First National Bank Of Omaha Credit Card

hello. this is chris rodriguez, the senior policyadvisor for national disability institute and we are going to go ahead and started. i know we have a lot of information to coverand i want to say thank you to all of those across the country who took the time to registerand to tune in for this webinar.

First National Bank Of Omaha Credit Card, we are very excited. it has been a very exciting past couple ofmonths as we have seen the culmination of what took nearly a decade to come togetherin the launch of our country's first able programs.

so i want to say thank you to our panelistmax, representing the four currently launched programs, and we are going to hear from themin a little bit but right now i want to acknowledge bank of america to this webinar is broughtto you by, and the able national resource center. i'm going to turn it over to nakia for a coupleof slides about some technical issues. >> good afternoon, everyone. the audio for today's webinar is being broadcastthrough your computer. please make sure that your speakers are turnedon or your headphones are plugged in. you can control the audio broadcast by theaudio broadcast panel.

if you accidentally close the panel or ifthe sound stops, you can reopen the audio broadcast panel by going to the communicatemenu at the top. sorry about that. i put myself on mute. if you accidentally close the audio broadcastpanel, you can reopen it by going to the communicate menu at the top of the screen and choosingaudio broadcast. if you do not have sound capabilities, onyour computer, or if you prefer to listen by telephone, you can dial the toll or toll-freenumber that you can see here and enter the meeting code.

please note that you do not need to enterand i -- attend did. -- id. real-time captioning is provided during thewebinar and the captions can be found in the media viewer panel which appears in the lowerright-hand corner of the webinar platform. if you do not see the media viewer panel youcan choose it from the icons at the top right. if you would like to make the media viewerpanel 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 viewerpanel. i will paste into the chatbox a link if youwould like to view the captions in a separate

browser window. there will be some time at the end of thewebinar for questions. please use the q&a box to submit any questionsthat you may have and chris will direct those questions to the speakers accordingly. if you are listening by telephone, only, andnot logged into the webcast portion, you can also set in questions by emailing them tome directly, nmatthews@ndi-inc.org. this webinar is recorded and the materialswill be placed on the able national resource center website at the url that you see below. finally, if you experience any technical difficultiesduring the webinar, you can please use the

chat box to send a message to me, or you mayjosh ndi admin, or you may email me directly at nmatthews@ndi-inc.org and with that, i'mgoing 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 panelistmax in a bid as we go through each one of their programs in the different characteristicsbut 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 basicsthat will provide our audience with a general

knowledge about able so that when we hearthe presentations and characteristics from the individual programs we will have a betterfoundation to base decisions and ask questions. after that we want to make sure that we havesome time for questions and answers. we have some predetermined questions thatwe have come up with but we will also be paying attention to the questions that are submittedthrough the question box so that we can get some questions from the audience. okay. so as i said we want to make sure that thefolks have an understanding, at least a basic understanding, of the various characteristicsof the able act add to programs that will

be consistent across all programs so i wantto start out with a brief little history. so the able act, the formal name is it stephenbeck jr. achieving a better life experience act or able act became law in december 19of 2014 and the able act basically creates a new option for some people with disabilitiesand their families and to save for the future while protecting eligibility for federallyfunded public benefits such as medicaid, social security. it is important to note that the presentationis 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 withthe final rules and regulations but we think

that we have more than enough informationand guidance obviously to get these programs up and running and to encourage people toget enrolled. so what is an able account? the able act was called in a new section called529 a qualified able programs and they are very similar, beard after 529 college savingsaccount which is why they get their name of 529 a as opposed to 529 which is the collegesavings account so it is important to note that if you hear anybody referring to an ableprogram as a 529 a program they are talking about the same thing. stable accounts are qualified savings accountsthat received preferred a federal tax treatment

and they enable eligible individuals to savefor disability related expenses and we are going to go over a little bit what exactlyis an eligible individual and the criteria that an individual needs to meet in orderto be able to have the opportunity to open an account and we will go over more specificallywhat a disability related expenses. it is important to note that the first programsare 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 webinartoday, and we will be hearing more from them in a little bit.

it is important to note that while the originallaw said that our state -- it stated that an individual must enroll in their state ofresidence, 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 programin any state, so you are not relegated to open a program in your state so it reallydoes not matter if your state has developed a program or if they are going to choose perhapsnot too. there is always going to be the opportunityas of the first launch of these programs to enroll.

so it is important to note that the assetsin and distributions for qualified disability expenses will be disregarded or given specialtreatment in determining eligibility for most federally means tested benefits and we willgo over why that is most and not all in a little bit as well. so what are some important requirements ofthe able act? well, each eligible individual, the personwith a disability, can only have one able account so this differentiates able accountsfrom a typical 529 college savings account where the beneficiary can have multiple soagain a person is only allowed to be the beneficiary of a single able account and it is importantto note that the designated beneficiary and

the account owner so means that the personwith the disability was the designated beneficiary also is the account owner. that being said, the rules and regulationsto allow for another person, such as the parent or guardian or a person with power of attorneyto have signature authority on the account to help the individual with a disability ifthey so choose in maintaining and setting up the account. again, there is no longer a federal residencyrequirement related to establishing an able account. so as long as the state or any given programhas a national program, then, again, provided

you meet the criteria you could open up anaccount with them regardless of where you actually live. it is important to note that the total annualcontributions are not to exceed the federal gift tax contribution limit which is currentlyset at $14,000 and we expect this to be adjusted periodically for inflation, but again, basicallywhat that means is that all contributions of which anybody can contribute to an ableaccount, friends, family, employers, the beneficiary themselves, all of those combined for anygiven tax year, again, cannot exceed $14,000. there is also one other cab which relatesto the aggregate contribution or the absolute account limit.

and that is going to be equal to the stateslimit on 529 savings account. this a typically anywhere from $250 all theway up to i figure $550,000, depending on which program you are enrolling but rememberit is going to take time to get there provided that currently you can only put $14,000 intotal in any given tax year. so who exactly is qualified? why did we say that these accounts are availablefor some individuals with disabilities and not all individuals with disabilities? well, that is because there is eligibilityrequirements, and it is basically founded on two different types of requirements.

the first has to do with the age of onsetof the disability. so it states that in order to be eligibleto open an able account the individual must have had an onset of their disability priorto their 26th birthday. so it is important to note that this doesnot mean that just because you are 35, you cannot open up an account. it just means that that same 35-year-old wouldhave had to experience the onset of their disability prior to their 26th birthday solet's assume that that has taken place. and you meet that requirement. the second part of the criteria relates tothe severity of disability.

