Great. 
Welcome. 
My name is Mackenzie Jones with the Department of Public Health and Human Services. 
As the health educator for the Montana Disability and Health program, I'll be your moderator today. 
We will be discussing ABLE accounts and how they can help you or a loved one reach their goals. 
This Webinar is being live captioned by Alternative Communication Services. 
To enable or disable the captions, you can click the closed caption button in your control panel and that's typically found at the bottom of your screen. 
This Webinar is funded through a contract with the Children's Special Health Services at the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services , or DPHHS, and a State Disability and Health cooperative agreement between DPHHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
The statements shared in the presentation do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Department (DPHHS). 
The Webinar is presented as a partnership between the Montana Disability and Health Program at DPHHS, the University of Montana Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities, the Children's Special Health Services-funded Montana Transition Resources, and Summit Independent Living. 
There are plans to continue this partnership and offer future Webinars diving deeper into ABLE accounts and other disability topics that have many people asking questions. 
Some housekeeping. 
As I stated, this is being live captioned by ACS. 
We also have a chat box available for you guys to ask questions or add comments, and that (the chat box) should also be available in your control panel. 
All attendees are currently muted. 
You can use that chat box at any time and only the moderators will be able to see your questions. 
Meg Traci, a associate research professor and contractor for the Montana Disability and Health program will field those questions and we will take time at the end to answer them. 
Also I wanted to mention if you have questions directly for one of our presenters, Isaac Baldry, please phrase them in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ format so he can answer them swiftly and have time for more questions. 
Contact information will be included at the end in case you do want to follow up in more detail. 
For those who requested Montana Office of Public Instruction renewal units when they registered; these will be e-mailed after the Webinar. 
It generally takes a couple of weeks. 
You must be preregistered to receive the OPI credit. 
Please note we are unable to issue other kinds of attendance documentation. 
The session is being recorded and will be archived for viewing and sharing. 
The recording for today's Webinar will be posted to the Rural Institute's Transition and Employment Projects archiving training (web)page and we will send out that link later. 
The link to the archived video in addition to the slides and handouts for today’s session will be e-mailed out after the session. 
A brief evaluation survey link will be provided at the end of the session in the chat box, and we will mention this again later; Mackenzie Jones: Before we get going with talking about ABLE accounts (and I will be providing ABLE account related resources near the end of the Webinar), we wanted to take a moment to acknowledge COVID-19 and the hardship, loss, and uncertainty it brings as the pandemic spreads across the globe. 
Here are some links that provide additional resources and information in plain language and other accessible formats for people with disability, family members and support providers. 
We don't know how long our lives will be turned-up side down. 
As we will soon learn during this webinar, an ABLE account can easily be set up and may offer some peace of mind during this time. 
Now I would like to introduce you to the speakers. 
You can find their full bios in the outlook invite or today's reminder e-mail I sent earlier today. 
So Theresa Baldry, is a project coordinator at the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities. 
She is based in Miles City working on the Children’s Health Services Projects and the Montana Deaf/Blind project. 
Travis Hoffman currently works as the advocacy coordinator at Summit Independent Living in Missoula. 
As a person with a spinal cord injury, Travis knows firsthand many of the challenges Montanans with disabilities face every day. 
Isaac Baldry is a self-employed -- is self-employed in his company, Isaac Baldry Consulting. 
He has presented at national conferences, provided technical assistance through his lived experiences and written for Apostrophe Magazine. 
Isaac is one of the (approximately) 300 Montana residents who have an ABLE account. 
Thank you all for being with us today. 
I am now going to turn it over to Theresa to to tell us what is an ABLE account. 
>> Thank you. 
Theresa >> Thank you, Mackenzie and thanks everyone for giving us some of your time today to learn about ABLE accounts. 
I'm going to start sharing a file with you so please be patient while I pull that up. 
Hopefully all can see now a handout we're going to be providing to folks. 
It starts at the very top of the screen intentionally or at the top of the page if I can get it up there, the web address. 
Montana's ABLE account web address is not as intuitive as we might think. 
So it is https://savewithable.com/mt/home.html We want to make sure that you have that and it’s a part of the handout. 
Just so you are aware that the website, if you try to Google (this website), it might give you something different. 
(We got a lot of green things going on with the background.) What is an ABLE account?  Federally, they were passed through what was called the Stephen Beck, Jr. 
Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act in 2014. 
