A Closer Look at the New ABLE Programs – Live Captioning Transcript – August 4, 2016>> Hello. This is Chris Rodriguez, the senior policy advisor for National Disability Institute and we are going to go ahead and start. I know we have a lot of information to cover and I want to say thank you to all of those across the country who took the time to register and to tune in for this webinar. We are very excited. It has been a very exciting past couple of months as we have seen the culmination of what took nearly a decade to come together in the launch of our country's first ABLE programs. So I want to say thank you to our panelist Max, representing the four currently launched programs, and we are going to hear from them in a little bit but right now I want to acknowledge Bank of America to this webinar is brought to you by, and the ABLE National Resource Center. I'm going to turn it over to Nakia for a couple of slides about some technical issues.

>> Good afternoon, everyone. The audio for today's webinar is being broadcast through your computer. Please make sure that your speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in. you can control the audio broadcast by the audio broadcast panel. If you accidentally close the panel or if the sound stops, you can reopen the audio broadcast panel by going to the communicate menu at the top. Sorry about that. I put myself on mute. If you accidentally close the audio broadcast panel, you can reopen it by going to the communicate menu at the top of the screen and choosing audio broadcast. If you do not have sound capabilities, on your computer, or if you prefer to listen by telephone, you can dial the toll or toll-free number that you can see here and enter the meeting code. Please note that you do not need to enter and I -- attend DID. -- ID. Real-time captioning is provided during the webinar and the captions can be found in the media viewer panel which appears in the lower right-hand corner of the webinar platform. If you do not see the media viewer panel you can choose it from the icons at the top right. If you would like to make the media viewer panel larger, you can do so by minimizing some of the other panels like chat or Q&A, and conversely, if you do not want the captions, you can go ahead and minimize the media viewer panel. I will paste into the chatbox a link if you would like to view the captions in a separate browser window. There will be some time at the end of the webinar for questions. Please use the Q&A box to submit any questions that you may have and Chris will direct those questions to the speakers accordingly. If you are listening by telephone, only, and not logged into the webcast portion, you can also set in questions by emailing them to me directly, nmatthews@ndi-inc.org. This webinar is recorded and the materials will be placed on the ABLE National Resource Center website at the URL that you see below. Finally, if you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, you can please use the chat box to send a message to me, or you may Josh NDI admin, or you may email me directly at nmatthews@ndi-inc.org and with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Chris.

>> Okay. Thank you so much. So let's go ahead and divan. You will get an opportunity to meet our panelist Max in a bid as we go through each one of their programs in the different characteristics but

we have a lot to cover so we are going to go ahead and get started. Today we're going to go over some ABLE basics that will provide our audience with a general knowledge about ABLE so that when we hear the presentations and characteristics from the individual programs we will have a better foundation to base decisions and ask questions. After that we want to make sure that we have some time for questions and answers. We have some predetermined questions that we have come up with but we will also be paying attention to the questions that are submitted through the question box so that we can get some questions from the audience. Okay. So as I said we want to make sure that the folks have an understanding, at least a basic understanding, of the various characteristics of the ABLE Act add to programs that will be consistent across all programs so I want to start out with a brief little history. So the ABLE Act, the formal name is it Stephen Beck Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience Act or ABLE Act became law in December 19 of 2014 and the ABLE Act basically creates a new option for some people with disabilities and their families and to save for the future while protecting eligibility for federally funded public benefits such as Medicaid, Social Security. It is important to note that the presentation is based on what we currently know now, but there are going to be instances in the future, specifically the Department of treasury is expected along with the IRS to come up with the final rules and regulations but we think that we have more than enough information and guidance obviously to get these programs up and running and to encourage people to get enrolled. So what is an ABLE account? The ABLE Act was called in a new section called 529 a qualified ABLE programs and they are very similar, beard after 529 college savings account which is why they get their name of 529 a as opposed to 529 which is the college savings account so it is important to note that if you hear anybody referring to an ABLE program as a 529 a program they are talking about the same thing. STABLE Accounts are qualified savings accounts that received preferred a federal tax treatment and they enable eligible individuals to save for disability related expenses and we are going to go over a little bit what exactly is an eligible individual and the criteria that an individual needs to meet in order to be able to have the opportunity to open an account and we will go over more specifically what a disability related expenses. It is important to note that the first programs are just now beginning to be launched in -- and several programs are enrolling individuals. And those are the states of Ohio, Tennessee, Nebraska, and Florida, and we have representation from everyone of those programs on this webinar today, and we will be hearing more from them in a little bit. It is important to note that while the original law said that our state -- it stated that an individual must enroll in their state of residence, that has since been eliminated so as long as the program has national enrollment, and we will get into which one of these states to do, then regardless of where you live, provided that you meet the eligibility criteria that we will review, you can open up a program in any state, so you are not relegated to open a program in your state so it really does not matter if your state has developed a program or if they are going to choose perhaps not too. There is always going to be the opportunity as of the first launch of these programs to enroll. So it is important to note that the assets in and distributions for qualified disability expenses will be disregarded or given special treatment in determining eligibility for most federally means tested benefits and we will go over why that is most and not all in a little bit as well. So what are

some important requirements of the ABLE Act? Well, each eligible individual, the person with a disability, can only have one ABLE account so this differentiates ABLE accounts from a typical 529 college savings account where the beneficiary can have multiple so again a person is only allowed to be the beneficiary of a single ABLE account and it is important to note that the designated beneficiary and the account owner so means that the person with the disability was the designated beneficiary also is the account owner. That being said, the rules and regulations to allow for another person, such as the parent or guardian or a person with power of attorney to have signature authority on the account to help the individual with a disability if they so choose in maintaining and setting up the account. Again, there is no longer a federal residency requirement related to establishing an ABLE account. So as long as the state or any given program has a national program, then, again, provided you meet the criteria you could open up an account with them regardless of where you actually live. It is important to note that the total annual contributions are not to exceed the federal gift tax contribution limit which is currently set at $14,000 and we expect this to be adjusted periodically for inflation, but again, basically what that means is that all contributions of which anybody can contribute to an ABLE account, friends, family, employers, the beneficiary themselves, all of those combined for any given tax year, again, cannot exceed $14,000. There is also one other cab which relates to the aggregate contribution or the absolute account limit. And that is going to be equal to the states limit on 529 savings account. This a typically anywhere from $250 all the way up to I figure $550,000, depending on which program you are enrolling but remember it is going to take time to get there provided that currently you can only put $14,000 in total in any given tax year. Okay. So who exactly is qualified? Why did we say that these accounts are available for some individuals with disabilities and not all individuals with disabilities? Well, that is because there is eligibility requirements, and it is basically founded on two different types of requirements. The first has to do with the age of onset of the disability. So it states that in order to be eligible to open an ABLE account the individual must have had an onset of their disability prior to their 26th birthday. So it is important to note that this does not mean that just because you are 35, you cannot open up an account. It just means that that same 35-year-old would have had to experience the onset of their disability prior to their 26th birthday so let's assume that that has taken place. And you meet that requirement. The second part of the criteria relates to the severity of disability. And it states that whether or not a person has been determined to meet the disability requirements for supplemental security income or SSI or Social Security disability benefits SSDI and are receiving those benefits so if the individual had an aunt that of disability prior to their 26 birth day and are currently receiving Social Security disability benefits such as SSI or SSDI, then they are available, they are eligible, to open an account in any given state that has a program that is enrolling nationwide. If the individual meets the age requirement of but for some reason is not currently receiving Social Security disability benefits such as SSI or SSDI, there may be another way to be qualified and that is through what is called a disability certification, and this assures that the individual holds documentation from a physician that includes a physician's diagnosis and signature and confirms that the individual meets the functional, disability criteria, that is stated in the ABLE Act and we can go into what that sounds like in

