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Legal Specialties for Children and Adults with Disabilities and Their Families

Click on any of the substantive legal specialties below to learn more.

Publications and other resource material for families and professionals.

Robert H. Farley, Jr. writes and publishes on disability and disability law regularly. Below is a sampling of currently available articles and publications.

Click here to view more on our main publications page.

Publications and articles are available for reprint by not-for-profit agencies and parents groups; please see reprint requirements on our publications page.

Workshops, Seminars and Presentations

Robert H. Farley, Jr. is available to speak to parents groups, organizations, and agencies on a wide variety of issues related to disability advocacy and disability services. Popular topics include:

  • Adult Services for Developmentally Disabled Persons
  • Waiting List for Services: Fact or Fiction

Click here to visit our main workshops page.

video snaphot of Mr. Farley speaking

Click here to view video of Mr. Farley's presentation, Obtaining Funding or Services for Children & Adults with DD in the State of Illinois.

ABLE Accounts for Persons with Disabilities

An ABLE Account is not a substitute for a Parent setting up a Special Needs Trust. An ABLE account has a Payback feature which means that upon the passing of the disabled person, before any monies in the account would be paid to the designated beneficiaries on the account, Medicaid would be entitled to be reimbursed for any monies which they paid during the lifetime of the disabled person. If a parent or relative wanted to contribute their own money to benefit the disabled person, then a Special Needs Trust should be set up and there would be no Payback requirement.

An ABLE Account would be appropriate for the disabled person to put his or her own money into this account as these monies will not count towards the $2,000 limit on assets which a disabled person must have in order to qualify for SSI and Medicaid. A disabled person can have up to $100,000 in their ABLE Account and still qualify for SSI.

Mr. Farley is available to meet with you and discuss the appropriate Estate Plan for your disabled child in order to maximize government benefits for your child and discuss upfront what would be the legal fees for the Estate Plan / Special Needs Trust.