That's how I get to A-B-L-E; and it provides eligible individuals who are qualified with a disability and their families a way to save for the future while still protecting eligibility for public benefits. 
In Montana those accounts were passed in the legislature. 
Montana was the tenth state to create an option for an ABLE account, and they opened to participants in 2017. 
Nationally ABLE accounts are available in 43 states. 
So not quite every state has a program. 
You don't have to sign up for the program in your state but it's something you might want to compare-- what the advantages are between different programs. 
Sometimes these are referred to as 529 (higher education savings) plans. 
If you hear that they follow the same part of the tax code. 
That's why they're sometimes referred to as those. 
When Montana created the ABLE accounts they also created an oversight committee and that's somewhere we can provide feedback as to what we need in the Montana ABLE program. 
And Travis, you were going to cover a question you often get. 
[Travis Hoffman:] So thanks, Theresa. 
This is Travis. 
When Theresa directs your attention to that website, it's pretty important. 
We get a lot of questions of people who maybe went to a bank (website). 
{-- sorry, my video 's on now.)  We get a lot of questions of people who maybe go to the bank and the bank turns them away and they don't know where to turn. 
The only place you can set up an ABLE account is online in Montana. 
So that website that Theresa directed your attention to is the one and only place you can sign up for a Montana ABLE account. 
If you go to SavewithABLE.com, you'll see a whole bunch of states in the same consortium. 
If you put a /mt after SavewithABLE.com,  You'll go straight to the Montana ABLE one. 
>> [Theresa Baldry] Thanks, Travis. 
We're going to jump into why would you want an ABLE account? Montana ABLE allows you to save for qualified disability expenses without losing your eligibility for certain-- what would sometimes be referred to as, “means tested programs”,  such as Social Security or Medicaid. 
The earnings on your investments, so the money you have in your account, are tax deferred and tax free if the money in your account is used for qualified disability-related expenses. 
We'll talk more about that. 
Your savings can grow-- not in the current market (March 2020) as well as in the past, but they can grow. 
Another important piece of what Montana did is they created a state tax deduction for up to $3,000 of contributions made to an ABLE account. 
If people are filing jointly, they can each claim that $3,000 if that much is contributed so that could mean $6,000 for a couple. 
An important piece in the last legislative session (2019) was this tax deductions available for contributions made by the designated beneficiary, the spouse of the designated beneficiary, a parent, grandparent, sibling, or a child related to the designated beneficiary by blood, marriage, or legal adoption. 
I'm going to pass it to Travis. 
>> [TH} Okay. 
So who is eligible for an ABLE account? So a person who is eligible for an ABLE account can open an account for themselves or they may authorize someone to open it for them. 
So there are a few requirements. 
So your on-set of disability must have occurred prior to the age of 26, and this doesn't mean that you have to be under the age of 26 to start an ABLE account. 
It's just that your onset of disability had to have happened before that age (26 years). 
So somebody who's 45 or 70 or whatever age can open an ABLE account as long as their onset of disability occurred prior to the age of 26. 
And there is legislation before Congress to try to raise that age I believe to the -- so the onset of disability is 45 but as of right now it is onset of disability prior to the age of 26. 
So what does disability mean? So if you have been determined disabled by the social security administration either for eligibility for SSI or SSDI or if you experience blindness as determined by Social Security, you would automatically qualify for being eligible to open up an ABLE account. 
Even if you have not applied for Social Security and had never been determined to be disabled but you do have a severe functional limitation that can be diagnosed by a physician, you may also qualify for an ABLE account. 
If you have never been diagnosed by Social Security as having a disability though you must obtain a written, disability-related diagnosis from your physician and keep that on file in case you are ever audited by the IRS as pertaining to your eligibility for an ABLE account or pertaining to any expenditures you've made from an ABLE account. 
And then if that is how you are going about opening up your ABLE account is through that signed diagnosis by a physician. 
It's the rules for the Montana ABLE-- and I'm sure it's a rule for all the other States' ABLE accounts as well-- is you must re-certify that functional limitation annually. 
>> [TB] Thanks, Travis. 
I'm going to jump in and cover a piece: What do we mean by qualified disability related expenses? A really important piece is that expenses must relate to maintaining or improving the beneficiary's health, independence, or quality of life. 