a little bit. But those are the basic eligibility criteria that would allow somebody to open an ABLE account. Okay. So now that we know the basic components of an ABLE account and these are consistent across all programs and we understand the eligibility criteria, a component consistent across all state programs, we want to know exactly what kind we use these funds for? Distributions from an ABLE account can be made for what are called qualified disability expenses. These qualified disability expenses related to the designated beneficiaries blindness or disability and -- are for the benefit of that person with the disability who is also the account owner and it helps them maintain or increase their health, independence, or quality of life. So that is a very broad definition of what the allowable expenses would be for an ABLE beneficiary. This is very positive. We wanted to make sure that these expenses -- the allowable expenses were as broad as possible because we understand the very wide array of different needs of people with disabilities, especially those people with disabilities with the types of severity that would meet the criteria to be able to open an ABLE account and it is also important to note qualified disability expenses do not necessarily have to have any type of medical necessity. So they are not things that a doctor says that they have to have. They can be things, anything, again, that helps the person improve or maintain their health, independence or quality of life and is for their benefit. It is important to note that this for their benefit that they cannot use the funds to buy something for something else but it has to be for their benefit and has to be related to their disability and it has to help them increase or maintain our health, independence, or all of your life while constructing the able -- ABLE Act, there were different buckets or criteria that these expenses could fall under. It is very, very broad. I'm not going to go through all of them but you can read these and again, it is a very broad category and they also include basic living expenses so that is something that is important to know. It is also important to note that distributions for nonqualified expenditures will be subject to tax consequences and perhaps more importantly may affect eligibility for that individual federally means tested benefits such as Social Security or Medicaid. Okay. So how exactly do the funds in the account or the assets or resources in accounts -- how do they affect federal benefits? This is one of the most important aspects about the laws that allows people to save without jeopardizing eligibility for their federally funded means tested benefits such as Social Security and Medicaid. There is an important exception, though, and that relates to people eligible individuals or beneficiaries, ABLE beneficiaries, better receiving supplemental security income so that monthly cash benefit. And what it says is that once the ABLE account exceeds $100,000, that SSI or supplemental security income cash benefit that is received monthly -- that will be temporarily suspended until such time as the account falls back below $100,000. It is important to note that while that cash benefit may be suspended, no other federally funded means tested benefits will be suspended including Medicaid. It is also important to note that housing expenses intended to receive -- are intended to receive the same treatment as all housing costs paid by outside court -- sources and there is an exception and that is if the funds that are used for housing expenses -- if they are taken out of the ABLE account and paid for that housing expense in the same month, they will have no effect on the individuals SSI. Okay. So again, despite the fact that once the account breaches $100,000 and that SSI cash benefit will be

temporarily suspended on so -- until such time as the account falls back below, it is important to note, again, that Medicaid will not be suspended it only applies to that SSI cash benefit, so that is a very important thing to realize that it does not mean that the person is now in eligible for Social Security. It means that benefit of Social Security is temporarily suspended. Lastly, I want to talk about what is called in the Medicaid pay pack for vision and this is an important aspect to understand and, again, these are all characteristics consistent across all programs right now. So what this stage is that any assets or any funds remaining in an ABLE account when a beneficiary passes away subject to outstanding qualified disability expenses which can also include a burial and funeral expenses -- the funds left over can be used to reimburse a state for Medicaid payments paid on behalf of the beneficiary after the creation of an ABLE account. So that means that if the beneficiary is receiving Medicaid services, of which presumably many of the beneficiaries well, because of the severity of their disability, the fact that Medicaid is such a robust support -- provides such robust and supports and services to people with disabilities -- when that person passes away, the state that has been providing those can file a claim to reimburse itself for those services through the ABLE account, the funds in the ABLE account and that starts at the time that the ABLE account is initiated. So that is something important to remember. Okay. So that was a lot of information. We tried to get through it very quickly so that we can hear from our presenters that are going to be talking about their particular ABLE programs and the differences from ABLE programs. I would encourage folks to visit the ABLE national resource Center website for more in-depth information related to a lot of the things that we just talked about. There are videos of there that will walk people through the ABLE basics and we have all of our archived webinars on there, to go into depth about the characteristics related to the ABLE Act and ABLE programs. We have a map that will allow people to better understand where their status, and in terms of the development of the program, and there is also an opportunity to compare programs that are already -- that have already been launched based on different characteristics that people might want to take into consideration when determining which program is right for them. Of there is my contact information and our website so be sure to sign up for the ABLE alerts that will provide you with the most -- most up-to-date information regarding the launch of programs and what is going on with ABLE. So with that, I want to turn it over to a representative who is going to talk about the ABLE savings program in the state of Nebraska. Amelis, are you want?

>> Yes. Thank you, Chris. Hello, everyone. Thank you for having ABLE join the webinar today and I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about our planet we're going to go ahead and get started so we are plenty of time for questions at the end. I am sorry, Chris. How do I switch this slide?

>> [ Pause ]

>> We can go ahead and we will switch the slides for you.