and it states that whether or not a personhas been determined to meet the disability requirements for supplemental security incomeor ssi or social security disability benefits ssdi and are receiving those benefits so ifthe individual had an aunt that of disability prior to their 26 birth day and are currentlyreceiving 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 enrollingnationwide. if the individual meets the age requirementof but for some reason is not currently receiving social security disability benefits such asssi or ssdi, there may be another way to be qualified and that is through what is calleda disability certification, and this assures

that the individual holds documentation froma physician that includes a physician's diagnosis and signature and confirms that the individualmeets the functional, disability criteria, that is stated in the able act and we cango into what that sounds like in a little bit. but those are the basic eligibility criteriathat would allow somebody to open an able so now that we know the basic components ofan able account and these are consistent across all programs and we understand the eligibilitycriteria, a component consistent across all state programs, we want to know exactly whatkind we use these funds for? distributions from an able account can bemade for what are called qualified disability

expenses. these qualified disability expenses relatedto the designated beneficiaries blindness or disability and -- are for the benefit ofthat person with the disability who is also the account owner and it helps them maintainor increase their health, independence, or quality of life. so that is a very broad definition of whatthe 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 widearray of different needs of people with disabilities, especially those people with disabilitieswith the types of severity that would meet the criteria to be able to open an able accountand it is also important to note qualified disability expenses do not necessarily haveto have any type of medical necessity. so they are not things that a doctor saysthat they have to have. they can be things, anything, again, thathelps the person improve or maintain their health, independence or quality of life andis for their benefit. it is important to note that this for theirbenefit that they cannot use the funds to buy something for something else but it hasto be for their benefit and has to be related

to their disability and it has to help themincrease or maintain our health, independence, or all of your life while constructing theable -- able act, there were different buckets or criteria that these expenses could fallunder. it is very, very broad. i'm not going to go through all of them butyou can read these and again, it is a very broad category and they also include basicliving expenses so that is something that is important to know. it is also important to note that distributionsfor nonqualified expenditures will be subject to tax consequences and perhaps more importantlymay affect eligibility for that individual

federally means tested benefits such as socialsecurity or medicaid. so how exactly do the funds in the accountor the assets or resources in accounts -- how do they affect federal benefits? this is one of the most important aspectsabout the laws that allows people to save without jeopardizing eligibility for theirfederally funded means tested benefits such as social security and medicaid. there is an important exception, though, andthat relates to people eligible individuals or beneficiaries, able beneficiaries, betterreceiving supplemental security income so that monthly cash benefit.

and what it says is that once the able accountexceeds $100,000, that ssi or supplemental security income cash benefit that is receivedmonthly -- that will be temporarily suspended until such time as the account falls backbelow $100,000. it is important to note that while that cashbenefit may be suspended, no other federally funded means tested benefits will be suspendedincluding medicaid. it is also important to note that housingexpenses intended to receive -- are intended to receive the same treatment as all housingcosts paid by outside court -- sources and there is an exception and that is if the fundsthat are used for housing expenses -- if they are taken out of the able account and paidfor that housing expense in the same month,

they will have no effect on the individualsssi. so again, despite the fact that once the accountbreaches $100,000 and that ssi cash benefit will be temporarily suspended on so -- untilsuch time as the account falls back below, it is important to note, again, that medicaidwill not be suspended it only applies to that ssi cash benefit, so that is a very importantthing to realize that it does not mean that the person is now in eligible for social security. it means that benefit of social security istemporarily suspended. lastly, i want to talk about what is calledin 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 anyfunds remaining in an able account when a beneficiary passes away subject to outstandingqualified disability expenses which can also include a burial and funeral expenses -- thefunds left over can be used to reimburse a state for medicaid payments paid on behalfof the beneficiary after the creation of an able account. so that means that if the beneficiary is receivingmedicaid services, of which presumably many of the beneficiaries well, because of theseverity of their disability, the fact that medicaid is such a robust support -- providessuch robust and supports and services to people

with disabilities -- when that person passesaway, the state that has been providing those can file a claim to reimburse itself for thoseservices through the able account, the funds in the able account and that starts at thetime that the able account is initiated. so that is something important to remember. so that was a lot of information. we tried to get through it very quickly sothat we can hear from our presenters that are going to be talking about their particularable programs and the differences from able i would encourage folks to visit the ablenational resource center website for more in-depth information related to a lot of thethings that we just talked about.

there are videos of there that will walk peoplethrough the able basics and we have all of our archived webinars on there, to go intodepth about the characteristics related to the able act and able programs. we have a map that will allow people to betterunderstand where their status, and in terms of the development of the program, and thereis also an opportunity to compare programs that are already -- that have already beenlaunched based on different characteristics that people might want to take into considerationwhen determining which program is right for them. of there is my contact information and ourwebsite 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 withable. so with that, i want to turn it over to arepresentative 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 webinartoday and i appreciate the opportunity to

share a little bit about our planet we'regoing 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 willswitch the slides for you. >> perfect. we will go ahead and get rolling so todaywe 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 qualitiesof our plan, we do offer national enrollment, so anyone of any state can access the enablesavings plan. we do offer nebraska state income tax reductionfor our residents who contribute to the enable plan, so we are very lucky in the state ofnebraska to have that for our state residents. we -- initial minimum contribution is $50. however, if you enroll within aip or a payrolldeduction, that is up -- dropped to $25 as the minimum contribution and we have an annualfee of $45 which is charged per quarter, $11.25 a quarter and asset-based fees that rangefrom .5% -- .6%. and the subsequent contributions after youare enrolled and you have initially conjugated

are $25 but, again, if you sign up for theaip payroll deduction, that is waived so you will be able to contribute at a rate thatmake sense for you every month. there are no limited numbers of disbursementswhich means that you can withdraw as frequently as you need to. in the fall, we will be offering a checkingaccount which would allow -- would allow for a debit card function as well as check writing. first national bank of omaha is the programadministrator and we work alongside our nebraska investment counsel as the investment manager. we have currently four investment optionsfor customers to select.

which does not include the checking accountwhich will launch in the fall so in fall we will have five options for folks but thereis a risk in the assessments including growth, moderate and consider it a risk-based exceptionsand we are -- we offer the fdic bank savings and the checking out with a follow-up withthe sei insured. some unique characteristics in our plan isthat we focus on education and providing resources to folks that are maybe saving for the firsttime. so we have a digital library. with a resource page that a lot of folks -- theycan have downloadable materials that they can reference or even if they are supportingsomebody else -- they can use that alongside.

we also have social media access through facebookand blogs so we like to connect with folks in a variety of different ways that make sensefor them. let's move on to a little bit more about ourtarget risk investment options. on the screen is a shot of our three riskoptions including the growth, moderate, and conservative. on the growth option more of the funds arein the stock market which means there is a higher rate of return but there is a higherrate of risk and the conservative option, lower rate of risk and a lower rate of returnif you visit the website, all of these investment options are broken down for you to exploreso that you can make a decision of what makes

more sense for you. with the fdic investment options on the nextscreen, the bank savings option offers that stability and the principal investment butit still offers a return on your earnings per checking account which will launch inthe file offers a debit card in the checks so you have that ability to go where you needto go and major purchases as needed, whether that is in store, face-to-face transactionsor online. so really it allows you the ease of withdrawingand -- the simplicity of the program. our program fees are $45 and those are chargedper quarter at $11.25 a quarter, pulled directly from the account from the asset-based feesrange from .5 -- .6%, not including the rate

for the checking account and otherwise thereare no other fees to enroll, transact or withdraw or use the investment options, so those areall of the fees that are associated with the count. as far as enrollment, there are a couple ofways to go about it. you can visit the website and then, on theupper 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 whoare creating the account for themselves. or for parents of minors who are opening theaccounts 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 canfill out the form and submit it along with your documentation of that guardianship orconservator or power of attorney. in the resources section of the website thereis a digital library that allows you to watch a video that walks you through the enrollmentprocess. it goes through what materials you will needand how to fill out the forms and you are able to pause it at work alongside with itso that there are not -- if you get hung up, you have a reference point. also you can call the call center and theycan walk you through the enrollment process

as well. here are some links to our website, enablesavings.com and the link to the facebook page, and that is a way that we like to share updateswith our communities, as well as inform folks when we are offering webinars were presentationsacross nebraska as well as attending conferences nationally. our call center number is onderko as wellas the email address so that you can contact us at any time. we have our disclosures because we do workfor a bank so that is information about us and these are listed online for your reviewand again i look forward to the questions

