M&L Updates

Wednesday, August 21, 2019As an organization that works to serve individuals with disabilities, we feel 100% confident in stating that, as a country, we need to pay more attention to autism. Specifically, we need to work hard to support (i.e. fund) organizations and...

Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), www.ilonow.org. On July 2, 2019 the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that they would be releasing 150 million dollars in funding to help non-elderly individuals with disabilities (aged...

Thursday, June 13, 2019Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org Last year (2018), Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) took part in the nation-wide Bike to the Beach (B2B) for the first time. Three ILO riders, Maedi Tanham Carney, Rip...

We have some very exciting news to share - Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) at the Crossings is in the Washington Post! In an article titled, "On their own, but not alone: How a group of men with autism found an independence their families weren't sure they would...

Friday, May 24, 2019 Our goal at M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC is to help individuals with disabilities lead full, productive and happy lives. We believe that employment is an important part of a full life. It aids independence and integration, and studies have...

Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC Receives 2019 Best of Washington DC Award Washington DC Award Program Honors the Achievement WASHINGTON DC April 15, 2019 -- M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC has been selected for the 2019 Best...

Friday, April 12, 2019Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is an organization dedicated to helping people with disabilities build inclusive and supported communities in which they can live...

Friday, March 29, 2019 Employment for individuals with disabilities is a very important issue. Studies have shown that employment can be vital to psychological health, as well as helping individuals socialize, integrate, and develop further skills. It is also true...

Tuesday, March 20, 2019Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is dedicated to helping self-advocates and their families build supportive communities for adults with disabilities. Our...

Thursday, February 28, 2019 M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC is a company dedicated to helping families with special needs simplify their complicated and complex special needs journeys. As a financial planning company, we pride ourselves on offering services that...

Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org.Integrated Living Opportunities is a non-profit organization that is devoted to helping families with special needs build supportive, integrated communities. These communities enable safe,...

Friday, February 1, 2019United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) is an international organization that provides services and advocacy for adults and children with disabilities. UCP recently released its annual report ranking state performance on services: The Case for Inclusion...

Thursday, January 17, 2019Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities blog, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to helping families with special needs build integrated, sustainable, inclusive communities in...

Thursday, December 20, 2018 Hello everyone! As 2018 draws to a close, all of us here at M&L are eagerly anticipating another fun and enjoyable holiday season. As we celebrate everything that we have accomplished in 2018, we would like to sincerely thank you all...

Tuesday, December 4, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, ilonow.org. Dear ILO Families and Friends, As we enter the holiday season of 2018, ILO is very excited to share new developments in our organization—most of which have come about as a...

Thursday, November 29, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. As 2018 draws to an end, all of us here at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) are busy planning fun, exciting and enriching opportunities for our self-advocates...

Thursday, November 8, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. As an individual with a disability, can where you live have a substantial effect on the types of services you receive? Common sense would say no, but a new report...

Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities website, www.ilonow.org. In the last five years, ILO has grown by leaps and bounds. In that time, we have helped many self-advocates transition from living with family/caregivers to living in their own home. We create...

Friday, October 12, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), www.ilonow.org. ILO Community Group is a coalition of self advocates (individuals with disabilities) that come together to socialize, build relationships, and create personal support networks....

Thursday, September 28, 2018 Shared from Integrated  Living Opportunities (ILO), www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is a non-profit organization that helps individuals with disabilities (self-advocates) and their families build and maintain the...

Friday, September 21, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Fall 2018 officially arrives tomorrow – and it is certainly shaping up to be a busy season at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO). Grab your calendars: we have a...

Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. It is with great privilege that Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) announces our latest fundraising and awareness campaign. We are thrilled to be able to present our ILO families, board...

Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org. In just seven days (August 3), Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) will be teaming up with Bike to the Beach (B2B) for their DC Ride for Autism and Disabilities. ILO Founder and CEO Maedi Tanham...

Thursday, July 19, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. If you are a regular visitor to our website, you may have noticed a few changes when you visited our blog post today. In fact, you may have noticed a lot of changes!...

