficiary after each other (spouse to spouse). In a perfect world if you have a special needs trust for your disabled loved one, name that trust directly HOWEVER if you do not, then name another trusted HUMAN (another child, your siblings, etc.) as the CONTINGENT BENEFICIARY. Many plans (and insurances) have a "default" beneficiary order if none are named (and if there is no surviving spouse) it's usually "all children equally" which if those proceeds are more than $2,000 can get your special needs child kicked off of MEDICAID (and any Waiver programs you have waited YEARS to get).

Unfortunately, we have seen this happen a couple of times just in the last few months so PLEASE be sure and check ALL YOUR BENEFICIARY designations for IRAs, 401k, annuities, life insurances (including ones from your employment).

03/14/2024

This is fabulous information provided by the Arc of Louisiana on Supported Decision-Making a/k/a "The Dustin Gary Act".