at the end of the webinar. thank you. thank you so much, amelis. that was some great information and i wantto also take this opportunity to thank you all for -- of the first national bank, programmanager, a sponsor of the able national resource centers so let's move on to eric who is goingto give us some information about ohio stable account program. thanks, chris, and thank you for having ohioon today. we are very excited obviously to join withyou and provide information and we are very

excited to join nebraska, florida and tennesseeas part of the first wave of able programs around the country. if you go to the next slide, i can go rightin. 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 havehad the meetings, introductions to 73 of the counties in ohio. so we are doing a very good job in the stateof getting the word out and providing information on the accounts themselves. they are available as residents -- for residentsin all states and we have enrollees were about

over 40 states around the country. our website is stable account.com and on thereis information about the program, faqs and we developed a great eligibility ways to helppeople answer questions about if they are eligible and there are details on the debitcard, stable account has a debit card attached to it which right will get into in a littlebit and we have enrollment information and you can and roll and log into the accountsall through that stable accounts.com. on the next slide, again, enrollment is freeand it takes about 10 minutes or 20 minutes. we felt -- we built it to be paperless isso enrolling account access -- everything can be done on the website itself.

account costs. in ohio it is $2.50 a month per resident andwe also have the asset-based fees and the nationally, it is five dollars a month andit is that month the maintenance fee. and then also those are on the right-handside. we can go to the next slide. our investment options army -- we had fiveinvestment options -- the core portfolios are through vanguard and they range from conservativeto aggressive obviously and we have one fdic insured option which helps protect the principalso all of them have a good enrollments and different options for different people obviously.

the accounts themselves can be funded viaefta or checking and we have a $50 minimum deposit for the initial setup and we are onedollar minimum after that per contribution. something that we created in our accountsis an event so if families want to post something for a birthday or holiday or special eventand they can send out an email and it can help provide information to have donationsor 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 formsor checks or things to come in. transfers are available to go to personalchecking and savings accounts. and also the transfers to our stable cardwhich 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 spendcard is so exactly the money is pulled from your stable account and it is put on a stablecard which obviously helps with financial independence and it also helps as ndi oftensays financial inclusion. so members of the community that may not havehad 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 anyof us have a current online account whether is chase, fifth third, wells fargo, all ofthe transactions are logged in a history log. all of the expenses can be categorized whetherqualified or not and we have built in a memo line so that each and every spend can be providedinformation for and at the end of the year, the entire transaction and all of the notescan be exported to excel in order for each person and the family to be able to hand overto benefit people or any auditor all of the information included for all of the expensesthroughout the entire year. we do think that we have limited merchantsso for example you cannot pull cash out and,

again, the funds do not come out of the countthemselves. it is a loaded card so there is not tied inaccess between the account and the cards themselves. so we have had great response from familymembers, parents, advocacy groups, throughout, this is a great way obviously to hold someoneto financial independence but also help decrease the scope of record keeping and the countybecause everything is done online. we can probably go to the next slide we havea customer service line -- our stable account program is set up in three different mannerso we have an operation side and they helps to focus on running the program itself andwe have an outreach side which i helped to lead and we go all over the state and answerquestions for groups of parents and then we

have a call center so our call center is dedicatedto only answer questions are about stable accounts but if there are any other treasurywere, they do not answer questions on taxes or anything else like that. it has been a great resource for us and allthree departments work together and in one way or another we are able to be successfulso 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 mentionthat you are program and florida -- they are

program managers intuition and able solutionshas been very generous with their sponsorship of the able national resource center so thankyou 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 theable tennessee team. it has been my pleasure to help and designthe program and i am very excited to be here

with you all today. to share the exciting news about our programand all of the programs across the country. i want to thank the able national resourcecenter and everyone participating for allowing all of us to come together and give our presentations. able tennessee is a nationwide savings programthat was designed to provide our participants with an easy to manage affordable programthat empowers our customers to gain financial independence and truly achieving a betterlife experience. our program is administered by the tennesseedepartment of treasury in-house. we manage over $60 billion in financial assetsfor tennesseans.

we do that in our program such as unclaimedproperty. our tennessee consolidated retirement systemand 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 tennesseeis 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 programwe decided to meet and exceed the expectations of what our program participants have cometo expect from us.

if we could go to the next slide, please. here are a few of the features and benefitsthat we have built into our plan. these are the same great investment optionsthat we use in our tn stars college savings program. there are 14 of them and they are diversein their risk. they are nationally ranked among other 529investment 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 investmentoptions 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 helpyou determine if you would qualify for an we also thought that the convenience is oneof the most important points. especially when talking about your money. so we designed our program to be primarilyonline. allowing you the participant to manage, contribute,and withdraw your funds from wherever you are. for those individuals who do not have onlineinternet with us, we do have paper forms,

and you can find those on our website. able tn. -- and you can -- there is a formalsection 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 thank you. >> hello. this is chris rodriguez,the senior policy advisor for national disability institute and we are going to go ahead andstart. i know we have a lot of information to cover and i want to say thank you to allof 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 theculmination of what took nearly a decade to

come together in the launch of our country'sfirst able programs. so i want to say thank you to our panelist max, representing thefour currently launched programs, and we are going to hear from them in a little bit butright now i want to acknowledge bank of america to this webinar is brought to you by, andthe able national resource center. i'm going to turn it over to nakia for a couple of slidesabout some technical issues. >> good afternoon, everyone. the audio for today's webinar isbeing broadcast through your computer. please make sure that your speakers are turned onor your headphones are plugged in. you can control the audio broadcast by the audio broadcastpanel. if you accidentally close the panel or if the sound stops, you can reopen theaudio broadcast panel by going to the communicate

menu at the top. sorry about that. i put myselfon mute. if you accidentally close the audio broadcast panel, you can reopen it by goingto the communicate menu at the top of the screen and choosing audio broadcast. if youdo not have sound capabilities, on your computer, or if you prefer to listen by telephone, youcan 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 captioningis provided during the webinar and the captions can be found in the media viewer panel whichappears in the lower right-hand corner of the webinar platform. if you do not see themedia viewer panel you can choose it from the icons at the top right. if you would liketo make the media viewer panel larger, you

can do so by minimizing some of the otherpanels like chat or q&a, and conversely, if you do not want the captions, you can go aheadand minimize the media viewer panel. i will paste into the chatbox a link if you wouldlike to view the captions in a separate browser window. there will be some time at the endof the webinar for questions. please use the q&a box to submit any questions that you mayhave and chris will direct those questions to the speakers accordingly. if you are listeningby telephone, only, and not logged into the webcast portion, you can also set in questionsby emailing them to me directly, nmatthews@ndi-inc.org. center website at the url that you see below.finally, if you experience any technical difficulties during the webinar, you can please use thechat box to send a message to me, or you may

josh ndi admin, or you may email me directlyat 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. to go ahead and get started. today we're goingto go over some able basics that will provide our audience with a general knowledge aboutable so that when we hear the presentations and characteristics from the individual programswe will have a better foundation to base decisions and ask questions. after that we want to makesure that we have some time for questions and answers. we have some predetermined questionsthat we have come up with but we will also be paying attention to the questions thatare 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 leasta basic understanding, of the various characteristics of the able act add to programs that willbe 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 experienceact or able act became law in december 19 of 2014 and the able act basically createsa new option for some people with disabilities and their families and to save for the futurewhile protecting eligibility for federally funded public benefits such as medicaid, socialsecurity. it is important to note that the presentation is based on what we currentlyknow now, but there are going to be instances in the future, specifically the departmentof treasury is expected along with the irs