So these could be expenses related to the beneficiary’s disability, are of benefit to the designated beneficiary, inclusion of basic living expenses and that can be your rent, can now be food, expenses for items for which there is a medical necessity, expenses that provide no benefit to others in addition to the benefit the individual -- the eligible individual, would receive. 
It's important that individuals do not misuse the funds for nonqualified expenses or they could be subject to possible penalties including ineligibility for means tested benefits. 
Some of these examples could be for the use of assistive technology or maybe you wanted to pay for education. 
Maybe you were looking at needing help in financially managing your money and you wanted to be trained on that. 
That could be a qualified expense. 
Could be employment-related-- You might be seeking a job but need a little bit of help either amping up your resumé or learning skills about the job. 
You could have employment-related expenses paid out of your ABLE account. 
It can be for transportation, funeral and burial expenses and for legal fees that are associated with maintaining your financial status. 
There’s a lot of pieces that could be used if that's what an individual needed. 
The important piece is you're also  tracking how you're using that money, are you recording it, where are you recording it so, again if you're ever audited, you can easily pull up “here's how we use money from the ABLE account” and Isaac will share some of how he uses it in his presentation. 
I'm going to scroll down to the next piece. 
Again , part of why you -- sorry. 
Travis, I'll pass it to you, I've jumped to the next piece. 
>> So with these 529A ABLE accounts, individuals are only allowed to have one account even though you can establish one in Montana you may be able to establish one in any other state that allows nationwide enrollment, you could only have one. 
So if you establish a Montana ABLE account you can't have one in another state or if you establish an account in another state you can't also have a Montana ABLE account. 
So that’s really important. 
Individuals may only have one account but anybody can contribute to that person's account. 
The annual contribution limit is currently $15,000 per year and that is when viewed everybody contributing to one account, all of their contributions combined can only add up to $15,000 within one calendar year. 
There are some exceptions to this, which We may cover in a future Webinar especially for people who may be employed and have earned income but you'll have to state tuned for the next to find that out. 
>> Thanks, Travis. 
The whole purpose of having this ABLE account was so an individual could maintain their current benefits. 
How are pieces that we need to think about that? Balances in an ABLE account of $100,000 or less are excluded from Social Security resource limits. 
Only the amount over that $100,000 is counted against your limit as long as the assets held—along with the assets held in a non-ABLE account. 
So if you had a savings or checking account, those two count toward your resource limit. 
Again, be aware of that $100,000 impacting your Social Security. 
With accounts only having been in existence in Montana for now their third year, we aren't looking at that amount yet but it is something that some people are using this for a long-term investment, and they may in the end will have that -- we'll talk more (about) the maximum amounts that vary by state. 
It could be in Montana there's a specific amount but in another state the amount that's a maximum within your account could be different. 
If your ABLE account causes you to exceed the Social Security Income resource limit, then your income Social Security income benefits are suspended until the balance in your account no longer exceeds that resource limit. 
If the account all of a sudden had the $103,000, the $3,000 would be the part that's over the resource limit, but if an individual then made a purchase of $5,000 and dropped it below, they would again no longer be above that resource limit. 
Another really important piece is the individual would continue to be eligible for Medicaid regardless of how much is in all of their accounts. 
How do you get started? -- sorry, before I do that I want to cover one more piece. 
One of the questions I often get is if an individual has a lot of money in that ABLE account what happens upon the death of the beneficiary? And what is sometimes referred to as a clawback feature? If you read about that when comparing different accounts, in some states, they have written they will not do a clawback; they will not be going after the money. 
Montana is looking at what they want to do and that may be a place again where we can have influence. 
What is it we believe is best for Montana?  A Medicaid clawback means that Medicaid can clawback funds in the ABLE account after final payments have been made to compensate the Medicaid program for Medicaid expenses incurred since the creation of the ABLE account. 
In this case, the State is considered a creditor and not a beneficiary. 
So they're allowed to seek that money. 
Montana again hasn't established what they're going to do, but it's something to be aware of. 
So how do you get started? And that's on the Web site. 
Recommending a few things before you go to the Web site. 
Read the disclosure documents available. 
Start to learn about the account. 
Understand the investment options. 
One of the great features on the Web site is they have a whole section devoted to investments. 
Montana has six options. 
Understanding what those are is important when you want to set up an account. 
You'll also need some information such as first last name of the qualified individual, social security number. 
