Article on ABLE Accounts & Their Role in Estate Planning

David A. Rephan & Joelle Groshek recently published an Article entitled, ABLE Act Accounts: Achieving a Better Life Experience for Individuals with Disabilities with Tax-Preferred Savings (and the Old Reliable Special and Supplemental Needs Trusts), 42 Mitchell Hamline L. Rev. 963 (2016). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

This article provides a very basic overview of the new ABLE accounts and the role they play in assisting elderly clients in planning for their own disabilities or for the disability of a family member. Part II provides a brief background on the requirements of traditional disability planning devices, including individual special needs trusts, pooled special needs trusts, and third-party supplemental needs trusts. Part III provides an overview of the ABLE Act in terms of its general restrictions and parameters; its tax provisions, including monitoring; its Medicaid payback provision and its limits; and when Minnesota residents can expect to start using ABLE accounts. Part IV finishes with an analysis of the new ABLE Act accounts, how the Act compares with the traditional disability planning tools such as special and supplemental needs trusts, and what spot the Act occupies in the estate planning toolbox, ultimately concluding that the structure of the new ABLE accounts is restrictive enough that ABLE accounts do not serve as replacements for the traditional disability planning tools, but that ABLE accounts’ tax savings may be worth taking advantage of in certain circumstances.