>> Perfect. Thank you so much. We will go ahead and get rolling so today we wanted to cover more about our ENABLE program features, go over our investment options, our program fees and tell you a little bit about our enrollment process. So just to go over some of the unique qualities of our plan, we

do offer national enrollment, so anyone of any state can access the ENABLE savings plan. We do offer Nebraska state income tax reduction for our residents who contribute to the ENABLE plan, so we are very lucky in the state of Nebraska to have that for our state residents. We -- initial minimum contribution is $50. However, if you enroll within AIP or a payroll deduction, that is up -- dropped to $25 as the minimum contribution and we have an annual fee of $45 which is charged per quarter, $11.25 a quarter and asset-based fees that range from .5% -- .6%. And the subsequent contributions after you are enrolled and you have initially conjugated are $25 but, again, if you sign up for the AIP payroll deduction, that is waived so you will be able to contribute at a rate that make sense for you every month. There are no limited numbers of disbursements which means that you can withdraw as frequently as you need to. In the fall, we will be offering a checking account which would allow -- would allow for a debit card function as well as check writing. First National Bank of Omaha is the program administrator and we work alongside our Nebraska investment counsel as the investment manager. We have currently four investment options for customers to select. Which does not include the checking account which will launch in the fall so in fall we will have five options for folks but there is a risk in the assessments including growth, moderate and consider it a risk-based exceptions and we are -- we offer the FDIC bank savings and the checking out with a follow-up with the SEI insured. Some unique characteristics in our plan is that we focus on education and providing resources to folks that are maybe saving for the first time. So we have a digital library. With a resource page that a lot of folks -- they can have downloadable materials that they can reference or even if they are supporting somebody else -- they can use that alongside. We also have social media access through Facebook and blogs so we like to connect with folks in a variety of different ways that make sense for them. Let's move on to a little bit more about our target risk investment options. On the screen is a shot of our three risk options including the growth, moderate, and conservative. On the growth option more of the funds are in the stock market which means there is a higher rate of return but there is a higher rate of risk and the conservative option, lower rate of risk and a lower rate of return if you visit the website, all of these investment options are broken down for you to explore so that you can make a decision of what makes more sense for you. With the FDIC investment options on the next screen, the bank savings option offers that stability and the principal investment but it still offers a return on your earnings per checking account which will launch in the file offers a debit card in the checks so you have that ability to go where you need to go and major purchases as needed, whether that is in store, face-to-face transactions or online. So really it allows you the ease of withdrawing and -- the simplicity of the program. Our program fees are $45 and those are charged per quarter at $11.25 a quarter, pulled directly from the account from the asset-based fees range from .5 -- .6%, not including the rate for the checking account and otherwise there are no other fees to enroll, transact or withdraw or use the investment options, so those are all of the fees that are associated with the count. As far as enrollment, there are a couple of ways to go about it. You can visit the website and then, on the upper right corner, there is an enrollment feature and you can select that and all online, allowing you to fill out the form and then to have it be process directly to the website. It is really ideal for account owners

who are creating the account for themselves. Or for parents of minors who are opening the accounts for their children to if you are in a situation where you have a guardian, a power of attorney, we have the form able to be downloaded and printed so that you can fill out the form and submit it along with your documentation of that guardianship or conservator or power of attorney. In the resources section of the website there is a digital library that allows you to watch a video that walks you through the enrollment process. It goes through what materials you will need and how to fill out the forms and you are able to pause it at work alongside with it so that there are not -- if you get hung up, you have a reference point. Also you can call the call center and they can walk you through the enrollment process as well. Here are some links to our website, enable savings.com and the link to the Facebook page, and that is a way that we like to share updates with our communities, as well as inform folks when we are offering webinars were presentations across Nebraska as well as attending conferences nationally. Our call center number is Onderko as well as the email address so that you can contact us at any time. We have our disclosures because we do work for a bank so that is information about us and these are listed online for your review and again I look forward to the questions at the end of the webinar. Thank you.

>> Okay. Thank you so much, Amelis. That was some great information and I want to also take this opportunity to thank you all for -- of the First National Bank, Program Manager, a sponsor of the ABLE National Resource Centers so let's move on to Eric who is going to give us some information about Ohio STABLE Account program. Thanks, Chris, and thank you for having Ohio on today. We are very excited obviously to join with you and provide information and we are very excited to join Nebraska, Florida and Tennessee as part of the first wave of ABLE programs around the country. If you go to the next slide, I can go right in. So a STABLE account is the Ohio ABLE program, the first ABLE program to launch on June 1 and since then, since about 63 days, we have had the meetings, introductions to 73 of the counties in Ohio. So we are doing a very good job in the state of getting the word out and providing information on the accounts themselves. They are available as residents -- for residents in all states and we have enrollees were about over 40 states around the country. Our website is STABLE Account.com and on there is information about the program, FAQs and we developed a great eligibility ways to help people answer questions about if they are eligible and there are details on the debit card, STABLE Account has a debit card attached to it which right will get into in a little bit and we have enrollment information and you can and roll and log into the accounts all through that STABLE Accounts.com. On the next slide, again, enrollment is free and it takes about 10 minutes or 20 minutes. We felt -- we built it to be paperless is so enrolling account access -- everything can be done on the website itself. Account costs. In Ohio it is $2.50 a month per resident and we also have the asset-based fees and the nationally, it is five dollars a month and it is that month the maintenance fee. And then also those are on the right-hand side. We can go to the next slide. Our investment options Army -- we had five investment options -- the core portfolios are through Vanguard and they range from conservative to aggressive obviously and we have one FDIC insured option which helps protect the principal so all of them have a good enrollments and different options for different people obviously.

The accounts themselves can be funded via EFTA or checking and we have a $50 minimum deposit for the initial setup and we are one dollar minimum after that per contribution. Something that we created in our accounts is an event so if families want to post something for a birthday or holiday or special event and they can send out an email and it can help provide information to have donations or contributions send to their family members or their loved ones STABLE Account. Withdrawing is free. There is no limit. Everything can be done online. There is no need to fill out a mailing forms or checks or things to come in. Transfers are available to go to personal checking and savings accounts. And also the transfers to our STABLE card which I will get -- get into on the next slide -- we have something called the STABLE card, a loadable debit card, and what it does is help with RP played -- prepaid load and spend card is so exactly the money is pulled from your STABLE Account and it is put on a STABLE card which obviously helps with financial independence and it also helps as NDI often says financial inclusion. So members of the community that may not have had a credit card before now can have a debit card to go out and pay for transportation, pay for groceries, pay for technology or therapy, education for example. All of the expenses are online much like any of us have a current online account whether is Chase, fifth third, Wells Fargo, all of the transactions are logged in a history log. All of the expenses can be categorized whether qualified or not and we have built in a memo line so that each and every spend can be provided information for and at the end of the year, the entire transaction and all of the notes can be exported to Excel in order for each person and the family to be able to hand over to benefit people or any auditor all of the information included for all of the expenses throughout the entire year. We do think that we have limited merchants so for example you cannot pull cash out and, again, the funds do not come out of the count themselves. It is a loaded card so there is not tied in access between the account and the cards themselves. So we have had great response from family members, parents, advocacy groups, throughout, this is a great way obviously to hold someone to financial independence but also help decrease the scope of record keeping and the county because everything is done online. We can probably go to the next slide we have a customer service line -- our STABLE Account program is set up in three different manner so we have an operation side and they helps to focus on running the program itself and we have an outreach side which I helped to lead and we go all over the state and answer questions for groups of parents and then we have a call center so our call center is dedicated to only answer questions are about STABLE Accounts but if there are any other treasury were, they do not answer questions on taxes or anything else like that. It has been a great resource for us and all three departments work together and in one way or another we are able to be successful so thank you again and we look forward to questions at the very end.

