How to Make the Most of an ABLE Account


Female wheelchair user using atm outside.

Dante Allen used his savings to pay for an upgrade to his everyday wheelchair. Valerie Crisci is saving money to cover costs related to her service dog. Gayle Stanford used her savings to pay off her home mortgage so she could better afford recurring medical expenses.  

Disability life is expensive. There are a thousand potential costs that nondisabled people rarely have to think about. Achieving a Better Life Experience accounts offer an easy, tax-advantaged way to save for disability-related expenses, plus they let you save without violating draconian disability benefits asset limits. Thanks to a recent federal law that expanded ABLE age limits, more people than ever will soon be eligible for these accounts.  

We talked with experts and wheelchair users in a variety of financial situations to find out more about the best-kept financial secret in the disability community. The consensus: As long as you’re eligible, there’s no reason not to open an ABLE account

Eligibility 

Mark Raymond Jr. of New Orleans serves as national outreach lead for ABLE Today, the National Association of State Treasurers Foundation’s campaign to promote awareness of ABLE accounts. An enthusiastic advocate, Raymond, a C5 quadriplegic, knows the benefits of an ABLE account as well as anyone, but is ineligible to open one. Thankfully, that’s about to change. 

When Congress created ABLE accounts in 2014, they restricted them to people who acquired their disabilities before the age of 26. Raymond was paralyzed as the result of a diving accident at age 27. Fortunately, in December 2022, Congress passed an adjustment that raises the eligibility age to 46. Raymond will finally be eligible when the new rules take effect Jan. 1, 2026.  

Black man sitting in power wheelchair, wearing suit and smiling at camera, he in front of hanging signs that spell out LOVE.
Mark Raymond Jr. was injured when he was 27. Thanks to the recent ABLE Age Adjustment Act, he will finally be able to open an ABLE account.

“A tax-free savings account — you bet I will open one the day I’m eligible. I have expenses that would be nice to cover with ABLE account savings,” Raymond says. “Home renovations could be saved for and funded. One time my (wheelchair) armrest broke and it cost $2,000 to fix it — not covered by insurance, so again, ABLE savings would help.” 

Under the amended law, it won’t matter how old you are when you want to open an ABLE account, just how old you were at the onset of your disability. Otherwise, all you need is a doctor’s signature that you have “severe functional limitations” lasting longer than a year. If you’re a wheelchair user, you’re almost certain to qualify.  

United Spinal Helps Secure ABLE Age Adjustment Act

Last year, United Spinal Association government relations and advocacy staff pushed strongly for passage of the ABLE Age Adjustment Act, along with the National Association of State Treasurers and the disability community at large. They met with key members of Congress to answer questions and secure their support. United Spinal advocates included Shelley Jaspering of Ames, Iowa, who testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging in support of the bill. 

Continue Reading

Eric Ochmanek, program director at the National Association of State Treasurers, is promoting ABLE accounts through ambassadors and the abletoday.org website. He says opening an ABLE account takes about 20 minutes online. You have the option of creating a savings account, which pays low interest but protects every dollar contributed, or an investment account, which comes with potentially higher growth but also the risk of losses if stock markets decline like they did in 2022. “ABLE allows people with disabilities to accumulate wealth,” he says. “It gives them choice for financial inclusion and empowerment, all while maintaining their Medicaid and [Supplemental Security Income] benefits.” 

ABLE accounts are structured like individual retirement accounts. You put money in them after taxes, and don’t have to pay taxes on any investment profits. Dante Allen is a wheelchair user and the executive director of the board at California Achieving a Better Life Experience, the organization that runs California’s ABLE program. Through CalABLE, Allen owns an ABLE account and sees it as a useful financial tool, even though he has a good job and does not qualify for government benefits. 

Black man sitting in wheelchair on bridge over a creek. He is wearing a collared jacket and a Fedora hat
Dante Allen uses his ABLE account to pay for out-of-pocket costs on mobility equipment, like upgrades on his wheelchair.