One piece you can do is actually under forms, which is at the bottom of the page, is print out a paper copy and then you'll be sure you have all the information readily available and collected to be able to do the online process in a real short 15 minute period: You do need to make a minimum contribution. 
That is $25 in Montana and, again, here is the Web link for enrolling right online. 
It will take you right to that process. 
The next piece I have there for you is fees. 
Just like everything, there's a little bit of fees tied to having this account but they're quite minimal. 
There's a quarterly maintenance fee of $15 plus your investment fees based on how you selected to be invested. 
There's also a two-dollar monthly checking fee. 
Now, those daily balances if it's above $250 is maintained and you're enrolled in electronic statement delivery that can impact your fees. 
They're still going to remain around $11 on a quarterly basis but some of these things can save you a few dollars. 
The other piece to be aware of is Montana now does have a place where they can charge service fees to the ABLE account and, for example, by that I mean if you write a check on your ABLE account for money you don't have in your ABLE account, there's a return check charge and that would be charged to the ABLE account. 
If a contribution was sent in but rejected, either because of a problem with the wire transfer or because you were over the $15,000 you were allowed for that year, there is a service fee. 
The last piece I want to talk about here is contribution. 
So how do you get money into an ABLE account? There's lots of different ways that can be done. 
It can be done through checks provided to your ABLE account (and Isaac will talk some about that), wire transfers, it could be a payroll, direct deposit deduction, recurring contributions that people establish for you. 
It can be a rollover of that 529 college savings account. 
I won't talk about Ugifts because Isaac will, but I will talk about a gift card called the gift of independence. 
That's something that can be purchased from the National ABLE Resource Center. 
Those cards then are charged to a credit card so you do need to be aware when you do purchase them in Montana-- it does have to be for that $25 and you will have to pay a service fee for the credit card. 
There’s an additional expense in the purchasing of the gift of independence, or it is deducted from the amount that is given. 
On here I also wanted you to know we've listed a few resources for you. 
Most importantly the National ABLE Resource Center and their address-- it's a fantastic resource (on handout). 
They have all kinds of tools to help you understand ABLE accounts and help create a plan for yourself. 
They also have a great tool that allows to you compare ABLE accounts and programs in different states. 
What is it that's going to be important to you in an ABLE account?  Is it that it has a debit card?  Is it the investment options?  Is it the fees that you may have to pay? What matters in an ABLE account to you? And you're able to compare that. 
Do be aware that some states allow for out-of-state residents to participate. 
Some states do not. 
Montana has chosen to be a state that we allow for out-of-state participants. 
The next resource on there is Montana State University and the County Extension Offices have all kinds of what they call ”Mont Guides”. 
They've done one specifically on ABLE accounts so you can view that online or you can even go to your county extension office, and they can provide you a print copy of that “Mont Guides” on ABLE accounts. 
The last one I've included there is just to help with familiarity. 
Some people enjoy podcasts as a way to get more information. 
We've included a link to a pod cast for you. 
(All on handout.) With that, I think I'm going to turn it back to Travis. 
>>[TH} Thanks, Theresa  So I'm just going to talk a little bit about centers for independent living which is the acronym CILs, and the ABLE Act. 
What are centers for independent living or what is independent living? So independent living is basically just that, essentially living like everyone else without disability is able to live, having the opportunities to make decisions that affect one's own life and able to pursue activities of one's own choosing and what their interests are limited only in the same ways that everyone else is. 
Not being limited necessarily just because you have a disability limiting your choices. 
So a big part of independent living is self determination, which is basically having the right to pursue a course of action -- to any course of action that anyone might want to go in and having the freedom to either succeed or even fail on one's own terms. 
So in Montana there’s four centers for independent living that I'll get into in a little bit, but Teresa talked about some of the things that happened during this last legislative session that really expanded the scope of the ABLE program here in Montana. 
One being: who is eligible for the $3,000 tax rebate opening up Montana's ABLE program to residents from other states and some of those other things. 
This 3rd bullet down here, the Advocacy Network. 
Montana's four centers for independent living kind of group together and collaborate to do a lot of systems advocacy work at the legislature as well as on the national level. 
If you go to MTCIL.org , that will take you to that website which we call our “action alert system” and on that site you'll be able to sign up for our list serve and receive e-mails in your inbox that inform you of kind of what we're working on and also opportunities to contact elected officials, whether it be our congressional delegation in Washington DC or state legislature when they're in session. 