to come up with the final rules and regulationsbut we think that we have more than enough information and guidance obviously to getthese programs up and running and to encourage people to get enrolled. so what is an ableaccount? the able act was called in a new section called 529 a qualified able programsand they are very similar, beard after 529 college savings account which is why theyget their name of 529 a as opposed to 529 which is the college savings account so itis important to note that if you hear anybody referring to an able program as a 529 a programthey are talking about the same thing. stable accounts are qualified savings accounts thatreceived preferred a federal tax treatment an account and we will go over more specificallywhat a disability related expenses. it is

important to note that the first programsare 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 representationfrom everyone of those programs on this webinar today, and we will be hearing more from themin 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 sincebeen eliminated so as long as the program has national enrollment, and we will get intowhich one of these states to do, then regardless of where you live, provided that you meetthe eligibility criteria that we will review, you can open up a program in any state, soyou are not relegated to open a program in

your state so it really does not matter ifyour state has developed a program or if they are going to choose perhaps not too. thereis 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 disabilityexpenses will be disregarded or given special treatment in determining eligibility for mostfederally means tested benefits and we will go over why that is most and not all in alittle bit as well. so what are some important requirements of the able act? well, each eligibleindividual, the person with a disability, can only have one able account so this differentiatesable accounts from a typical 529 college savings account where the beneficiary can have multipleso again a person is only allowed to be the

beneficiary of a single able account and itis important to note that the designated beneficiary and the account owner so means that the personwith 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 ora person with power of attorney to have signature authority on the account to help the individualwith a disability if they so choose in maintaining and setting up the account. again, there isno longer a federal residency requirement related to establishing an able account. soas long as the state or any given program has a national program, then, again, providedyou meet the criteria you could open up an account with them regardless of where youactually live. it is important to note that

the total annual contributions are not toexceed the federal gift tax contribution limit which is currently set at $14,000 and we expectthis to be adjusted periodically for inflation, but again, basically what that means is thatall 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 theabsolute account limit. and that is going to be equal to the states limit on 529 savingsaccount. this a typically anywhere from $250 all the way up to i figure $550,000, dependingon which program you are enrolling but remember it is going to take time to get there providedthat currently you can only put $14,000 in

total in any given tax year. okay. so whoexactly is qualified? why did we say that these accounts are available for some individualswith disabilities and not all individuals with disabilities? well, that is because thereis 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 orderto be eligible to open an able account the individual must have had an onset of theirdisability prior to their 26th birthday. so it is important to note that this does notmean that just because you are 35, you cannot open up an account. it just means that thatsame 35-year-old would have had to experience the onset of their disability prior to their26th 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 statesthat whether or not a person has been determined to meet the disability requirements for supplementalsecurity income or ssi or social security disability benefits ssdi and are receivingthose benefits so if the individual had an aunt that of disability prior to their 26birth day and are currently receiving social security disability benefits such as ssi orssdi, then they are available, they are eligible, to open an account in any given state thathas a program that is enrolling nationwide. bit. but those are the basic eligibility criteriathat would allow somebody to open an able account. okay. so now that we know the basiccomponents of an able account and these are

consistent across all programs and we understandthe eligibility criteria, a component consistent across all state programs, we want to knowexactly what kind we use these funds for? expenses. these qualified disability expensesrelated to the designated beneficiaries blindness quality of life. so that is a very broad definitionof 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 aspossible 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 meetthe criteria to be able to open an able account and it is also important to note qualifieddisability expenses do not necessarily have

to have any type of medical necessity. sothey 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 lifeand is for their benefit. it is important to note that this for their benefit that theycannot use the funds to buy something for something else but it has to be for theirbenefit and has to be related to their disability and it has to help them increase or maintainour health, independence, or all of your life while constructing the able -- able act, therewere different buckets or criteria that these expenses could fall under. it is very, verybroad. i'm not going to go through all of them but you can read these and again, itis a very broad category and they also include

basic living expenses so that is somethingthat is important to know. it is also important to note that distributions for nonqualifiedexpenditures will be subject to tax consequences and perhaps more importantly may affect eligibilityfor 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 -- howdo they affect federal benefits? this is one of the most important aspects about the lawsthat allows people to save without jeopardizing eligibility for their federally funded meanstested 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 itsays is that once the able account exceeds $100,000, that ssi or supplemental securityincome cash benefit that is received monthly -- that will be temporarily suspended untilsuch time as the account falls back below $100,000. it is important to note that whilethat cash benefit may be suspended, no other federally funded means tested benefits willbe suspended including medicaid. it is also important to note that housing expenses intendedto receive -- are intended to receive the same treatment as all housing costs paid byoutside court -- sources and there is an exception and that is if the funds that are used forhousing expenses -- if they are taken out of the able account and paid for that housingexpense in the same month, they will have

no effect on the individuals ssi. okay. soagain, despite the fact that once the account breaches $100,000 and that ssi cash benefitwill 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 thatssi cash benefit, so that is a very important thing to realize that it does not mean thatthe person is now in eligible for social security. it means that benefit of social security istemporarily suspended. lastly, i want to talk about what is called in the medicaid pay packfor vision and this is an important aspect to understand and, again, these are all characteristicsconsistent across all programs right now. able account. so that means that if the beneficiaryis receiving medicaid services, of which presumably

many of the beneficiaries well, because ofthe severity of their disability, the fact that medicaid is such a robust support -- providessuch robust and supports and services to people in the able account and that starts at thetime 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 wecan hear from our presenters that are going to be talking about their particular ableprograms and the differences from able programs. in-depth information related to a lot of thethings that we just talked about. there are videos of there that will walk people throughthe able basics and we have all of our archived webinars on there, to go into depth aboutthe characteristics related to the able act

and able programs. we have a map that willallow people to better understand where their status, and in terms of the development ofthe program, and there is also an opportunity to compare programs that are already -- thathave already been launched based on different characteristics that people might want totake into consideration when determining which program is right for them. of there is mycontact information and our website so be sure to sign up for the able alerts that willprovide you with the most -- most up-to-date information regarding the launch of programsand what is going on with able. so with that, i want to turn it over to a representativewho 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 thewebinar today and i appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about our planet we'regoing to go ahead and get started so we are plenty of time for questions at the end. iam sorry, chris. how do i switch this slide? >> [ pause ] >> we can go ahead and we willswitch the slides for you. >> perfect. thank you so much. we will go ahead and get rollingso today we wanted to cover more about our enable program features, go over our investmentoptions, our program fees and tell you a little bit about our enrollment process. so justto 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 incometax reduction for our residents who contribute

to the enable plan, so we are very lucky inthe state of nebraska to have that for our state residents. we -- initial minimum contributionis $50. however, if you enroll within aip or a payroll deduction, that is up -- droppedto $25 as the minimum contribution and we have an annual fee of $45 which is chargedper quarter, $11.25 a quarter and asset-based fees that range from .5% -- .6%. and the subsequentcontributions 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 contributeat a rate that make sense for you every month. as you need to. in the fall, we will be offeringa checking account which would allow -- would allow for a debit card function as well ascheck writing. first national bank of omaha