>> All right. Thank you so much, Eric. I would be remiss if I did not also mention that you are program and Florida -- they are program managers intuition and able solutions has been very generous with their sponsorship of the ABLE National Resource Center so thank you for that. Let's move on to Arthur program. ABLE's Tennessee. Roy.

>> Thank you, Chris. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Roy West and I am a member of the ABLE Tennessee team. It has been my pleasure to help and design the program and I am very excited to be here with you all today. To share the exciting news about our program and all of the programs across the country. I want to thank the ABLE National Resource Center and everyone participating for allowing all of us to come together and give our presentations. ABLE Tennessee is a nationwide savings program that was designed to provide our participants with an easy to manage affordable program that empowers our customers to gain financial independence and truly Achieving a Better Life Experience. Our program is administered by the Tennessee Department of treasury in-house. We manage over $60 billion in financial assets for Tennesseans. We do that in our program such as unclaimed property. Our Tennessee consolidated retirement system and our 10 stars call it savings program. So we have some experience in running a program. And a pretty great track record. In fact, you might not know this but Tennessee is one of the best financially managed states in the union and the Tennessee treasury departments -- many programs have played a vital role in attaining and maintaining that status. So when creating the ABLE Tennessee program we decided to meet and exceed the expectations of what our program participants have come to expect from us. If we could go to the next slide, please. Here are a few of the features and benefits that we have built into our plan. These are the same great investment options that we use in our TN stars college savings program. There are 14 of them and they are diverse in their risk. They are nationally ranked among other 529 investment options on savings for college.com. When determining cause, investment options, we focus on making this program affordable because we wanted to empower you, our participants, to save as much as you can. So every dollar saved with our low-cost investment options allows you to keep your money growing and working for your future. We knew -- when you are determining eligibility -- it might be a daunting task so we created an eligibility guy that ask questions to help you determine if you would qualify for an ABLE account. We also thought that the convenience is one of the most important points. Especially when talking about your money. So we designed our program to be primarily online. Allowing you the participant to manage, contribute, and withdraw your funds from wherever you are. For those individuals who do not have online Internet with us, we do have paper forms, and you can find those on our website. ABLE TN. -- and you can -- there is a formal section and you can download them or are legal representative form is there as well. We also on our online website -- we have a -- a gifting portal that allows friends and family to contribute and that is where you would sign up and manage your account. Our program does not require a recertification process. We know that you fill out plenty of paperwork and the last thing you want to do is fill out another document. So in the event that your eligibility changes, we would like for you to let us know and we will work with you to determine what needs to be done. This is a general overview of the ABLE Tennessee program. And we are going to go into contributions. Contributions can be made in a variety of ways. It is important to note that there is not an enrollment fee. Once you enroll, you can contribute by sending in a check, why electronic funds trance for, or an automatic investment plan, a fancy way for saying that you can make recurring contributions into your account. We have an initial contribution of $25. It is not a fee. This is a savings

contribution to your account. After the initial contribution, there is no additional minimum contribution. Unless you are automatically contributing from a bank account, savings, or checking account. Then we ask that you contribute $25 each time you contribute automatically. We additionally, as I stated before, have an online gifting portal. It is convenient for individuals to log in and create a message and send it to friends and family to often ask for contributions for their birthday or for a holiday. As I said before, we have 14 diverse investment options with varying risk levels to meet your savings goals. The wonderful thing about this is that you or your financial advisor has lots of options for how to save and invest your funds. Empowering you to have more control over your finances and how you choose to make your money work for you. So we have six growth options, three balance options, and five conservative options. One of which is an interest-bearing account, like a savings account. These options -- these are our investment options. They, like I said, have been nationally ranked so when ABLE Tennessee was given the opportunity to provide these investments -- these investment options, we knew that it would be the right move and we knew that we could provide the same a low cost structure as we did for our college savings program. In the screen, these options are ranked from the most aggressive to the most conservative. And on the far right, is the annual asset base fee which is the fee that would be used on your account annually and generally our investment options are .35%. 10 of them are .35%. One, the interest-bearing account, which is like a savings account, has no fee. As I said previously, affordability was key when we were designing our program. So we chose not to charge fees outside of the annual asset-based fee. As the fees you saw the last slide. ABLE Tennessee does not have any type of sales or distribution charges. We do not have a fixed account maintenance fees so we do not charge a fee every month. To your account for it being opened. Additionally we do not have any application or statement fees. Keep in mind that every dollar that you are not paying in fees is one more dollar that you can save and it can be used to invest and save for your future. So I believe that our fee structure meets our goals of providing an option that allows families to save more. We also found convenience to be an important part of designing a program. We have designed it to be flexible by giving you complete online access it from wherever you are. You are able to change your account, manage it, to make contributions to your account, and also to make withdrawals. We do not have a fee for withdrawals. Nor does ABLE Tennessee have a maximum number of withdrawals that you can make. You may make withdrawals based on when and how you need your funds. Additionally ABLE Tennessee does not provide a prepaid card. The cars are currently readily available to you and we sought to complement the financial tools that you already have. ABLE Tennessee provides an investment account that allows you to save and uses your funds to grow and work for you and can be used as -- along with a prepaid debit card or bank card that you already have. Here is the contact information for our customer care center. You can contact us by telephone or by email. Our customer care representatives our in-house in the Tennessee Department of treasury and you can additionally log onto the website. ABLE TN and you can browse some of our resources there. Thank you.

>> Okay. Thank you, Roy. That was a great presentation, lots of information. Let's go ahead and move on to our final presenter, John Finch, who is going to tell us about the ABLE United program based out of Florida.