It's a really good resource, and I encourage everybody who's on the webinar today to head to that website and sign up for that list serve. 
While you're there, you'll also see a link to a couple action alerts. 
One being to include protections for people with disabilities in the Coronavirus relief bill that is currently being considered in Congress. 
So why we save money for independent living needs? So Theresa mentioned some of the disability related expenses that can be purchased using funds from an ABLE account. 
So these are kind of just some examples of things that you might be able to use ABLE account funds to pay for. 
Some people with disabilities are limited in what services they can get. 
Maybe they've reached the maximum Medicaid services that the State's allowed to provide them. 
ABLE accounts, ABLE funds can be used to pay for any type of healthcare that helps to meet any person's needs that maybe isn't being provided by Medicaid, such as additional personal assistance, massage therapy, anything that is going to benefit the person with a disability to be able to live independently. 
ABLE funds can be used for housing purposes, although if you pull out money for housing expenses (and move it to a non-ABLE account) but do not spend it within the same calendar month, it will count as a resource against the resource limit in that non-ABLE account, meaning if it (the money) is kept in your non-ABLE account past the end of the calendar month (there will be a penalty). 
If it's kept into the next month, it could count as a nonexempted resource. 
Relocating, so moving expenses, physical activity equipment. 
Some people with disabilities aren’t able to use normal equipment that you would find in a gym. 
The purchase of accessible exercise equipment, adaptive bikes, sit skis, things like that. 
Another important thing about ABLE accounts is the typical resource limit for somebody on Supplemental Security Income or SSI is only $2,000 and so the ABLE account allows somebody with a disability to save beyond that without it affecting their ABLE accounts (benefits eligibility) which is important when you look at the poverty rates between individuals without disabilities and with disabilities. 
People with disabilities are at a far lower income level than people without disabilities which impedes their ability to save and so having the ABLE account while they -- somebody with a disability may not be able to contribute a lot of their own funds, they can crowd source from families and friends or anybody who wants to support them in doing so and help them raise their economic self-sufficiency. 
So there are other avenues as well to help improve the economic status of people with disabilities. 
Some of these can be foundations or charitable organizations that provide funding for the purchase of equipment or services such as the Brondan Foundation or other organizations that -- and people on this webinar may know of quite a few of those. 
I would love to hear them. 
Another one might be the Travis Roy Foundation which assists individuals with spinal cord injuries in purchasing driving equipment and many more. 
And so the ABLE Act is one of those. 
We've already discussed a lot of that. 
Another one might be the Montana Workers with Disabilities Program which is a Medicaid eligibility program that would allow an individual with disability who is employed to buy into the Medicaid program by paying a cost-share determined by whatever that person's income is. 
A lot of people with SSDI have to qualify through Medicaid through the medically needy spend down which can be quite expensive. 
If somebody with a disability is able to work even minimally, they may be able to qualify for Medicaid at a far lower cost-share rate than they would be able to through that spend down method. 
And another advantage of Montana Workers with Disabilities is a has a higher resource limit which is $15,000 for an individual and $30,000 for a couple as opposed to $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple under other eligible categories. 
I talked about foundations and charitable giving practices. 
So if you know of any other charitable organizations that provide funding for equipment, services, anything that would help improve the lives of somebody with a disability to live more independently, go ahead and throw those in the chat box Here in Montana, as I mentioned before, there are four centers for independent living and the map on your screen shows (kind of) where the service areas are for each of the four. 
In the bottom right-hand corner there's phone numbers for each of the centers should you want to get in contact with them. 
This map shows the population density of people with disabilities in each county throughout Montana and the colors are divided up by the centers for independent living service areas. 
You can see there's quite a few categories that have a pretty dense population of people with disabilities living in them. 
This map shows where we've actually provided services to a majority of people with disabilities throughout Montana. 
So you can see the majority of where the CIL services were rendered are really in the counties where there's larger cities and more dense populations. 
We really try to get out to the rural communities but as you can see a lot of counties are really underserved. 
So we're making a really big effort to expand our services to reach those hard to reach areas in Montana. 
So I really encourage people, especially if you are living in those rural counties to contact your Center for Independent Living and reach out to them and utilize them as a resource. 
What you can expect from your Center for Independent Living is being able to assist you with these five main areas. 
So one is independent living skills training and those are kind of different types of classes that all centers for independent living provide. 
