Guardian Trust

ABLE United is Florida's ABLE program and is scheduled to begin providing services in Florida on July 1, 2016.  The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act allows individuals with disabilities and their family and friends to deposit funds into an ABLE account while maintaining government benefits. ABLE accounts (not "Trusts") can be very helpful and a powerful tool for certain individuals with disabilities. Remember, to use an ABLE account the disability has to have occurred prior to age 26, so the eligible candidates will be limited. If a person can qualify, ABLE United states the account will be able to be opened online in about 15 minutes at their website: AbleUnited.com. Also remember contributions will initially be limited to a total of $14,000 per year. I have been getting a lot of questions about how Special Needs Trust (SNT's) compare to ABLE accounts. Here are a few of the similarities: -Both ABLE Accounts and SNT's can be exemp

Why would you need to prove that a person who is 85 years old, under a plenary guardianship and in a nursing home, is “disabled?”  It happens.  Exceptions to general transfer rules apply to transfers to a blind or disabled child or to trusts established for these individuals.  Similarly some types of Special Needs Trusts (SNT) are only available for individuals who are disabled (d4A and d4C Trusts).  Lately we have been seeing DCF raise this issue, so be prepared. You won’t have any luck going through Social Security because once the person reaches retirement age they either collect their retirement Social Security or once they turn 65 they are eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) if they haven’t worked (assuming they meet all of the other criteria) because they are officially “old.” If the disabled person is under the age of 65 then Social Security can make the determination but otherwise you must go through the State of Florida to get a determination. The Flor