>> Grade. Thank you, Chris, so much. I appreciate the opportunity that you and the ABLE center and NDI have given us to present. I know that we are short on time so I will try to be brief. ABLE United is qualified program and I'm the director. It is administered by the Florida prepaid college board we are -- it oversees Florida's 529 savings plan as well as the prepaid plan, combined assets that they oversee is roughly over $10 billion. That we manage. So what is unique about our program is eligibility requirements that everybody else has -- we have as well. One exception is that we do have a residency requirement that you have to be in order resident to open and ABLE United account and the reason is because when we first initiated we were charged with running the program. We did our research and we reached out to the organizations in the state of Florida to see how we can partner with them to make this the most appropriate tool for individuals with disabilities so we haven't had the chance to work with organizations to bring a product for Florida residents. What also is unique about the program is that we want to be a part of the community so we have a dedicated section on our website and we are in the process of producing a quarterly newsletter and with our newsletter we hope to highlight news and events within the disability community, both regarding ABLE and national events as well. We want to highlight coming events that we will be at as well as kind of highlighting some unique individuals that have opened ABLE United account through a testimonial spotlight. Our program has a maximum amount of $418,000 that can be an ABLE account before we will reject any additional contributions and once you hit that amount, you can continue to grow. How do enroll in the -- ABLE United? You visit the website, and on my process, ABLE United is the website and it takes approximately 15 minutes to get enrolled. It depends on if you are the individual with a disability opening it or if you have somebody on your behalf opening it for you. There are no documents to upload. We request that you keep that in case you do get audited or asked by Social Security Administration if you are an SSI recipients that you maintain the documentation. You enter some identifying information and categories, the type of disability that you have, self certify that, and then you can select your investment options. I -- the cost of opening and ABLE United account? We do not have a fee so it is free to enroll online and there is no minimum to contribute. We do have a monthly maintenance fee of $2.50 but we're waiting that until July 2017. If you decide to make electronic contributions that are recurring or one-time contributions, we have $25 minimum electronic contributions but you can also make checks payable through your account and it is -- a secure lockbox that will be credited to your account. After you enroll you get to select what kind of options you have. We have seven options, three of them are a pre-mixed portfolio that is based out of this out of the four options or you can create your own a portfolio based on those four options just like everybody else is program, we do have that funds that are existing in your account can only be rebalance twice a year. With the pre-mixed portfolio, we have a conservative, moderate, and growth and those are based out of those options that you can see to the right, the fund options. For our money market fund, we use

Florida prime which is a local government surplus funds trust fund that basically Florida created to allow in-state agencies and local city and municipalities to put funds in a very secure short-term high-quality fixed income kind of program that significantly and historically has small returns but it is very -- is not as volatile as some of the other options. For the US bond fund and US stock fund we use Vanguard and they are pretty a large manager overseeing $3 trillion in assets and we also use international stock fund, BlackRock as error fund manager for that so it is the largest in the world with over $4 trillion in assets that they manage. As you know with any investment option there are various risk factors depending on which you choose. And it is on the little chart that goes from those conservative to aggressive. We have it and -- investment administrative Street church fee ranging from .4 -- -- until point -- 229 basis points of annualized of the account balance and basically, it is .0350 for the money market account and the other three options -- the US bond, US stock, international stock have that .29% investment and administrative fee. Once the funds are an account, how do you get to it? You with drive this is on my process for us. ABLE United. You can withdraw the funds at any time for any reason, electronic transfer to a banking account or checking account or you can request a check to yourself or you can request it to a third-party. You can do unlimited ACH transfers, electronic transfers and you get two free checks per month. There are additional fees if you go over that -- it is five dollars with each additional check and we also allow individuals if they want to pay for correspondence let quarterly statements -- there is a $10 fee for that. And that is pretty much it. ABLE United in a nutshell -- in a nutshell. You can visit us online. We have an eligibility checklist and we give a review of our investment options and performance and we have a toolkit and downloadable content and a quick start guide that gives you a brief overview of ABLE United and more in-depth FAQs and we are in the process of uploading webinars and like I said, ABLE United is a Florida only program. We are looking at maybe expanding beyond our borders and partnering with other states but at this time, we are Florida specific. That is it I'm looking forward to answering anybody's questions regarding ABLE United. Thank you, Chris.

>> Okay. Thank you. I want to say, again, thank you all so much, Roy, Eric, Amelis, and John for taking the time out of your day today to present to the folks that have signed up for the webinar and all of the folks that are going to access it went is archived. I want people to know that we have been working in an extremely close way with the programs that have launched and other programs across the country, and every one of these programs has gone above and beyond to have a better understanding and start to build a significant relationship with the disability community, not only in their state, but across the country. I know that many of us have traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast, up and down, and in meetings, and focus groups, and strategy sessions to try to figure out how to best put together programs that will ultimately help people with disabilities -- to have the opportunity, and many time -- many times for the first time, to save for their futures not unlike their typical ABLE peers so I could not be more excited about your programs leading the way, being the first in the country to be launched and to have folks and rolling in them and to begin to realize the dream of being able to better participate in the economic mainstream. With that, I do want to go into some questions. So I

think that we will start it off there. I know that some of the things that we have been getting recently have talked about, well, when I decide to go to a program and choose a program, what type of information do I need to be ready so that I can get through the enrollment process as quickly as possible without any hiccups or anything like that? So Amelis, maybe I will shoot this one to you. What types of information if I am either a family member, a person with a disability, should I have prepared and ready to go when I get onto the website to enroll?

>> You are going to be unmuted in one second.

>> [ Pause ] you got it. Okay.

>> Yes. Thank you, Chris. So when somebody goes in and starts the enrollment process, they can start by watching the video, which does help them, outline what they're going to need which includes Social Security number, if they are enrolling on behalf of another individual. They will need their guardianship paperwork, power of attorney, to include with their paper documentation. And they will also -- if they are opting to connect it to another bank account, they will need that information as well. So what you need to collect to get started is really simple. It outlines it all for you in the videos so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into and you can have a nice smooth enrollment process.

>> [ Pause ]

>> Great. Excellent. Are there any other programs that have additional documentation or forms that someone should have prepared when they are going through your enrollment process?

>> [ Pause ]

>> I do not think so but again, to the folks eligibility to open and ABLE account is something that is going to be consistent across all programs so it is not uncommon that documentation and things are consistent. Moving on to another question, I know that we have a lot of folks calling in saying, what is the big rush? Why should I enrolled in 2016 when perhaps I live in a state that is hopeful to launch in 2017? So maybe, Roy, do you want to take this one? What you think would be the benefits of opening an account in 2016 as opposed to perhaps waiting for more programs to get up and running?

>> [ Pause ]

>> Well, I think one of the great things about it is that you are allowed to begin saving today. Allowed to put your money to work and start creating some returns if possible. There is nothing that prevents you that I know of with that of the programs available from transferring to another state. I think the transfer from one ABLE program to another will be something that is readily available in the future. Yeah. But I think that you bring up an excellent point, and I think it goes back to one of the characteristics, again, that is consistent across all programs and that is the fact that folks, all contributions combine, cannot exceed that $14,000. So if you are planning to put in funds, it would be advantageous of someone to be allowed to take advantage of that $14,000 in 2016. As opposed to losing Matt opportunity if you decided to wait until 2017. I also liked your point, Roy, about the point

that through the rules and regulations that govern and give guidance to these programs, it does allow for somebody to move their ABLE account to another state program if they think that state better suits their needs. Now, kind of expanding on that, and we will go each one of you -- we will start with Eric. Eric, are there any fees associated in the Ohio program if somebody was to choose to move to another program?

>> [ Pause ]

>> We might be having some issues.