is the program administrator and we work alongsideour nebraska investment counsel as the investment manager. we have currently four investmentoptions for customers to select. which does not include the checking account which willlaunch in the fall so in fall we will have five options for folks but there is a riskin the assessments including growth, moderate and consider it a risk-based exceptions andwe are -- we offer the fdic bank savings and the checking out with a follow-up with thesei insured. some unique characteristics in our plan is that we focus on education andproviding resources to folks that are maybe saving for the first time. so we have a digitallibrary. with a resource page that a lot of folks -- they can have downloadable materialsthat they can reference or even if they are

supporting somebody else -- they can use thatalongside. we also have social media access through facebook and blogs so we like to connectwith folks in a variety of different ways that make sense for them. let's move on toa little bit more about our target risk investment options. on the screen is a shot of our threerisk options including the growth, moderate, and conservative. on the growth option moreof the funds are in the stock market which means there is a higher rate of return butthere is a higher rate of risk and the conservative option, lower rate of risk and a lower rateof return if you visit the website, all of these investment options are broken down foryou to explore so that you can make a decision of what makes more sense for you. with thefdic investment options on the next screen,

the bank savings option offers that stabilityand the principal investment but it still offers a return on your earnings per checkingaccount which will launch in the file offers a debit card in the checks so you have thatability 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 quarterat $11.25 a quarter, pulled directly from the account from the asset-based fees rangefrom .5 -- .6%, not including the rate for the checking account and otherwise there areno other fees to enroll, transact or withdraw count. as far as enrollment, there are a coupleof 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 tofill out the form and then to have it be process directly to the website. it is really idealfor account owners who are creating the account for themselves. or for parents of minors whoare opening the accounts for their children to if you are in a situation where you havea guardian, a power of attorney, we have the form able to be downloaded and printed sothat you can fill out the form and submit it along with your documentation of that guardianshipor conservator or power of attorney. in the resources section of the website there isa digital library that allows you to watch a video that walks you through the enrollmentprocess. it goes through what materials you

will need and how to fill out the forms andyou are able to pause it at work alongside with it so that there are not -- if you gethung up, you have a reference point. also you can call the call center and they canwalk 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 shareupdates with our communities, as well as inform folks when we are offering webinars were presentationsacross nebraska as well as attending conferences nationally. our call center number is onderkoas well as the email address so that you can contact us at any time. we have our disclosuresbecause we do work for a bank so that is information about us and these are listed online for yourreview 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 opportunityto thank you all for -- of the first national bank, program manager, a sponsor of the ablenational resource centers so let's move on to eric who is going to give us some informationabout 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 veryexcited to join nebraska, florida and tennessee as part of the first wave of able programsaround the country. if you go to the next slide, i can go right in. so a stable accountis the ohio able program, the first able program to launch on june 1 and since then, sinceabout 63 days, we have had the meetings, introductions

to 73 of the counties in ohio. so we are doinga very good job in the state of getting the word out and providing information on theaccounts themselves. they are available as residents -- for residents in all states andwe have enrollees were about over 40 states around the country. our website is stableaccount.com and on there is information about the program, faqs and we developed a greateligibility ways to help people answer questions about if they are eligible and there are detailson the debit card, stable account has a debit card attached to it which right will get intoin a little bit and we have enrollment information and you can and roll and log into the accountsall through that stable accounts.com. on the next slide, again, enrollment is free andit takes about 10 minutes or 20 minutes. we

felt -- we built it to be paperless is soenrolling 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 thenationally, it is five dollars a month and it is that month the maintenance fee. andthen also those are on the right-hand side. we can go to the next slide. our investmentoptions army -- we had five investment options -- the core portfolios are through vanguardand they range from conservative to aggressive obviously and we have one fdic insured optionwhich helps protect the principal so all of them have a good enrollments and differentoptions for different people obviously. the accounts themselves can be funded via eftaor checking and we have a $50 minimum deposit

for the initial setup and we are one dollarminimum after that per contribution. something that we created in our accounts is an eventso if families want to post something for a birthday or holiday or special event andthey can send out an email and it can help provide information to have donations or contributionssend 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 mailingforms or checks or things to come in. transfers are available to go to personal checking andsavings accounts. and also the transfers to our stable card which i will get -- get intoon the next slide -- we have something called the stable card, a loadable debit card, andwhat it does is help with rp played -- prepaid

load and spend card is so exactly the moneyis pulled from your stable account and it is put on a stable card which obviously helpswith financial independence and it also helps as ndi often says financial inclusion. somembers of the community that may not have had a credit card before now can have a debitcard 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 currentonline account whether is chase, fifth third, wells fargo, all of the transactions are loggedin a history log. all of the expenses can be categorized whether qualified or not andwe have built in a memo line so that each and every spend can be provided informationfor and at the end of the year, the entire

transaction and all of the notes can be exportedto excel in order for each person and the family to be able to hand over to benefitpeople or any auditor all of the information included for all of the expenses throughoutthe entire year. we do think that we have limited merchants so for example you cannotpull cash out and, again, the funds do not come out of the count themselves. it is aloaded 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 decreasethe scope of record keeping and the county because everything is done online. we canprobably go to the next slide we have a customer

service line -- our stable account programis set up in three different manner so we have an operation side and they helps to focuson running the program itself and we have an outreach side which i helped to lead andwe go all over the state and answer questions for groups of parents and then we have a callcenter so our call center is dedicated to only answer questions are about stable accountsbut if there are any other treasury were, they do not answer questions on taxes or anythingelse like that. it has been a great resource for us and all three departments work togetherand in one way or another we are able to be successful so thank you again and we lookforward to questions at the very end. >> all right. thank you so much, eric. i would beremiss if i did not also mention that you

are program and florida -- they are programmanagers intuition and able solutions has been very generous with their sponsorshipof 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 westand i am a member of the able tennessee team. with you all today. to share the excitingnews about our program and all of the programs across the country. i want to thank the ablenational resource center and everyone participating for allowing all of us to come together andgive our presentations. able tennessee is a nationwide savings program that was designedto provide our participants with an easy to manage affordable program that empowers ourcustomers to gain financial independence and

truly achieving a better life experience.our program is administered by the tennessee department of treasury in-house. we manageover $60 billion in financial assets for tennesseans. we do that in our program such as unclaimedproperty. 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 inthe union and the tennessee treasury departments -- many programs have played a vital rolein attaining and maintaining that status. of what our program participants have cometo expect from us. if we could go to the next slide, please. here are a few of the featuresand benefits that we have built into our plan.

