ABLE Accounts: The Newest Addition to the Section 529 Plan Family

​I must admit that the new savings account for disabled individuals did not catch my attention for a while.  I am intimately familiar with Section 529 plans, having three college-aged sons and serving on the Alabama College Counts 529 Savings Plan Board.  When our state Treasurer Young Boozer got behind these accounts early on and continued to support expanded legislation for them, I started researching them in earnest.  The 529 ABLE account was signed into law on December 19, 2014, along with the tax extenders package for that year.  The legislation is called the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, and it expanded the tax code under Section 529 (529A).  How could legislation with a name like that not capture my attention? As a practicing CPA, I focused on the year end extenders and did not spend any time on the ABLE accounts.  Now that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has become law, the ABLE accounts have not only been spared, they are now more robust. 

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