>> [ Pause ]

>> Let's see.

>> [ Pause ]

>> I think we are having some issues getting Eric unmuted.

>> I am here.

>> John?

>> Are you here?

>> Go ahead.

>> It is $50 to rollover from ABLE -- the STABLE Account in Ohio to any other account nationwide.

>> Okay. Got you. John, how about the Florida program?

>> For ABLE United, the Florida program, there are no rollover fees.

>> Okay. Amelis? For the ENABLE program?

>> For ENABLE, there is no rollover fee.

>> And then Roy.

>> For ABLE Tennessee, there is no rollover fee.

>> Okay. So that is something that folks might want to take into consideration if they feel like they may be waiting or they might want to roll into another program in the future. For whatever reason. I know that one thing that folks are looking at is some of the states are allowing several of the folks on this phone -- they had mentioned it. A state income tax deduction and a lot of people think that is something that they would want to take into consideration and take advantage of. But it would obviously only be allowed in most circumstances if they enrolled in the program in which they actually reside. Looking at the questions here, I know that, again, these programs were kind of mirror at least when they were being pushed through Congress. Behind the 529 college savings account. I know that some of you have a pretty large amounts of experience behind that program. For the people out there that have kind of looked at these and a comparison to those, I know that there is a lot of differences

between them. What would be the most striking difference that you want folks to know about when they start to think of 529 and 529 ABLE accounts? So maybe John?

>> That is a great question, Chris but I think what the big difference for me, and of course I'm coming outside of the 529 fear and I'm from the disability field but the striking difference I see is what you can use these funds four and when you can withdraw them. A lot of times the 529 savings plans, your city for future educational needs, sometimes a newborn up to 18, 20 years of life to use those funds and you can put the funds an emergency happens week later and you can withdraw the funds and use them for a variety of expenses. The goal of the program is to enhance people's quality of life. So I think that is some of what they sent down on different categories, which gives you broad ranges of how you can use these funds and use them now.

>> Great. Excellent. Excellent. I wanted to kind of how it in a little bit on the Ohio program, just because I'm really intrigued by their pre-loadable card. Could you give an example, Eric, of how that would be useful to somebody to a beneficiary?

>> Short. One thing that might be different, obviously with the 529 and the STABLE Account is that the use of funds are more accessible and easier to use with the STABLE because we have the debit card so what I might -- what I mean by that is as soon as the money is in the account, you can actually load it on the debit card and let's say that you want to take a boss the summer, maybe it is physical therapy, or maybe you want to use it for schoolbooks were educational programs. Food. It serves and acts just like a normal debit card, being able to use anywhere that debit cards are allowed access to so really we think of this both as a long-term savings option, investment option, but also we want to make sure that people have daily use and daily access to the funds whenever they want to use the money themselves.

>> Got you. Great. Excellent. I would imagine perhaps somebody that is using the funds in accounts perhaps more frequently might really appreciate the availability of the funds the way that a card and I know that some of the other programs are planning on doing something similar to that but I imagine that might be a benefit to somebody who plans to use the funds and they count more frequently as opposed to perhaps somebody who will be contributed funds to the account and letting them sit and accrue over a longer period of time. So just to be clear, one of the questions is can I use of the funds an account for short-term as well as long-term savings? So the answer to that would be yes, the funds in the account can be used for both short-term financial goals and long-term financial goals. However, as we noted previously in the presentations, there can be fees associated with getting checks and reimbursements and things like that, that somebody would want to take into consideration when choosing which program best meets their needs. I also want to talk to some of the states, the states that do have a national program. I know that there again is some apprehension about getting into a program that the individual does not reside in for whatever reason, the apprehension COMs. But I think it is important to note that you are having quite a bit of success with out-of-state enrollments. Is that right? Both Tennessee and I think we loss to Nebraska for now. But both Roy and Eric?

>> Yeah. We have seen a very high percentage of out-of-state enrollments. I think we are pretty close to 43% of our enrollments are from out of state, and we are over 40 states actually have an release from them so we have seen a large national search for the STABLE Accounts and we have had great success in providing that across the country.

>> Great. Great.

>> Chris, also ABLE Tennessee has additionally had some success with national enrollment. I think we are right at 30% of our applicants are from outside of the state of Tennessee. We have individuals from Hawaii, all the way to the state of Maine and so very diverse range of individuals all across time zones and so I think we have also had a great success in national enrollment.

>> Excellent. That is great. That is great. One of the questions coming in right now and this could be for everybody, and I think it is going to be the same, obviously, for everybody, but there is concern over what happens -- I think people understand the contribution, the annual contribution limit, but the question is, what happens when the account. That $14,000 and perhaps there is still a couple months left until the end of the tax year and there is another contribution made? So John, do you want to take that one?

>> So are you talking -- individual account has reached the $14,000 contribution limit, our system will automatically reject our contribution and it will go into suspense and we will work on getting bad getting them back to the individual or rejecting that completely so that is how our program works.

>> Okay. Roy?

>> [ Pause ]

>> Yes. I think that is the same across all of the programs. As far as I understand, our program, there is a hard stop at $14,000. It would not allow anyone to over contribute. In the event that a check was sent to our office, we would be notified of that and we would additionally worked to get that check back to the individual who contributed before it ever hits the account.

>> Great. Great. And I imagine, Eric, that is the same in the Ohio program.

>> Yes. It is the same, Chris. That is correct.

>> So I think that is good to let the folks out there understand that they do not have to worry about excess contributions or any types of pedophilia. The programs have taken that into consideration and put forth mechanisms to make sure that it does not happen and that goes towards beneficiaries peace of mind and I think that is its -- something important to know. I am seeing questions coming up related to whether or not an individual can roll over a 529 college savings account to an ABLE account and I can go ahead and answer that. Currently, that is not allowed and in order to move the funds from a college savings account to an ABLE account, you would have to liquidate the account, pay the applicable tax implications, and then put the cash into the ABLE account, and that would still be subject to the $14,000 annual contribution limit. That being said, there is a bill currently -- that currently exists

that has been filed in Congress that would allow an individual to roll over, as long as the beneficiary is the same beneficiary, obviously, allowing them to roll over a 529 college savings account into an ABLE account and vice versa. That being said, even if that bill was to pass the funds that would be transferred from the 529 college savings account into the ABLE account would still be subject to the $14,000 annual contribution limit. But that is certainly something that the disability community as well as the 529 groups and the ABLE groups administrators have seen benefits in and it would certainly I think support at least from NDI perspective, allowing for that. It is just a matter of getting that amendment through Congress, of which, as we all know, can be a tedious process. I don't know how many people know this on the webinar, but the original ABLE at took about -- ABLE Act, took eight or nine years to get to the process and we do not expect these amendments to take that one but it is something to think about and I think it is a good question and something that a lot of folks have certainly asked in the past. So in addition, some of the questions related to the Medicaid payback provision that I am seeing. It says, can Medicare also ask for a reimbursement upon death? No. The Medicaid provision that talks about the claim that can be filed by a state is only specific to Medicaid funds that were dispersed by the state to provide for supports and services for the beneficiary. And I think that is important to note and then, again, that is only to the extent in which there are funds in the account. I am seeing another question related to the -- I think this is going to be very similar -- maybe not so much. We will see. To the $14,000 limit. Some folks are concerned that -- they want to know if they will be alerted when their account approaches $100,000. So these are folks that, again, as we talked about, are receiving the supplemental security income cash monthly benefit of which would be suspended if the ABLE account exceeded that $100,000. So they are wondering, do your programs offer for some kind of alert when the account for SSI beneficiaries starts to approach that limit? So let's go with Roy.