program. there are 14 of them and they arediverse in their risk. they are nationally ranked among other 529 investment optionson savings for college.com. when determining cause, investment options, we focus on makingthis program affordable because we wanted to empower you, our participants, to saveas much as you can. so every dollar saved with our low-cost investment options allowsyou to keep your money growing and working for your future. we knew -- when you are determiningeligibility -- it might be a daunting task so we created an eligibility guy that askquestions to help you determine if you would qualify for an able account. we also thoughtthat the convenience is one of the most important points. especially when talking about yourmoney. 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 nothave 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 legalrepresentative form is there as well. we also on our online website -- we have a -- a giftingportal that allows friends and family to contribute and that is where you would sign up and manageyour account. our program does not require a recertification process. we know that youfill 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 wewill work with you to determine what needs

to be done. this is a general overview ofthe able tennessee program. and we are going to go into contributions. contributions canbe 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 contributionsinto your account. we have an initial contribution of $25. it is not a fee. this is a savingscontribution to your account. after the initial contribution, there is no additional minimumcontribution. 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 convenientfor individuals to log in and create a message and send it to friends and family to oftenask for contributions for their birthday or for a holiday. as i said before, we have 14diverse investment options with varying risk levels to meet your savings goals. the wonderfulthing about this is that you or your financial advisor has lots of options for how to saveand invest your funds. empowering you to have more control over your finances and how youchoose to make your money work for you. so we have six growth options, three balanceoptions, and five conservative options. one of which is an interest-bearing account, likea 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 theseinvestments -- these investment options, we knew that it would be the right move and weknew that we could provide the same a low cost structure as we did for our college savingsprogram. in the screen, these options are ranked from the most aggressive to the mostconservative. and on the far right, is the annual asset base fee which is the fee thatwould 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 yousaw 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 statementfees. keep in mind that every dollar that you are not paying in fees is one more dollarthat you can save and it can be used to invest and save for your future. so i believe thatour 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 designedit to be flexible by giving you complete online access it from wherever you are. you are ableto change your account, manage it, to make contributions to your account, and also tomake withdrawals. we do not have a fee for

withdrawals. nor does able tennessee havea maximum number of withdrawals that you can make. you may make withdrawals based on whenand how you need your funds. additionally able tennessee does not provide a prepaidcard. the cars are currently readily available to you and we sought to complement the financialtools that you already have. able tennessee provides an investment account that allowsyou to save and uses your funds to grow and work for you and can be used as -- along witha prepaid debit card or bank card that you already have. here is the contact informationfor our customer care center. you can contact us by telephone or by email. our customercare representatives our in-house in the tennessee department of treasury and you can additionallylog onto the website. able tn and you can

browse some of our resources there. thankyou. >> okay. thank you, roy. that was a great presentation, lots of information. let's goahead and move on to our final presenter, john finch, who is going to tell us aboutthe able united program based out of florida. >> grade. thank you, chris, so much. i appreciatethe opportunity that you and the able center and ndi have given us to present. i know thatwe are short on time so i will try to be brief. able united is qualified program and i'm thedirector. it is administered by the florida prepaid college board we are -- it overseesflorida's 529 savings plan as well as the prepaid plan, combined assets that they overseeis roughly over $10 billion. that we manage. so what is unique about our program is eligibilityrequirements that everybody else has -- we

have as well. one exception is that we dohave a residency requirement that you have to be in order resident to open and able unitedaccount and the reason is because when we first initiated we were charged with runningthe program. we did our research and we reached out to the organizations in the state of floridato see how we can partner with them to make this the most appropriate tool for individualswith disabilities so we haven't had the chance to work with organizations to bring a productfor florida residents. what also is unique about the program is that we want to be apart of the community so we have a dedicated section on our website and we are in the processof producing a quarterly newsletter and with our newsletter we hope to highlight news andevents 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 highlightingsome 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 willreject 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 unitedis the website and it takes approximately 15 minutes to get enrolled. it depends onif you are the individual with a disability opening it or if you have somebody on yourbehalf opening it for you. there are no documents to upload. we request that you keep that incase you do get audited or asked by social

security administration if you are an ssirecipients that you maintain the documentation. you enter some identifying information andcategories, the type of disability that you have, self certify that, and then you canselect your investment options. i -- the cost of opening and able united account? we donot have a fee so it is free to enroll online and there is no minimum to contribute. wedo have a monthly maintenance fee of $2.50 but we're waiting that until july 2017. ifyou 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 throughyour account and it is -- a secure lockbox that will be credited to your account. afteryou enroll you get to select what kind of

options you have. we have seven options, threeof them are a pre-mixed portfolio that is based out of this out of the four optionsor you can create your own a portfolio based on those four options just like everybodyelse is program, we do have that funds that are existing in your account can only be rebalancetwice a year. with the pre-mixed portfolio, we have a conservative, moderate, and growthand 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 surplusfunds trust fund that basically florida created to allow in-state agencies and local cityand municipalities to put funds in a very secure short-term high-quality fixed incomekind of program that significantly and historically

has small returns but it is very -- is notas volatile as some of the other options. for the us bond fund and us stock fund weuse vanguard and they are pretty a large manager overseeing $3 trillion in assets and we alsouse international stock fund, blackrock as error fund manager for that so it is the largestin the world with over $4 trillion in assets that they manage. as you know with any investmentoption there are various risk factors depending on which you choose. and it is on the littlechart that goes from those conservative to aggressive. we have it and -- investment administrativestreet church fee ranging from .4 -- -- until point -- 229 basis points of annualized ofthe account balance and basically, it is .0350 for the money market account and the otherthree options -- the us bond, us stock, international

stock have that .29% investment and administrativefee. once the funds are an account, how do you get to it? you with drive this is on myprocess for us. able united. you can withdraw the funds at any time for any reason, electronictransfer to a banking account or checking account or you can request a check to yourselfor you can request it to a third-party. you can do unlimited ach transfers, electronictransfers and you get two free checks per month. there are additional fees if you goover that -- it is five dollars with each additional check and we also allow individualsif they want to pay for correspondence let quarterly statements -- there is a $10 feefor that. and that is pretty much it. able united in a nutshell -- in a nutshell. youcan visit us online. we have an eligibility

checklist and we give a review of our investmentoptions and performance and we have a toolkit and downloadable content and a quick startguide that gives you a brief overview of able united and more in-depth faqs and we are inthe 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 butat this time, we are florida specific. that is it i'm looking forward to answering anybody'squestions 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 daytoday to present to the folks that have signed up for the webinar and all of the folks thatare going to access it went is archived. i

want people to know that we have been workingin an extremely close way with the programs that have launched and other programs acrossthe country, and every one of these programs has gone above and beyond to have a betterunderstanding 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 fromthe east coast to the west coast, up and down, and in meetings, and focus groups, and strategysessions to try to figure out how to best put together programs that will ultimatelyhelp people with disabilities -- to have the opportunity, and many time -- many times forthe first time, to save for their futures not unlike their typical able peers so i couldnot be more excited about your programs leading

the way, being the first in the country tobe launched and to have folks and rolling in them and to begin to realize the dreamof being able to better participate in the economic mainstream. with that, i do wantto go into some questions. so i think that we will start it off there. i know that someof the things that we have been getting recently have talked about, well, when i decide togo to a program and choose a program, what type of information do i need to be readyso that i can get through the enrollment process as quickly as possible without any hiccupsor anything like that? so amelis, maybe i will shoot this one to you. what types ofinformation if i am either a family member, a person with a disability, should i haveprepared and ready to go when i get onto the

website to enroll? >> you are going to beunmuted in one second. >> [ pause ] you got it. okay. >> yes. thank you, chris. so whensomebody 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 securitynumber, if they are enrolling on behalf of another individual. they will need their guardianshippaperwork, 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 informationas well. so what you need to collect to get started is really simple. it outlines it allfor you in the videos so you know exactly what you're getting yourself into and youcan have a nice smooth enrollment process.