Monday, July 9, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities website, www.ilonow.org. ILO is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to creating communities in which individuals with disabilities can live as independently as they choose, supported according to...

Thursday, June 21, 2018 For most families, saving appropriately for post secondary education is a challenge. The cost of raising children, paying mortgages, and saving for retirement doesn’t leave much room for adding a college savings account into the financial plan....

Wednesday, June 14, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Over the course of the last four years, Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) has been working hard to create communities in which adults with disabilities can live as...

Friday, May 25, 2018 M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC is a business that focuses on helping individuals with disabilities build successful, independent, inclusive futures. Our services help families prepare for all aspects of their special needs journey, including...

Thursday May 9, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org Mark your calendars – it is time for Integrated Living Opportunities’ (ILO) 2nd annual Bike, Hike & BBQ! This year’s fun-raising event will take place Saturday, May 26th...

Thursday, April 26, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org. Language is important. We use language to connect and to communicate, to identify and to explain. Language allows us to dream, to invent, to innovate and to improve....

Thursday, April 12, 2018 At M&L Special Needs Planning, we are first and foremost devoted to helping individuals with disabilities (and their families) plan for all stages of their special needs journey. We help individuals handle the financial aspects of their...

Thursday, March 29, 2018 A couple of weeks ago, we published a blog titled December 2017 Jobs Report: Year-end Job Numbers Cap Record Year for Americans with Disabilities. The title of the blog is self explanatory – last year, more individuals with disabilities...

Monday, March 19, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org. At our core, Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is a community. The concept of community - in philosophy and in practice - is at the root of everything we do. As an...

Thursday, March 8, 2018 Employment for individuals with disabilities is a very important issue. Employment can be crucial for psychological health, and is also be beneficial in aiding socialization, integration, and the development of skills. It is also true that for...

Thursday, March 1, 2018 Written by Barbara Goldschmidt, shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' blog. The Twitter feed was #sexEd4all.  And more than 150 people—government employees, teachers, non-profit advocates, parents, and students—had gathered for the...

Thursday, February 15, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is an organization dedicated to helping individuals with disabilities (self-advocates) and their families (participating family...

Thursday, February 1, 2018 Oftentimes, caring for a family member with a disability or a special healthcare need can be exhausting – mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially. As caregivers, we have all experienced overwhelming tiredness that comes from...

Thursday, January 17, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is dedicated to helping self advocates and their families build supported, inclusive communities that are fully integrated into...

Friday, January 5, 2018 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog. On behalf of everyone at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), we would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. 2017 was an...

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. As a non-profit dedicated to building supported communities for adults with disabilities, Integrated Living Opportunities’ (ILO) number one priority is to ensure...

Thursday, December 7, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is a non-profit organization devoted to helping families build integrated, supported communities that enable safe, productive,...

Monday, November 27, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. At Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), we are dedicated to helping self-advocates and their families create communities in which adults with disabilities can live...

Thursday, November 9, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) blog, www.ilonow.org. At Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), “community” – as a philosophy, as a practice, and as a goal – is the driving force behind everything we do. We consider ILO to...

Saturday, October 28, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) blog, www.ilonow.org. Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog! As family members, friends, colleagues and peers of individuals with disabilities, we have long been aware of the ABLE account...

Thursday, September 28, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog! Today we have a very exciting announcement to make: on October 2, 2017 Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) will be...

Thursday, September 14, 2017 Parents and caregivers of individuals with disabilities often carry heavy loads. From the very first steps of the special needs journey, parents are faced with an overload of information. They are responsible for making huge decisions that...

Friday, September 1, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities is a 501c3 certified non-profit organization. We are dedicated to creating supported, integrated and inclusive communities in which...

Friday, August 18, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Here at ILO, we organize and host regular updates and information sessions for members, community partners, and potential participating families. During these sessions,...

Thursday, August 3, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Here at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), we are all parents, family members, and friends of individuals with disabilities. We are dedicated to creating supported...

Thursday, July 20, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! Today, we would like to devote our blog to a topic that can be one of stress for many families with special needs –...

Thursday, July 13, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' (ILO) blog, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is a non-profit organization that is devoted to helping families with special needs build supported, integrated communities that...

