Month: May 2019

If you have a child or young adult in your New Hampshire family with a disability, thinking about therapies and medical visits and educational life skills isn’t the only are you need to be thinking about. There are also financial concerns about how the child will meet housing and medical and other future needs.

The biggest financial necessity is Medicaid and social security benefits, but in order to get those and still have money from parents or other family members to supplement the small cash benefit from social security, careful planning is required. Special needs trusts, trustees, estate planning for family members, and guardianships or alternatives for those that need help are all required in order to maximize the resources available to provide your child with a good life. And now there is another tool that can work alongside the other planning tools – an ABLE Account.

ABLE accounts are available to anyone with a disability that began before the age of 26. The accounts allow up to $15,000 a year to be deposited with certain tax advantages, and without being considered a resource that will interfere with receiving medicaid and SSI. These accounts can also be managed and money can be spent from them by the individual with the disability directly, rather than by a trustee as with special needs trusts. This makes these accounts especially useful for individuals with physical but not cognitive disabilities who have money management skills.

You can view details of the New Hampshire program here, but New Hampshire families can open an ABLE account in any state.

Parker Counsel Legal Services assists families in New Hampshire in setting up special needs trusts, ABLE accounts, guardianships, and other planning needs for special needs family members. Find out how we can help you – call us at 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668).

An ABLE account is a type of bank account available to people who have a disability that began prior to the age of 26. The account allows individuals to accumulate their own money in amounts that would otherwise make them ineligible to receive SSI and MassHealth (Medicaid) benefits. They can also manage and spend the money in the account themselves, if they are otherwise able to, something that is not possible with the use of a Special Needs Trust.

ABLE accounts are especially useful for individuals who have their own income through a job or other source, but the accounts can be useful for other reasons as well. They may even allow an indi individual or their family to spend money to supplement housing costs without causing a reduction in SSI benefits.

ABLE accounts do not replace the need for a special needs trust, as trusts are able to hold far more money than an ABLE account and are typically used to receive an inheritance or life insurance from a parent. Your attorney can help you figure out how to use ABLE accounts and special needs trusts to maximize the amount of resources available to care for your child throughout their life.

Families in Western Mass, or other areas of Massachusetts, can find details of the state ABLE account program here. However, an ABLE account can be opened in any state, regardless of where you live.

Parker Counsel Legal Services helps families in Massachusetts with special needs members to set up a plan to care for their family member to the end of their life, using estate planning, special needs trusts, guardianships or other assistance, and other tools. Call us at 833-RED-BOOT (833-733-2668) to see if we can help you.