>> [ pause ] >> great. excellent. are thereany other programs that have additional documentation or forms that someone should have preparedwhen they are going through your enrollment process? >> [ pause ] >> i do not think sobut again, to the folks eligibility to open and able account is something that is goingto be consistent across all programs so it is not uncommon that documentation and thingsare consistent. moving on to another question, i know that we have a lot of folks callingin saying, what is the big rush? why should i enrolled in 2016 when perhaps i live ina 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 waitingfor more programs to get up and running? >> [ pause

] >> well, i think one of the great thingsabout it is that you are allowed to begin saving today. allowed to put your money towork and start creating some returns if possible. there is nothing that prevents you that iknow of with that of the programs available from transferring to another state. i thinkthe transfer from one able program to another will be something that is readily availablein the future. yeah. but i think that you bring up an excellent point, and i think itgoes back to one of the characteristics, again, that is consistent across all programs andthat is the fact that folks, all contributions combine, cannot exceed that $14,000. so ifyou are planning to put in funds, it would be advantageous of someone to be allowed totake advantage of that $14,000 in 2016. as

opposed to losing matt opportunity if youdecided to wait until 2017. i also liked your point, roy, about the point that through therules and regulations that govern and give guidance to these programs, it does allowfor somebody to move their able account to another state program if they think that statebetter suits their needs. now, kind of expanding on that, and we will go each one of you -- wewill start with eric. eric, are there any fees associated in the ohio program if somebodywas 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 ericunmuted. >> i am here. >> john? >> are you here? >> go ahead. >> it is $50 to rolloverfrom able -- the stable account in ohio to

any other account nationwide. >> okay. gotyou. john, how about the florida program? >> for able united, the florida program, thereare no rollover fees. >> okay. amelis? for the enable program? >> for enable, there isno 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 likethey may be waiting or they might want to roll into another program in the future. forwhatever reason. i know that one thing that folks are looking at is some of the statesare allowing several of the folks on this phone -- they had mentioned it. a state incometax deduction and a lot of people think that is something that they would want to takeinto consideration and take advantage of.

but it would obviously only be allowed inmost circumstances if they enrolled in the program in which they actually reside. lookingat the questions here, i know that, again, these programs were kind of mirror at leastwhen they were being pushed through congress. behind the 529 college savings account. iknow 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 strikingdifference that you want folks to know about when they start to think of 529 and 529 ableaccounts? so maybe john? >> that is a great question, chris but i think what the big differencefor me, and of course i'm coming outside of

the 529 fear and i'm from the disability fieldbut the striking difference i see is what you can use these funds four and when youcan withdraw them. a lot of times the 529 savings plans, your city for future educationalneeds, sometimes a newborn up to 18, 20 years of life to use those funds and you can putthe funds an emergency happens week later and you can withdraw the funds and use themfor a variety of expenses. the goal of the program is to enhance people's quality oflife. so i think that is some of what they sent down on different categories, which givesyou 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 becausei'm really intrigued by their pre-loadable

card. could you give an example, eric, ofhow that would be useful to somebody to a beneficiary? >> short. one thing that mightbe different, obviously with the 529 and the stable account is that the use of funds aremore accessible and easier to use with the stable because we have the debit card so whati might -- what i mean by that is as soon as the money is in the account, you can actuallyload it on the debit card and let's say that you want to take a boss the summer, maybeit is physical therapy, or maybe you want to use it for schoolbooks were educationalprograms. food. it serves and acts just like a normal debit card, being able to use anywherethat debit cards are allowed access to so really we think of this both as a long-termsavings option, investment option, but also

we want to make sure that people have dailyuse and daily access to the funds whenever they want to use the money themselves. >> gotyou. great. excellent. i would imagine perhaps somebody that is using the funds in accountsperhaps more frequently might really appreciate the availability of the funds the way thata card and i know that some of the other programs are planning on doing something similar tothat but i imagine that might be a benefit to somebody who plans to use the funds andthey count more frequently as opposed to perhaps somebody who will be contributed funds tothe account and letting them sit and accrue over a longer period of time. so just to beclear, one of the questions is can i use of the funds an account for short-term as wellas long-term savings? so the answer to that

would be yes, the funds in the account canbe used for both short-term financial goals and long-term financial goals. however, aswe noted previously in the presentations, there can be fees associated with gettingchecks and reimbursements and things like that, that somebody would want to take intoconsideration when choosing which program best meets their needs. i also want to talkto some of the states, the states that do have a national program. i know that thereagain is some apprehension about getting into a program that the individual does not residein for whatever reason, the apprehension coms. but i think it is important to note that youare having quite a bit of success with out-of-state enrollments. is that right? both tennesseeand i think we loss to nebraska for now. but

both roy and eric? >> yeah. we have seen avery high percentage of out-of-state enrollments. i think we are pretty close to 43% of ourenrollments are from out of state, and we are over 40 states actually have an releasefrom them so we have seen a large national search for the stable accounts and we havehad great success in providing that across the country. >> great. great. >> chris, alsoable tennessee has additionally had some success with national enrollment. i think we are rightat 30% of our applicants are from outside of the state of tennessee. we have individualsfrom hawaii, all the way to the state of maine and so very diverse range of individuals allacross 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 andthis 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 $14,000and perhaps there is still a couple months left until the end of the tax year and thereis 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 automaticallyreject our contribution and it will go into suspense and we will work on getting bad gettingthem 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 allowanyone to over contribute. in the event that a check was sent to our office, we would benotified of that and we would additionally worked to get that check back to the individualwho contributed before it ever hits the account. >> great. great. and i imagine, eric, thatis the same in the ohio program. >> yes. it is the same, chris. that is correct. >> soi think that is good to let the folks out there understand that they do not have toworry about excess contributions or any types of pedophilia. the programs have taken thatinto consideration and put forth mechanisms to make sure that it does not happen and thatgoes towards beneficiaries peace of mind and

i think that is its -- something importantto know. i am seeing questions coming up related to whether or not an individual can roll overa 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 anable 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 $14,000annual contribution limit. that being said, there is a bill currently -- that currentlyexists that has been filed in congress that would allow an individual to roll over, aslong as the beneficiary is the same beneficiary, obviously, allowing them to roll over a 529college savings account into an able account

and vice versa. that being said, even if thatbill was to pass the funds that would be transferred from the 529 college savings account intothe able account would still be subject to the $14,000 annual contribution limit. butthat is certainly something that the disability community as well as the 529 groups and theable groups administrators have seen benefits in and it would certainly i think supportat least from ndi perspective, allowing for that. it is just a matter of getting thatamendment through congress, of which, as we all know, can be a tedious process. i don'tknow how many people know this on the webinar, but the original able at took about -- ableact, took eight or nine years to get to the process and we do not expect these amendmentsto take that one but it is something to think

about and i think it is a good question andsomething that a lot of folks have certainly asked in the past. so in addition, some ofthe questions related to the medicaid payback provision that i am seeing. it says, can medicarealso ask for a reimbursement upon death? no. the medicaid provision that talks about theclaim that can be filed by a state is only specific to medicaid funds that were dispersedby the state to provide for supports and services for the beneficiary. and i think that is importantto 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. sothese are folks that, again, as we talked about, are receiving the supplemental securityincome cash monthly benefit of which would be suspended if the able account exceededthat $100,000. so they are wondering, do your programs offer for some kind of alert whenthe 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 alertthat might be 5000 -- $5000 or $10,000 before that will notify the individual through emailof their account balance being almost into that $100,000 point. we certainly would notprevent individuals from exceeding the $100,000

because there are individuals who would notfall 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 disclosureforms of that is touched upon but, at the same time, like you said, roy, i think itis a good thing to note, it is going to be a number of years provided that an accountcan only accept $40,000 per year before folks will have to start thinking about what theywant to do when the accounts approach $100,000. but john, is that something that the floridaprogram is taking into consideration in terms of maybe alerting and ssi beneficiary whentheir 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 itand also in the future we hope to have it to where an individual, when they get closeto 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 mindsetand 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 ohioprogram? >> yes. without repeating the same thing that they all said, we do have alertsand definitely let people that the $100,000 limit is coming up and -- in a close pointof view. >> got you. thank you. let's see.

