Mark Chen was 38 years old when the neurologist in Allen handed him the diagnosis. Multiple sclerosis, relapsing-remitting type. Significant lesions. The kind of news that arrives in an ordinary room — fluorescent lights, paper over the exam table, a poster about influenza vaccines on the wall — and rearranges everything you thought you knew about your future.
Mark had heard of ABLE accounts from a friend whose teenager had Down syndrome. The accounts sounded useful: a tax-advantaged savings vehicle that doesn't count against government benefit eligibility. He asked his financial planner. He asked an attorney at a workshop. He got the same answer both times.
"You don't qualify," they told him. "Your disability has to have started before age twenty-six."
Mark was 34 when the MS became symptomatic. He was told, correctly under the law as it existed, that he had missed the cutoff by eight years. He went home and found a different strategy. ABLE was not an option for him.
That answer was accurate in 2024. It is wrong in 2026.
On January 1, 2026, a federal law change took effect that the financial planning industry is still catching up to. Adults like Mark — people who acquired a significant disability in their thirties or forties through accident, illness, or progressive disease — became eligible for ABLE accounts for the first time. A large and mostly invisible group of Texans who were told no for years have quietly become eligible, and many of them still don't know it.
What Is an ABLE Account?
The ABLE Act — Achieving a Better Life Experience — was enacted in 2014 and created a new category of tax-advantaged account under 26 U.S.C. § 529A of the Internal Revenue Code. The accounts were modeled on 529 college savings plans but designed specifically for individuals with disabilities. The purpose was to allow people with disabilities to save money without that savings counting against their eligibility for means-tested government programs like Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid.
Before ABLE accounts existed, a person receiving SSI could not hold more than $2,000 in countable resources without losing benefits. This created a brutal financial trap: earn a little, save a little, and you lose the health coverage and income support that make it possible to live. ABLE accounts broke that trap by creating a savings vehicle that — up to specific limits — is excluded from SSI's resource counting rules.
In Texas, ABLE accounts are offered through the Texas ABLE program, administered by the Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board. The accounts are investment accounts with multiple fund options and can be used for a broad range of "qualified disability expenses" — housing, transportation, education, health and wellness, assistive technology, personal support services, and more. Interest and investment growth are tax-free when used for qualified expenses.
The Age Limit That Changed
The original ABLE Act required that the account holder's disability must have begun before age twenty-six. This was a significant restriction that excluded millions of Americans who acquired disabling conditions as adults — through traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, early-onset Parkinson's, early-onset Alzheimer's, or countless other conditions that strike in adulthood.
Congress addressed this in the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022. Section 124 of that law — the ABLE Age Adjustment Act — amended 26 U.S.C. § 529A(e)(1) to raise the disability-onset age requirement from before age twenty-six to before age forty-six. The change was designed to apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025.
That date arrived on January 1, 2026. The expanded eligibility is not "coming" or "starting soon" — it is the current law. Adults whose disability began before they turned forty-six are now eligible to open and contribute to ABLE accounts, subject to the other qualification requirements.
Who Now Qualifies in Texas
To be eligible for a Texas ABLE account under the current law, a person must:
- Have a disability that began before age forty-six. This is the new age threshold. If your significant disability — whether from a progressive disease, accident, or other cause — has its documented onset before your forty-sixth birthday, you meet this prong.
- Have a significant disability. The definition tracks SSI/Social Security disability standards: the individual must have a condition resulting in marked and severe functional limitations, and the condition must be expected to last at least twelve months or result in death. There are two pathways: (1) receiving SSI or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, which automatically establishes eligibility; or (2) self-certifying with a physician's signed diagnosis confirming the disability meets the statutory standard.
- Be a U.S. citizen or resident alien.
The practical implication for North Texas families is significant. Adults in McKinney, Allen, Frisco, Plano, and across Collin County who were told "no" under the old age-26 rule — and who have a disability from MS, ALS, Parkinson's disease, early-onset Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, or a similar condition with onset in their late twenties, thirties, or early forties — should revisit the question now. Many are newly eligible.
What the Account Protects — and the Key SSI Threshold
For most people considering an ABLE account, the primary value is the interaction with SSI's resource limit. SSI currently disqualifies recipients who hold more than $2,000 in countable resources (42 U.S.C. § 1382(a)(3)(B)). Without planning tools, this rule makes it nearly impossible for a person receiving SSI to build any financial cushion at all.
ABLE account balances are excluded from SSI's resource counting — but only up to $100,000. This figure comes from SSA's Program Operations Manual System (POMS SI 01130.740), which establishes the SSI resource treatment of ABLE accounts. Here is the mechanics that most families get wrong:
- Below $100,000: The ABLE balance is fully excluded from SSI resources. The account holder retains full SSI benefits.
- Above $100,000: SSI cash payments are suspended — not terminated. The account holder loses the monthly SSI payment but continues to receive Medicaid. If the balance later falls back below $100,000, SSI cash benefits resume without a new application.
This distinction — suspension, not termination — matters enormously. Medicaid is often the more valuable benefit for individuals with significant disabilities, covering medical care, therapies, and long-term supports. The ABLE structure allows a person to accumulate savings above $100,000 without permanently losing Medicaid, which would happen if those assets were held in a regular account and counted as resources.
In Texas, the lifetime account balance cap is $500,000. Contributions above that limit are not accepted.