>> Chris, that's a great question. So that probably will not happen for quite some time.

>> Right.

>> But when that time comes around, the ABLE Tennessee system will set an alert that might be 5000 -- $5000 or $10,000 before that will notify the individual through email of their account balance being almost into that $100,000 point. We certainly would not prevent individuals from exceeding the $100,000 because there are individuals who would not fall into the category that their SSI benefits would be terminated or suspended.

>> Got you. Yes. I think that is an important note that I am not sure after reading a lot of the disclosure forms of that is touched upon but, at the same time, like you said, Roy, I think it is a good thing to note, it is going to be a number of years provided that an account can only accept $40,000 per year before folks will have to start thinking about what they want to do when the accounts approach $100,000. But John, is that something that the Florida program is taking into consideration in terms of maybe alerting and SSI beneficiary when their account starts to approach that so they can determine how they want to move forward?

>> Chris. That is a great question. That is on our to do list, to set up various alerts, one being the Social Security amount when you reach that $100,000 or approaching it and also in the future we hope to have it to where an individual, when they get close to the $14,000 annual contribution limit, that somebody would be notified saying, hey, you have this amount of dollars last before you reach that cap so that is in our mindset and that is going forward and hopefully in the future releases with our records administrator, that will be a possibility.

>> Great. And Erika, I assume the same thing from the Ohio program?

>> Yes. Without repeating the same thing that they all said, we do have alerts and definitely let people that the $100,000 limit is coming up and -- in a close point of view.

>> Got you. Thank you. Let's see. Going back to the folks that have registered and are putting in some questions here. So a few of the questions are talking about, if somebody determines -- and this is probably not so much applicable if they have the Ohio rechargeable card but if they decide that they have determined a qualified disability related expense that, again, helps them increase or maintain their health, independence, or quality of life, how long would it take in each of your programs after they get online, obviously, and request the funds to be either transferred into their account or a check of being written? How long would we expect that time to take? So John, do you want to go after that one first?

>> Individual -- I'm going to make sure that I rephrase -- the question correctly -- you are asking if an individual request a check, what is the tournament -- turnaround time? Is that correct?

>> Yes.

>> It depends. Usually it could be a five day to seven business days but it also depends on when they recently contributed so for example, if the individual has $1000 in the account, and they have recently contributed $2000 last night, the next day they request all $3000 of that, we would not allow that until the $2000 contribution that came in clears. So for the most part, it is about seven days -- 10 business days depending on when the last conservation is and the amount requested for that check.

>> Okay. Roy, is that about the same for the Tennessee program?

>> Chris, that is correct but it is about the same. We do have when funds are contributed to an account, we also have a period where those funds have to be verified and we will not allow a withdrawal of those funds. Funds that are already in the account can be withdrawn because they are present in the account. So is the same as Florida.

>> Great. And then, Eric, so provided, let's say, that somebody, for whatever reason, is not using of the loadable charge on their card. Is that about the same turnaround time if they requested funds?

>> Yes. Minus the assets, the debit card, it is about two business days, three business days if they want to access it not the of the debit card.

>> Got you. Okay. Okay. Great. We have another question I think I can take this one. It says, is a paycheck deposited into an ABLE account excluded as income for purposes of SSI? And this is an important question and I'm glad that some of the asked it. So an ABLE account is really used as an asset building tool and one of the big benefits in addition to being able to grow tax-free is the fact that it kind of gets around -- it helps people save funds without having to worry about the resource limits that are associated with a lot of the federally funded means tested benefits, but it's important to note that that's not the only criteria to be eligible for things like Medicaid and Social Security, and that there is also an earned income or what is called SGA, Substantial Gainful Activity, consideration made, and the funds that even if the beneficiary has a job, is employed, regardless of if they are putting that money into an ABLE account, it could be direct deposit, whatever, the funds earned are still counted, still taken into consideration, in terms of income and in terms of funds going towards SGA when looking at eligibility for Social Security benefits so I think it is important that people understand that and understand certainly the benefits of ABLE but also the limitations of ABLE and that is certainly one of the limitations. Again, ABLE is an asset building tool that helps you build resources that are not taken into consideration when determining eligibility for most federally funded benefits of but it does not help in terms of your earned income of with respect to Substantial Gainful Activity. So that is something that is very important to note. Another question asked, who is responsible for determining what a qualified disability expenses? -- Expense is? Is it the states? IRS? Is it the treasury? Is it the individual themselves? Who is responsible for that?

>> [ Pause ]

>> Let's try Eric.

>> Chris, thank you. So the individual that is -- that has account, their family, their power -- their power of attorney, the onus is on them, responsibility is on them but what we have done in Ohio is to try to provide that transactional history log that details each and every single expenditure that comes out. We have provided a way to detail if it is a qualified or nonqualified expense. And also, being able to write memo lines in to dictate whether it is for therapy or books or whatnot and at the end of the year, each parent, each Guardian, can print out the Excel each and every expenditure, all of the reasons, Eddie memo attached to it, and handed over to any auditor to provide a good central location for all of the expenses.

>> Great. So I think that is a good explanation. So certainly, I think people need to understand that the responsibility -- there are a lot of responsibilities associated with these but a lot of the programs are creating ways to make sure that those responsibilities can be taken care of as seamlessly as possible, like you said, Eric, but ultimately the IRS or the treasury will be the ones through a random auditing process to determine if the accounts are being used appropriately and it will be on the beneficiary or the family member or the person with signature authority to make sure that they are documenting the expenditures and documenting how those expenditures meet the criteria that we talked about, again, that are for the benefit of the beneficiary, so they cannot be using the funds for buying things for other

people, are related to their disability, and are for -- to help that individual increase or maintain their health, independence, or quality of life, of which is an extremely broad depth -- definition and again we wanted to make sure that it was interpreted that way due to the fact that people with disabilities have such a wide array of different disability related needs and often one person with a disability needs can be very different from the other persons of which both could be hypothetically qualified to open up and ABLE -- an ABLE account. Moving forward, is getting to an ABLE account considered a tax deduction? I think this is a great question for John, do you want to take this one?