going back to the folks that have registeredand 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 ohiorechargeable card but if they decide that they have determined a qualified disabilityrelated expense that, again, helps them increase or maintain their health, independence, orquality 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 checkof being written? how long would we expect that time to take? so john, do you want togo after that one first? >> individual -- i'm going to make sure that i rephrase -- thequestion 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 fiveday 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 lastnight, 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 requestedfor 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 anaccount, we also have a period where those

funds have to be verified and we will notallow a withdrawal of those funds. funds that are already in the account can be withdrawnbecause 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 loadablecharge 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 ifthey want to access it not the of the debit card. >> got you. okay. okay. great. we haveanother question i think i can take this one. it says, is a paycheck deposited into an ableaccount excluded as income for purposes of ssi? and this is an important question andi'm glad that some of the asked it. so an

able account is really used as an asset buildingtool and one of the big benefits in addition to being able to grow tax-free is the factthat it kind of gets around -- it helps people save funds without having to worry about theresource 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 thingslike medicaid and social security, and that there is also an earned income or what iscalled sga, substantial gainful activity, consideration made, and the funds that evenif the beneficiary has a job, is employed, regardless of if they are putting that moneyinto 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 towardssga when looking at eligibility for social security benefits so i think it is importantthat people understand that and understand certainly the benefits of able but also thelimitations of able and that is certainly one of the limitations. again, able is anasset building tool that helps you build resources that are not taken into consideration whendetermining eligibility for most federally funded benefits of but it does not help interms of your earned income of with respect to substantial gainful activity. so that issomething that is very important to note. another question asked, who is responsiblefor 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, responsibilityis on them but what we have done in ohio is to try to provide that transactional historylog that details each and every single expenditure that comes out. we have provided a way todetail if it is a qualified or nonqualified expense. and also, being able to write memolines in to dictate whether it is for therapy or books or whatnot and at the end of theyear, 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 providea 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 lotof responsibilities associated with these but a lot of the programs are creating waysto 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 arandom auditing process to determine if the accounts are being used appropriately andit will be on the beneficiary or the family member or the person with signature authorityto make sure that they are documenting the expenditures and documenting how those expendituresmeet 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 theirdisability, 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 wantedto make sure that it was interpreted that way due to the fact that people with disabilitieshave such a wide array of different disability related needs and often one person with adisability needs can be very different from the other persons of which both could be hypotheticallyqualified to open up and able -- an able account. moving forward, is getting to an able accountconsidered a tax deduction? i think this is a great question for john, do you want totake this one? >> sure. yes. it is considered -- a completed gift so you cannot write itoff 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 havea state income tax, we are not subject to that so it depends on your state's rules andregulations. >> great. i think that is important to note so contributions in terms of the federallevel, federal tax, are not tax-deductible but it is important for folks to pay attentionthat perhaps the state that they live in might offer a state income tax deduction. i thinkit is also important for folks to understand that the dollars contributed to have to bepost-tax dollars so that it is different from a 401(k) where you can contribute into thatparticular 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 maximumage of disability onset was selected to be 26? this is a great question. it is an importantquestion. it is one that i think, at least personally, i hear every time i give a presentationon able. why does the individual have to have an onset prior to their 26th birthday? thisage requirement was actually not part of the original bill. the original legislation thatwas introduced in congress several years ago. once the able at commandeered a greater amountof 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 wentthrough a process called being scored which basically means it goes to the congressionalbudget office advocates analyzed and they

come out with a recommendation on what itis going to cost to implement that particular law over the course of a 10 year period. theycame back and despite the overwhelming support by congress with a score that was a littletoo high for policymakers to feel comfortable that it would have the likelihood of gettingpast they basically said we need to figure out a way to change a few things, make someadjustments, 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 communitywanted to do but understood that, if the cost of the bill did not go down, it would notbe 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. itwas basically the point in which the cost of the bill was lowered to the extent in whichthey felt comfortable that it would have the support to get past through congress and wecould start building those programs with the idea that we would go back to congress andwork on increasing that age. but we really wanted to get over that hill so that folkscould start -- so that the programs could begin development and people could start unrollingout of like -- which is what basically has taken place. it is important to note, in additionto 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 raisethat age from age 26 until age 46, allowing

millions of individuals with significant disabilitiesto realize the benefits of able accounts, not unlike individuals who just happened tohave the onset of their disability prior to age 26. i know that the vast majority of thedisability community is behind this bill and in support of this well. i know that the 529community is eager to expand eligibility and to get as many people and rolled in theseaccounts as possible and to help them start savings for their future. it is just a matterof how quickly we can get that bill through congress, but i hope that people know thatwe are certainly paying attention to it and we are advocating at the capital to push thatbill 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 ageof 26, i should say, who have an onset of disability above the age of 26, can startto enroll in these programs. moving forward, i think we have time -- let's see -- for justa 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. thereis no legislation to my knowledge that would allow that. obviously, an individual couldliquidate their 401(k) but there would obviously be tax consequences, not unlike tax applicationsassociated 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 knowthat the programs that are represented today on the webinar and other programs that hopeto be launched in the near future are doing as much as they can to provide these programsas quickly and in a responsible manner to qualified beneficiaries. what do you all seebig 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 offeredcurrently? 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 ] >> thankyou, chris. that is a great question. i think that one of the ways that we look to possiblychange our program is to provide ach payments

directly to bank payments and connected directlyto that individual's bank account so that there is not that seven business day leadtime so that is something that we are actively looking into and, additionally, we might alsobe adding more resources on our website as far as resources to individuals and theiradvisors. 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 rolledhis and as we presented to various organizations to get their input and let them drive wherethey 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 thatis something feasible that we can manage.

may be expanding our investment options isalso 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 anindividual to go in so there are a lot of things on the horizon that we are lookingat and seeing what is best for the community, what would best work for them and maybe expandingit once again like i said earlier, having other states working with other states torun their able program might be a possibility as well. so quickly, i know that we are workingon a quarterly newsletter that hopefully we are releasing to our individuals in the nextcouple of months. so that is the immediate. >> [ laughter ] >> excellent. and eric, whatis 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 thetop, we are looking to offer credit card contributions, get, another easy way that families can helpcontribute to accounts. we're also going to be offering online bill pay which is somethingthat we think would be great, again, for short-term expenses. the debit cards themselves, we willhave added security features to them, so including -- you will be able to limit specific merchantsso if you want to take off merchants for being used altogether or just limit them to a singleor 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, weare going to have expanded investment options

but also we are going to be able to offeradditional fdic options as well so while we have a good phase 1, we are looking forwardto continuing to improve it and looking into the next phase. >> okay. and i think withthat, i know that we did not get to all the questions but we have them archived and weare going to take them into consideration when we are adding questions and answers tothe website and i will make sure to get these questions out to our presenters so they canhave a look at them and address them on their website as well. i want to say a very sincerethank you, again, to eric, roy, john, and amelis for taking the time today to sharesome of the critical aspects about their programs and to just say thank you, on behalf of thedisability community for the hard work and

blood, sweat, and tears that i know you haveall put in over the last year and have to get your programs up and running and say thankyou for being the leaders in the able and allowing people with disabilities to achievea new level of financial independence that i do not think they have had access to untilnow. so thank you all so much. and i think that was a great webinar. goodbye.

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