Your Savings Options
An FDIC-insured checking account ensures your money is easily available to spend, while PA ABLE’s investment options can help your money grow over time.
With PA ABLE, you can choose one or any combination of checking and investment options.
Explore Checking and Investment OptionsChoosing the Right Option For You
To help you choose whether a checking account, investment option, or both are right for you, consider these important questions:
What disability expenses do I want to save for?
PA ABLE accounts can be used to save for a wide range of disability-related expenses, from day-to-day expenses, emergencies, future expenses, or any combination of these. Examples of Qualified Disability Expenses include:
- Planning for ongoing expenses that require easy access on a regular basis. Example: Weekly therapy or extra job coaching
- Saving for a rainy day. Example: Unexpected job loss or home repair
- Saving for a larger, more expensive item with a longer savings timeline. Example: A new place to live or an accessible vehicle
When will I need the money?
When thinking of savings, think about your short-term, medium-term, and long-term disability-related expenses. This can help you decide which of the checking or investment options are right for your PA ABLE account.
- Short-term expenses you may have today, tomorrow, next week, or next month.
- Medium-term expenses you may have in the next one to three years.
- Long-term expenses you may have over the next four years or more.
What is my risk tolerance?
Risk is any uncertainty in the financial markets, now or in the future, that has the potential to negatively affect the money you invest. In other words, when you invest your money, the investment values might rise or fall because of market conditions, which means that your account balance could increase or decrease.
Risk tolerance is the degree to which you, as the investor, are comfortable with your invested money increasing or decreasing because of fluctuations in the financial markets.
Think about the short-term, medium-term, and long-term disability-related expenses that you are saving for and decide when you will want to use the money in your PA ABLE account. You’ll need to ask yourself how you’ll feel if the value of your PA ABLE investment account balance changes because financial markets are going up or going down. This will help you decide what your risk tolerance is and will influence which PA ABLE investment options you choose.
If you have no or low risk tolerance, consider the PA ABLE checking account option, which is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and does not expose your money to market fluctuations.
Match Your Choices with Your Needs
Important Note: The following scenarios are provided as examples only and should not be considered investment advice or guidance.
Andre needs a new computer.
Andre’s short-term goal is to save enough money to buy a computer at the end of the year. He won’t be comfortable with the possibility of the value of his investment going down between now and the time he buys the computer. That means Andre’s risk tolerance could be described as low. Based on his needs, timing, and risk tolerance, he is considering the Conservative, Moderately Conservative, and the Checking Options.
Rosa wants a new wheelchair in a few years.
Rosa’s goal is to buy a new wheelchair in three years, and she wants to begin saving for it now. She hopes to see the value of her investment grow steadily so that she can pay for a new wheelchair, but understands this is not guaranteed. Rosa decides that she has moderate risk tolerance for the potential ups and downs of the financial markets and that a combination of stocks and bonds will best fit her needs, timing, and risk tolerance. She is considering investing in the Moderate, Growth, or Moderately Aggressive Options or a combination of those options.
Emily’s parents are investing for the future.
Emily is a toddler with a disability whose parents want to grow her PA ABLE account to use after she finishes high school. Her parents are comfortable with potentially big swings in the financial markets and know that prices may fluctuate a lot over the long term. Their comfort level and understanding of the market means they have high risk tolerance. They decide to invest funds in the Moderately Aggressive and Aggressive Investment Options, where there is a higher chance for fluctuation in the account value both up and down, but also a higher chance of returns over the long term.
Checking and Investment Accounts
Checking, investments, or both can be used to support your disability-related expenses.
PA ABLE Account Options – Frequently Asked Questions
You may choose among one or any combination of seven investment options offered by PA ABLE. Six are Asset-Allocation Options offering varying blends of stocks, bonds, and cash – with the combinations ranging from conservative to aggressive. The seventh is a checking account provided through Fifth Third Bank, National Association. You may reallocate new contributions any time and currently invested funds can be rebalanced two times per calendar year.
View checking and investment option details here.
PA ABLE accounts are free to open and have an annual fee of $58 ($14.50 per quarter). If you select e-delivery of quarterly statements and account confirmations, the annual fee is reduced to $33 ($8.25 per quarter).
Additional asset-based fees for the six Asset-Allocation Options range from 0.30% to 0.33% depending on the option(s) selected.
For the checking account, a monthly fee of $2.00 applies, but is waived if, on the Fifth Third Bank, N.A. website, you select e-delivery for statements or have an average monthly balance of at least $250. Other banking charges may apply. Please see the PA ABLE Savings Program Disclosure Statement for details.
Any person (including you, your friends, and your family members), business, employer, trust, corporation, or other legal entity can contribute to your account.
Yes. You can easily invite family and friends to contribute directly to your PA ABLE account with Ugift. Get a Ugift code to share with family and friends, and they can make gifts directly online at UgiftABLE.com. You may also provide you account details for other methods of contributing.
If you are entitled to SSI benefits, make sure your family and friends deposit gifts directly into your account rather than giving the gift to you for you to deposit so your benefits are not impacted.
To close a PA ABLE checking account, it must have a zero-dollar ($0.00) balance achieved by using the debit card for a transaction or processing a withdrawal. Once the checking account has a zero-dollar ($0.00) balance, a request to close the account may be made over the phone with PA ABLE (855-529-2253) or in writing to PA ABLE.
Eligibility
Discover if you or a family member is eligible to open a PA ABLE account.
Explore Requirements
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