So like  Living Well with a Disability, Wellness Recovery and Action Planning (WRAP) classes--  there’s a lot of different classes. 
If you have an interest or know somebody who needs maybe some (independent living) skill development, contact your Center for Independent Living, see if they have a class centered around what you're looking for and chances are they might and so it's a good opportunity for people with disabilities to (kind of) learn new skills and maybe hone existing ones, get new ideas for how they can be successful in employment , housing, transportation , or just everyday life. 
A big part of what we do, as well, is connecting people to resources--  that's information and referral. 
If you have questions about ABLE accounts, feel free to call your Center for Independent Living and ask any questions: ABLE accounts, anything you have a question related to disability, anybody at CIL should be able to answer or refer you to resources that can get your questions answered. 
The last three core services or so, we do transition services and that includes youth and nursing home or transition or diversion. 
Peer counseling as well as individual and systems advocacy. 
What CILs expect from you. 
All of our services that we provide, the person who is receiving the services is in charge and that's kind of what we mean by consumer-directed services. 
CIL staff are there to assist you to accomplish your own goals. 
We really take a ‘handsoff’ approach when we can to make sure the person seeking our services is really accomplishing their own goals and really working towards being able to accomplish those goals as independently as possible. 
Theresa talked about this before, but how a CIL can help you with ABLE accounts is directing you to the resources that you need to look at to be able to make an informed decision whether you want to establish a Montana ABLE account or establish an ABLE account in another State as well as guiding you to what kind of things you need to be thinking about like: Account fees, is Montana's lowest or is another state's lower? Which kind of ABLE account might best be your needs and make sure you have the needed documentation and help individuals stay organized with all of that stuff. 
That's all I have. 
That's my contact information if you want to get ahold of me. 
>> Thank you, Travis. 
We're going to move on to Isaac Baldry now. 
Take it away, Isaac. 
>> Hello, my name is Isaac and first I want to thank you for giving me some of your time today. 
This opening slide is my, “Ah, just breathe.” Besides baseball I spend time enjoying the beaches in Florida. 
Vacation was good for the mind and body but now I am back to work. 
Good to have pictures and memories. 
I was following what was happening nationally with ABLE accounts when they first were passed. 
I was considering opening one in another state but was glad when Montana created the option here. 
I opened my ABLE account in October of 2017. 
My first plan was this (the ABLE Account) would be a place for me to save money, put it (money) aside for what I might need. 
You may have noticed by now I speak using technology. 
I use modifications, low tech and high tech but many of the tools I need are not cheap. 
In the past I would have needed to write a fast plan with Social Security if I were going to need to save for something that cost more than $2,000 or I had to buy individual components one at a time. 
Now I have a way to save money and change my mind as to what I may need my money for. 
I opened my account with money I had already been saving. 
I put money in my account as I can. 
I do not have it set up as a regular withdrawal. 
Sometimes this is good and sometimes not. 
I was just going to move money into my ABLE account last week but ended up needing medical supplies not covered by my insurance. 
With COVID-19 being a concern I was not able to see a doctor and get a prescription. 
My health concern needed to be addressed right now so I decided to use money I had saved to purchase what I needed. 
I even paid for things to be shipped overnight. 
If I had not been saving to transfer, I could (not) have moved money from my ABLE account to buy what I needed. 
My ABLE account gives me the safety net to know I have money when I need it for things I did not expect. 
If I didn't have the money, I still would be waiting for someone else to approve the purchase and eventually get me what I needed. 
Getting what I needed right now helped me not have to travel or be in the hospital. 
I have used my ABLE account for help like this in the past. 
My Social Security was in review, and I did not receive a payment one month. 
My first thought was “how will I pay my bills?” Then I remembered I have money in my ABLE account and I can use it. 
I felt better. 
I moved money out of my ABLE account to pay my rent and other monthly bills that worry was gone. 
When the review was over I received a payback in a bigger check. 
Now I had a new worry; if I add this in my checking account,  at the end of the month I will have too much money and a new problem. 
I had already paid my bills for the last month. 
So I just moved the money I did not need right now to my ABLE account. 
That way I did not have over $2,000 in my accounts but I didn't just go spend it, I was able to save my money for what I might need in the future. 
Besides the money, I have family that contribute to my ABLE account. 
My parents can count it as a tax deduction. 
They have it set up as a monthly deposit because that is what works best for them. 