The annual contribution limit is set by statute at a figure tied to the federal gift-tax annual exclusion under 26 U.S.C. § 529A(b)(2)(B). That figure re-indexes periodically; consult your accountant or elder law attorney for the current year's limit rather than relying on any figure you read online — sources have disagreed on the 2026 amount.
What ABLE Accounts Can Pay For
One of the most useful aspects of ABLE accounts — and one that distinguishes them from special needs trusts in certain contexts — is the range of qualified disability expenses (QDEs) they can fund. The statute defines QDEs broadly to include expenses that relate to the disability and are for the benefit of the account holder:
- Housing: rent, mortgage payments, real property taxes, utilities
- Transportation: adapted vehicles, public transit, ride services, vehicle modifications
- Education: tuition, books, supplies, training programs
- Health and wellness: medical equipment, medications, therapy, gym memberships tied to the disability
- Assistive technology: communication devices, mobility aids, adaptive software
- Personal support services: home health aides, personal attendants
- Legal fees related to disability planning
- Basic living expenses for the account holder
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This flexibility makes ABLE accounts genuinely useful for covering the daily and ongoing costs of life with a disability — not just medical expenses — without the administrative overhead that comes with a formal special needs trust.
ABLE vs. Special Needs Trust: Not Either/Or
Many families want to know whether an ABLE account replaces a third-party special needs trust (SNT). The answer is almost always no — they serve different functions and work best in combination.
A third-party SNT (funded by family members, not the beneficiary's own assets) can receive unlimited gifts and inheritances, holds assets that are never counted as the beneficiary's resources under any circumstances, and — critically — does not have a Medicaid payback requirement at death. An ABLE account has the SSI resource threshold, the contribution limit, and Texas does impose a Medicaid payback on any balance remaining at the account holder's death.
But ABLE accounts have advantages SNTs do not. The account holder has direct access to the funds — they can use a debit card, make purchases, manage their own account without a trustee's approval. For adults who are capable of managing daily finances but need to accumulate savings without losing benefits, ABLE's direct-access feature is a significant quality-of-life improvement over trust administration. ABLE accounts also have lower setup costs and no ongoing trustee fees.
For most Texans with a significant disability who receive means-tested benefits, the right answer is often both: a third-party SNT to receive family gifts and hold larger long-term assets, and an ABLE account to hold accessible funds for day-to-day qualified expenses. An elder law attorney can help structure both tools to work together.
How the Onset Age Question Gets Answered
One practical question that families encounter is how to document that a disability began before age forty-six. For individuals receiving SSI or SSDI, this is generally straightforward: Social Security's determination letter establishes the disability onset date, and that date controls ABLE eligibility.
For individuals who are not receiving SSI or SSDI — perhaps because their income is too high, or because they have not applied — the process is self-certification. The account holder certifies that they have a condition that meets the statutory standard (a significant disability causing marked and severe functional limitations, expected to last at least twelve months or result in death), and their physician provides a signed, dated diagnosis confirming the condition and its onset. Texas ABLE accepts this certification pathway.
If you acquired a disability in your late twenties, thirties, or early forties and were told you didn't qualify for an ABLE account, that answer deserves a second look. The question is not when you applied — it is when your condition began.
Mark Gets a Second Answer
Mark Chen, the man in the Allen exam room with the MS diagnosis, called an elder law attorney in early 2026 after reading that the ABLE age limit had changed. His MS had been diagnosed at 38, with documented symptom onset at 34. The onset was before age 46. He qualified.
He opened a Texas ABLE account. He set up automatic monthly contributions and connected it to a debit card he uses for transportation and home health aide services — expenses that had previously come out of a regular savings account that he watched nervously because of how close it came to the SSI resource limit some months. The ABLE account holds those funds outside SSI's counting rules, up to the $100,000 exclusion threshold.
His elder law attorney also reviewed whether a third-party special needs trust made sense for a larger inheritance his parents had planned to leave him. It did. The two tools serve different roles in his plan — the ABLE account for accessible, day-to-day spending; the SNT for larger family gifts and long-term asset protection.
The law that was used to tell Mark no is no longer the law. That matters for thousands of Texas adults who made their plans under the old rules and haven't revisited the question since January 1, 2026.
Questions About ABLE Accounts or Elder Law Planning in Texas?
WG Law's elder law practice — led by Taylor Willingham, author of five books on estate planning and elder law and a practitioner who has guided more than 10,000 clients through these decisions — helps North Texas adults and families understand which tools fit their situation. Whether you're newly eligible for an ABLE account under the expanded age rules, considering whether to pair an ABLE account with a special needs trust, or navigating SSI and Medicaid rules for the first time, we help you get the structure right.
From our offices in McKinney (7701 Eldorado Pkwy, Suite 200) and Southlake (1560 E Southlake Blvd, Suite 100, Office 116), we serve clients throughout McKinney, Allen, Frisco, Plano, Collin County, and the greater DFW area.
Call us at 214-250-4407 or request a consultation to talk through your situation. We also recommend reviewing our guides on Elder Law at WG Law, Special Needs Trusts in Texas, Medicaid Planning, and our detailed breakdown of what Medicaid planning costs in Texas.
This article is general information, not legal advice. ABLE account rules, contribution limits, and SSI resource standards are governed by federal and state law and subject to change. The information above reflects the law as of January 1, 2026. If you are making decisions about ABLE accounts, special needs trusts, or government benefit eligibility, consult a licensed Texas elder law attorney.