“It is a great way to grow money long term … better than a Roth IRA or other IRA. An IRA has a significant penalty if you withdraw money before you are 59 ½ years old,” he says. “But you can withdraw ABLE account money for any qualified expense at any age.” 

The definition of a qualified expense is quite broad. Virtually anything that maintains or improves the health, independence and quality of life of a person with a disability is a qualified expense — so it is not limited to medical copays and home accessibility modifications. 

Allen says he uses relatively small withdrawals to pay out-of-pocket costs. He has good insurance, but it only pays for a basic wheelchair. To upgrade to a titanium frame, his out-of-pocket cost was about $900. He used his ABLE account to cover it.  

Help Avoiding the Benefits Cliff 

As an undergraduate student at The City University of New York School of Professional Studies and a recipient of SSI, Valerie Rose Crisci finds her ABLE account is the perfect way to save wisely without losing benefits that keep her active and in school. Crisci uses a power wheelchair due to a progressive neurodegenerative disease and is legally blind due to optic nerve atrophy.  

She has saved $1,330 with her CalABLE account. It’s money she plans to put to good use. “My current service dog, Cleo, is getting up there in age. Canine Partners for Life requires their recipients to donate at least $1,000, and there is the price of traveling to and staying in Pennsylvania for three weeks during team training,” she says. “CalABLE offers a Visa card that can be used much like a typical debit card in order to spend the money that has been saved. I plan on using this method when it’s finally time to go to Pennsylvania.”  

White woman sitting in power wheelchair wearing sunglasses. She holds a leash and a yellow lab sits by her side.
Valerie Crisci’s service dog Cleo is getting older. She’ll use her ABLE account to pay for costs associated with training a new dog.

She created the website Respect the Vest to raise awareness of service dogs, and would like to create a nonprofit to do the same. “Trying to save the money for how much it costs to start a nonprofit is one of the reasons I opened my ABLE account,” she says. “Without having a CalABLE account, I had to worry about saving money — because if I were to save money, I could lose my government benefits. With a CalABLE account, I am able to save up to $100,000 without that worry.” 

Monthly SSI benefits peak at $914 for an individual and $1,371 for a couple, barely enough for many to pay rent — let alone cover food, transportation and other daily expenses.  On top of that, if you save more than $2,000, you risk having SSI cut off. “SSI is poverty, being constantly at the brink of ruin,” Allen says. “ABLE is a way of supporting people with disabilities, a group that is quite chronically underserved.” 

Gayle Stanford, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, works part time at Columbus Speech and Hearing in Columbus, Ohio. She’s on Medicare and receives small Social Security Disability Insurance payments. Stanford says her medical expenses — including things not covered or only partially covered by Medicare — were growing and crowding out what she had left to make house payments. 

“I pulled about $45,000 out of my ABLE account to pay my house off. That way, I could focus my earnings on paying medical expenses and not worry about falling behind on the mortgage,” she says. “I still have about $20,000 left in my ABLE account. I have about one-third in high risk, one-third in medium risk and one-third in low-risk growth.” 

Even if you don’t have the financial resources to save for big-ticket items, ABLE accounts can still be a useful option. Stanford says that family and friends can make gift contributions into your ABLE account. Similarly, if you ever raise money through crowdsourcing, you could put those funds into an ABLE account to save or grow them further.  


Presently, 46 states and the District of Columbia offer ABLE accounts to their residents. If you live in one of the four states that don’t have ABLE programs — Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin — you can still open an account through any of the 30 states that have programs available to outside residents. The ABLE National Resource Center has a helpful list with details and contact information for all the state programs. 


Support New Mobility

Wait! Before you wander off to other parts of the internet, please consider supporting New Mobility. For more than three decades, New Mobility has published groundbreaking content for active wheelchair users. We share practical advice from wheelchair users across the country, review life-changing technology and demand equity in healthcare, travel and all facets of life. But none of this is cheap, easy or profitable. Your support helps us give wheelchair users the resources to build a fulfilling life.

donate today

Comments are closed.