I have other family members who want to give me money for my birthday which also happens to be just before Christmas. 
If they give me money I need to count it as income that month. 
What I ask people to do instead is to use “Ugift”  and put the money in my ABLE account. 
I have a slide that shows information about Ugift when an account owner logs into their account on the left side there is a menu of options. 
View and invite with Ugift is one of those options. 
I went there to set up my Ugift code. 
I liked that it was easy to create a way for me to share my code with people. 
Depending on who was wanting to gift me money, I had a couple options. 
For my grandparents who do not like e-mail, I print out the form and mail it to them. 
They can then film their information and send the completed form and a check for however much they want to gift me to the mailing address on the form. 
For other people, I can just send them my Ugift code and the Web site for them to move money from their bank account to my able account. 
There is a piece you can post to Facebook but I have not done that. 
I thought about crowd funding when we lost our van. 
This last November, we had a car accident with our wheelchair accessible van. 
Now I did not have transportation right out my door. 
I had to make arrangements every time I wanted to go anywhere or use my push wheelchair. 
Both are not my favorite options. 
I told everyone I was saving money to buy a new van. 
I do not want any presents; only money in my ABLE account so I can purchase a van. 
Our old van was fixed the first of the year. 
I now have more time to save and think about what I want in a new vehicle. 
I have a big goal so I will need to save a lot of money. 
That brings me to the next piece I wanted to talk about with my ABLE account. 
I like to check my account and watch my money increase. 
Looking at the money in my account reminds me that I have a backup plan if there is something I need. 
I also like to see my money moving up toward my goal of a new van. 
Lately it has been hard as I have seen a decrease in what I have. 
I am glad I am only invested conservatively. 
I do not like to see my ABLE account go down. 
On my last slide I wanted to share a way for you to be supported in managing your ABLE account if you feel like you need assistance. 
On the Montana ABLE home (web)page toward the bottom under ‘forms’, there is an agent authorization power of attorney form. 
I included a link on my slide. 
It is still my account but I can have help as I choose. 
The account owner can select on the form at what level they want help. 
For me, talking on the phone is one of my least favorite tasks. 
It is hard to prepare for all the questions I may need to ask or people will ask me. 
I also like to have someone else listen to the information I am being told in case I have questions with the form. 
I can have help in asking and answering questions. 
Each person can decide how much help I need. 
I am glad I have an ABLE account. 
I have more money saved now than I would have been able to do in the past. 
I feel more secure that I have money to help and use as I need. 
Thank you very much, Isaac, for telling us about your experience and giving us some assistance with how to manage those accounts. 
So now we have eight or nine minutes for questions and we do have some questions that have come in. 
So I will, I believe, Meg Traci might be able to answer -- field some of these. 
She's been sending me updates. 
I will start reading them and then anyone on the call, any other presenters can open, unmute themselves and answer them. 
Our first question I do believe was answered by Teresa, but what happens when someone passes away with the money in the account? >> This is Theresa, that goes back to the clawback piece we talked about. 
Money in an able account can first be used to pay for any final expenses of the individual and settle their payment, their debts but Montana can currently be viewed as a creditor. 
Sorry, I didn't start my video so you're going to do it for me (chuckles). 
Montana can be viewed as a creditor to clawback some of that funding that occurred since the creation of the able account. 
This kind of gets into another question that was there but it's why I tend to look at able accounts as just one item and what an individual might need in planning for their financial future. 
They might also want to consider what a -- if there is a significant amount of money, might want to consider what a third party trust on the side of the family could do for the individual. 
So I'll let you go to more questions. 
Great. 
Thank you Teresa. 
So another question in the chat box was asking for resources regarding New Mexico. 
Does anyone know if they have ABLE accounts or if people in New Mexico are going to have to go out of state to find -- to manage their own account? >> This is Travis. 
A good way to find out whether New Mexico has an ABLE program or not is go to the ABLE national resource center Web site. 
And there is a tool on there where you can compare three states at a time as to what their ABLE account details are. 
If there is a New Mexico ABLE account it should be listed on that Web site. 
So we have some questions that came in the Q&A box. 
The first one, if there is a paycheck or a payback clause for the able account that you choose is all of the money in the ABLE account subject to this or just the money that the beneficiary has deposited? >> It's actually all of the money that is in the able account regardless of who the contributor were -- was. 
That might be something you want to think about again, what are other options that would not have a clawback feature. 
