Brynne Conroy

ABLE accounts have been around since 2014, but in late 2022 they got a facelift via the ABLE Age Adjustment Act, which passed as a part of SECURE 2.0. This new law ups the maximum age of onset of disability from 26 to 46, nearly doubling the eligible user base.
Let’s take a look at what that means for you as you save for your disabled child’s college education.

Sheletta Brudidge has secured more than $200,000 in free grant money over the course of her autistic children’s lives. With the biggest calendar year bringing in $80,000, this grant funding has paid for therapies that weren’t covered by insurance, a fence to address her children’s elopement concerns and a trampoline, as well as other sensory items.
Parents of disabled children often incur enormous costs just to provide a healthy life for their child. This is especially true in states that don...

When I told Tony Brooks, activist and advocate at ADAPT Philadelphia, that I was writing a story about free and cheap activities for seniors, he let out a laugh.
“You mean like adult day care?”
ADAPT is a disability advocacy group that explicitly includes seniors among the disabled. Brooks was acknowledging the fact that American culture tends to separate seniors (and disabled people at large) from their own communities.
“I usually love having conversations with elderly people,” Brooks contin...

How hard it is to get a business loan depends on how lenders judge your business’s ability to repay the loan. While the overall economic environment and industry you operate in are important, there are six main factors about your business that you can control to influence your likelihood of approval.
Business loan approval factors
Lenders consider the factors below when determining whether to approve an application and in determining what interest rate they’ll offer.
1. Cash flow
Minimum reve...

Medical billing errors can happen to anyone. But according to recent findings from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you may be more likely to experience these errors if you’re age 65 and older.
As you get older, the system makes these billing errors more difficult to correct, which means they may hold more potential to hurt your credit score — no matter how erroneous the charges may be.
Still, despite the greater likelihood of errors as you age, there are ways to fight back. Let’s ta...

Article published in Pittsburgh Parent's print magazine. Financial hurdles and solutions for families of children with autism.

One of the newest financial products around, ABLE accounts are a 529 account with all kinds of bells and whistles built specifically to serve disabled Americans.
After years of grassroots advocacy efforts from the disability community, ABLE accounts were birthed into legislation in December 2014.
Why Open an ABLE account?
The 529 accounts are traditionally state-sponsored and used to save for your child’s college education. Though you can’t deduct your contribution, the money grows without be...

Disabled Americans face many financial hurdles, and the high cost of medical care may be the biggest.
But when the disabled need to access assistance programs in order to pay for that medical care, there are often asset tests that limit the amount they are allowed to have in savings. And sometimes even the amount they are allowed to earn.
This post will introduce one of those rare silver linings in disability finance. We will show how to use an ABLE account to make housing costs deductible on...

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When our loved ones pass, it feels like the world stands still. That feeling couldn’t be further from the truth — after a death there’s so much to handle, from submitting copious amounts of paperwork to planning an entire funeral. But all that is happening against a backdrop of immobilizing grief.
The situation become...

Raising children is an expensive endeavor. Aside from the year your child starts college, one of the most expensive times is immediately after birth. Not only are there hospital bills and necessary recovery time for the birthing parent, but in an ideal world, most parents would like to spend additional time bonding with their child during the first year together.
That's hard to do when you live in a country without federally mandated paid maternity or parent...

Americans have done their best to stay optimistic through the corona crisis.
We initially thought the lockdown might last a couple of weeks. But here we sit, months later. The states with the tightest restrictions are just beginning to somewhat ease their social distancing guidelines.
But the root problem – the virus – hasn’t actually been “solved.”
Despite that fact, a recent government survey reflected 78% of unemployed Americans view themselves as temporarily furloughed. Most Americans ant...

We probably don’t need to tell you that U.S. Bank is a massive financial institution...

PTSD affects soldiers and domestic violence survivors alike. Here are some of the long-term financial effects, and tactics survivors can use to fight them.

Mississippi offers several first-time homebuyer programs through its state housing agency, the Mississippi Housing Corporation (MHC). You’ll be able to find down payment assistance and financing for closing costs via forgivable second mortgages, deferred second mortgages and a relatively generous mortgage credit certificate. Income limits aren’t terribly exclusive, generally starting at 100% of the area median income (AMI). These programs are available for any number of loans, including FHA l...