>> Sure. Yes. It is considered -- a completed gift so you cannot write it off on your federal taxes. Chris mentioned earlier, there are some states that have it -- contribution -- you can write up on your state income tax but since for does not have a state income tax, we are not subject to that so it depends on your state's rules and regulations.

>> Great. I think that is important to note so contributions in terms of the federal level, federal tax, are not tax-deductible but it is important for folks to pay attention that perhaps the state that they live in might offer a state income tax deduction. I think it is also important for folks to understand that the dollars contributed to have to be post-tax dollars so that it is different from a 401(k) where you can contribute into that particular savings and investment mechanism before taxes so I think that is important. Another question and I think I can tackle this one is can someone explain why the maximum age of disability onset was selected to be 26? This is a great question. It is an important question. It is one that I think, at least personally, I hear every time I give a presentation on ABLE. Why does the individual have to have an onset prior to their 26th birthday? This age requirement was actually not part of the original bill. The original legislation that was introduced in Congress several years ago. Once the ABLE at commandeered a greater amount of supports and cosponsors of which is due to a great extent on both sides of the aisle, both Republicans and Democrats, both in the House and Senate supported it -- they went through a process called being scored which basically means it goes to the Congressional budget office advocates analyzed and they come out with a recommendation on what it is going to cost to implement that particular law over the course of a 10 year period. They came back and despite the overwhelming support by Congress with a score that was a little too high for policymakers to feel comfortable that it would have the likelihood of getting past they basically said we need to figure out a way to change a few things, make some adjustments, so that the bill is not so costly and one of those considerations or concessions, unfortunately, that I do not think any policymaker and certainly nobody in the disability community wanted to do but understood that, if the cost of the bill did not go down, it would not be able to get past, and one of the most significant characteristics to bring the cost down was, in fact, putting an age type criteria on that. 26 is pretty much an arbitrary number. It was basically the point in which the cost of the bill was lowered to the extent in which they felt comfortable that it would have the support to get past through Congress and we could start building those programs with the idea that we would go back to Congress and work on increasing that age. But we really wanted to get over that hill so that folks could start -- so that the

programs could begin development and people could start unrolling out of like -- which is what basically has taken place. It is important to note, in addition to that, the bill that we had talked about earlier, that would allow it to rollover, a college savings plan to an ABLE account, there is also another bill that would raise that age from age 26 until age 46, allowing millions of individuals with significant disabilities to realize the benefits of ABLE accounts, not unlike individuals who just happened to have the onset of their disability prior to age 26. I know that the vast majority of the disability community is behind this bill and in support of this well. I know that the 529 community is eager to expand eligibility and to get as many people and rolled in these accounts as possible and to help them start savings for their future. It is just a matter of how quickly we can get that bill through Congress, but I hope that people know that we are certainly paying attention to it and we are advocating at the capital to push that bill through and we would certainly encourage anybody to contact their federal, their congressmen, their senators, and to encourage them to pass that legislation so that folks above the age of 26, I should say, who have an onset of disability above the age of 26, can start to enroll in these programs. Moving forward, I think we have time -- let's see -- for just a couple more questions. Another relevant question, can a participant role a 401(k) account into an ABLE account without tax consequences? That would not be allowed currently. There is no legislation to my knowledge that would allow that. Obviously, an individual could liquidate their 401(k) but there would obviously be tax consequences, not unlike tax applications associated with liquidating your 529 account and then, again, if you decided to do that, the funds contributed to the ABLE account would, again, be subject to the $14,000 limit. Moving forward, I think this might be one of our last questions. But obviously, I know that the programs that are represented today on the webinar and other programs that hope to be launched in the near future are doing as much as they can to provide these programs as quickly and in a responsible manner to qualified beneficiaries. What do you all see big perhaps some of the changes over the next year in terms of the evolution of your programs? Is there anything that we can expect to see in the next year that might not be offered currently? Are there any changes that you anticipate to your program? What can we expect? Let's start with -- let's go ahead and start with Roy on that one.

>> [ Pause ]

>> Thank you, Chris. That is a great question. I think that one of the ways that we look to possibly change our program is to provide ACH payments directly to bank payments and connected directly to that individual's bank account so that there is not that seven business day lead time so that is something that we are actively looking into and, additionally, we might also be adding more resources on our website as far as resources to individuals and their advisors. Those are kind of where we are going.

>> Great. John, how about the Florida program?

>> Thanks, Chris. Good question. So we are taking consideration of our current and rolled his and as we presented to various organizations to get their input and let them drive where they want the program to be, we have gotten feedback I may be an FDIC insured option, which we currently do not offer, so

we are always in the works of looking to see if that is something feasible that we can manage. May be expanding our investment options is also a possibility. Maybe, just depending on the feedback and how the system works, the possibility to do a paper application or partnering with an there's a bank for an individual to go in so there are a lot of things on the horizon that we are looking at and seeing what is best for the community, what would best work for them and maybe expanding it once again like I said earlier, having other states working with other states to run their ABLE program might be a possibility as well. So quickly, I know that we are working on a quarterly newsletter that hopefully we are releasing to our individuals in the next couple of months. So that is the immediate.

>> [ Laughter ]

>> Excellent. And Eric, what is in store for the Ohio program in the future?

>> So as we are traveling around the state, getting feedback from parents and organizations, a couple of things to highlight off of the top, we are looking to offer credit card contributions, get, another easy way that families can help contribute to accounts. We're also going to be offering online bill pay which is something that we think would be great, again, for short-term expenses. The debit cards themselves, we will have added security features to them, so including -- you will be able to limit specific merchants so if you want to take off merchants for being used altogether or just limit them to a single or maybe a handful of our merchants, so for example, only CVS, or maybe only giant Eagle, something we definitely want to offer an two things on investment options themselves, we are going to have expanded investment options but also we are going to be able to offer additional FDIC options as well so while we have a good phase 1, we are looking forward to continuing to improve it and looking into the next phase.

>> Okay. And I think with that, I know that we did not get to all the questions but we have them archived and we are going to take them into consideration when we are adding questions and answers to the website and I will make sure to get these questions out to our presenters so they can have a look at them and address them on their website as well. I want to say a very sincere thank you, again, to Eric, Roy, John, and Amelis for taking the time today to share some of the critical aspects about their programs and to just say thank you, on behalf of the disability community for the hard work and blood, sweat, and tears that I know you have all put in over the last year and have to get your programs up and running and say thank you for being the leaders in the ABLE and allowing people with disabilities to achieve a new level of financial independence that I do not think they have had access to until now. So thank you all so much. And I think that was a great webinar. Goodbye.

>> [ Event Concluded ]