Another piece to look at is what does Montana if it's a Montana ABLE account choose to do and be aware if you have one in another state what is the clawback feature within the state you own the account? >> Thank you, Teresa. 
The next question. 
Could a crowd funding source like GoFundMe be put into ABLE accounts? >> To me that's going to go back to how much has already been put in an ABLE account. 
Remember there's that $15,000 max. 
In my understanding of go fund me pages, someone is in charge in receiving that money and could then contribute the money to an ABLE account. 
Another piece that as Isaac said he's never tried is listing on Facebook directly to make a deposit to the ABLE account. 
Just realize regardless of how many sources contribute the money, once a $15,000 max contribution is made for the year no other contributions can be made except for an exception in regard to individual contributions from someone in their employment, which Travis will help us more another time. 
Another thing I would be careful about a GoFundMe is if the ABLE beneficiary is the one who sets up that GoFundMe and so the money comes directly to that person who may be subject to resource limits. 
That money could be while before it goes into the ABLE account could count towards that limit. 
If it's not deposited into the ABLE account before the end of a month. 
Thanks, Travis. 
We have a specific question to Isaac and it says this is Todd Hoar asking the question, it was great to see you. 
Isaac, did I see you list rent as an expense from the ABLE account? In an audit, do any of you fear the government would say the SSI was for housing and deny the expense? Yes. 
Yes, Isaac did list rent and in an audit it is listed as one of the allowable expenses from an ABLE account and even recently they've changed the language in regard to food being allowed to be spent out of an ABLE account. 
>> Thank you, Teresa. 
We have time for just a couple more. 
Here we go: What are your thoughts about the reasons to have an ABLE account versus having a first party special needs trust? Keeping in mind that the funds from the latter cannot be used for housing expenses. 
Travis: So I'm not an expert on first party special needs trusts. 
The advantage of an ABLE account is it does not affect your benefits and anybody can contribute to it. 
I'm not sure how exactly special needs trusts. 
An ABLE account you only need $25 to open it and you can contribute to it. 
Whereas a special needs trust the fees that go along with one of those are quite a bit higher than an ABLE account. 
Somebody else who knows more about trusts can probably answer better. 
>> I'll tackle a little bit of it but also not a financial planner or an attorney for trusts. 
A first party trust means the individual themselves are contributing money to it. 
A third party trust means individuals—not the individual themselves—are contributing to that trust fund. 
Also in a third party trust the individual is not able to access the funds. 
In a first party trust the individual is able to access the funds. 
ABLE accounts are aligned with social security in a meaningful way and I think that's something to be considering when you're looking at an ABLE account. 
Another piece when you're looking at trusts and ABLE accounts, from a third party trust money can be moved into an ABLE account to help with some of those expenses that you can't have happen in a first party trust. 
>> Another thing that might be looked at is how easy funds are to be withdrawn from each one. 
I don't know if it's easy to withdraw from a special needs trust or what that process is. 
But with an ABLE account a lot of states have a debit card that you can just make purchases with as well. 
>> McKeny: Well , thank you. 
I have recorded the other questions that were asked in the chat box and we will make sure to answer those and send them out when we send out the handouts and slides from today. 
We really appreciate, sincerely appreciate you joining us for the call today. 
I'm getting to my notes. 
While you are pulling up your notes, I did pull up New Mexico and they do have their own ABLE program in New Mexico. 
>> Great, Thank you, Teresa. 
Also, we do have a brief evaluation survey for you to fill out. 
We will post it in the chat box. 
I wanted to remind you we do have resources available. 
These will be sent out in the slides and these are just more resources about ABLE  accounts, including the National Resource Center. 
And then please feel free to contact us individually if you have questions. 
Like I said, we'll type up the questions and answers from the ones entered in the chat box and then we have this evaluation survey link. 
We'll go back. 
There we go. 
It is http://bit.ly/ABLESurvey. 
And Meg should be able to put that in the chat box or you can pull it up yourselves. 
We'll send it out to you in the survey -- or in the follow-up e-mail if you're not able to pull it up. 
Let us know how we did because we want to know your thoughts, any questions you have, suggestions for future webinars. 
This is also a reminder that the webinar has been recorded and will be posted to the Rural Institute’s training page and we will share the link as well in that e-mail. 
Thank you so, so much. 
We send hope and warmth to you during this time and have a wonderful day. 
Bye, everyone.