Missouri State Treasurer Vivek Malek visited Warrenton Sept. 1, making stops at the Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce and Warren County Pathfinders to promote the MO ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) program, which provides tax-advantaged savings accounts for people with disabilities.
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Missouri State Treasurer Vivek Malek visited Warrenton Sept. 1, making stops at the Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce and Warren County Pathfinders to promote the MO ABLE (Achieving a Better Life Experience) program, which provides tax-advantaged savings accounts for people with disabilities.
Malek said MO ABLE accounts work similar to Trump Accounts, which were created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. All children born between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2028 are eligible for a one-time federal grant of $1,000 toward their Trump Account, Malek noted. Parents or others can make additional after-tax contributions of up to $5,000 a year to a child’s Trump Account until the year the child reaches age 18.
The MO ABLE program’s STABLE accounts, first introduced in 2017, are similar to Trump accounts in that they serve as tax-advantaged savings accounts for those eligible for them.
“Generally when people have a disability and they are taking Social Security and disability benefits, they’re restricted to only having a few thousand dollars in their account. Beyond that, they will suspend your SSI benefits,” Malek said.
“So what MO ABLE does is it gives you a path to circle around all that, and you can have $100,000 in your account and your benefits won’t be touched.”
Those with STABLE accounts can use their funds just like they would a checking account.
“You can use it for living expenses, for transportation, for learning things, for education. Even I say you can take the MO ABLE funds in your account for a vacation as long as your doctor will say you need a change of environment for your wellbeing,” Malek said.
Calling Warren County Pathfinders “one of the great organizations here in Warren County” and noting that the nonprofit is expanding, Malek said Pathfinders can help spread the word about MO ABLE’s STABLE accounts.
“And we just want you to be our eyes and ears for this as well, to take the message to the community, because anything that comes from the government, always there’s a skepticism, like ‘I don’t know if I want to trust this or not,’ but when it comes from a trusted source like you, and people that they can listen to and trust, I think that’s when people say ‘OK, this is a good program, I should look into it and maybe think about it,’” he said.
“We have grown the program just in the last year to about 1,800 additional accounts, adding about $15 million to the value,” he added.
Warren County Pathfinders Co-Chief Executive Officer Kelli Clodfelter said the information Malek provided was helpful.
“We definitely would utilize the services. We have many families that do utilize these services,” she said, “so it was really nice to get some feedback from it, just to kind of reassure us on how to present it, so folks realize that this isn’t going to affect their Social Security, which is one of the biggest things that we look at for our individuals we serve.”