Thursday, July 6, 2017 It has been a very busy and rewarding couple of months here at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO). Just a few short weeks ago (June 2017), we hosted a new training session, welcoming five new families into the ILO network. ILO board members,...

Thursday, June 22, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' blog (www.ilonow.org). Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog. Today, we are proud to announce that Integrated Living Opportunities is growing: last week (June 15 & 16, 2017) ILO hosted the...

Please come listen to our exciting progress! An Update on Our Non-Profit Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO): Where are we today? How do you get Involved? Where are we Going and ILO's new monthly educational and social events for all ages. Thursday July 20th, 2017...

Thursday, June 8, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) website, www.ilonow.org. Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is a 501c3 certified non-profit that serves individuals with disabilities and their families in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan...

Thursday, May 15th, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities website, www.ilonow.org. Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog. This past weekend (May 21st, 2017), ILO hosted its very first Bike and Hike Fundraiser. The ILO Bike/Hike “fun” raiser at the...

Thursday, May 11, 2017 Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog! Today, we would like to share a post from our community building non-profit, Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO). The post discusses Main Street - a new independent living option for adults with...

Thursday, April 26, 2017 Topic shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) Here at M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC, employment for individuals with disabilities is a very important issue. We believe that employment can be crucial for psychological health, as...

Thursday, April 13, 2017 Shared from Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog! We appreciate that you took the time from your busy schedule to check in with the latest happenings at Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO). Today, we...

Thursday, March 23, 2017 As parents, we all must face the fact that one day soon (often much sooner than we would like) our children will be adults. For persons with special needs, this progression from childhood into the adult world can be complicated. Issues such as...

Thursday, March 16, 2016 Hello everyone and welcome to our blog! Today, we would like to share some thrilling news with you – as of last month, M&L's community building non-profit Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) has entered into a new community partnership....

Thursday, February 23, 2017 Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! For today's blog post (which has been shared from Integrated Living Opportunities' website, www.ilonow.org), we would like to take the opportunity to congratulate Debbie Fickenscher on...

Wednesday, February 15, 2017 Hello everyone, and welcome to the blog this week! Today we would like to share with you a post written by ILO Participating Family Member, Barbara Goldschmidt. In this post, Barbara shares her thoughts on and research into love, emotional...

Thursday, February 2, 2017 As parents of individuals with disabilities, we all worry for the future of our children. We are united in our anxiety about what will happen to our family members with disabilities when we are gone. And, as a community of parents of...

Friday, January 20, 2017 Hello everyone and welcome back to our blog this week! Thank you all for taking the time to visit our website today. If you are a regular visitor to our blog, you may have heard of our community building non-profit, Integrated Living...

Thursday, January 5, 2017 Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog! Thanks for taking the time to visit our website today. As you all know, M&L's non-profit, Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO) is dedicated to building intentional, integrated and inclusive...

Thursday, December 29, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome to our blog today! From all of us here at M&L, Happy Holidays! We hope that you are enjoying a relaxing and joyous holiday season with family and friends. As the past year draws to a close, we would like to...

Thursday, December 15, 2016 Hello everyone and welcome back to our blog today! We appreciate you taking time out of busy schedules to visit our website. At M&L, we recognize the importance of employment in emotional, financial and social success. A significant...

At M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC we are committed to helping individuals with disabilities plan for and lead independent, successful fulfilled lives.  As special needs life and financial planner, we recognize that an important part of independent living and...

Thursday, December 1, 2016 Hello everyone, and thanks for visiting our blog this week. Today we are very excited to share some incredible news from our community building non-profit, Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO). (Note: For those of you that may not be...

Saturday, November 26, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! We appreciate that you have taken the time to visit our website today. The last year and a half has been trying for the American people. The 2016 presidential election was a...

Sunday, November 13, 2016 Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead Hello everyone and welcome to our blog this week! We appreciate the time you spend browsing our website....

Thursday, November 3, 2016 As parents of individuals with a disability, we know all too well how challenging and time consuming it can be to meet their needs – whether medical, emotional, academic, or financial. It is common for parents to feel overwhelmed, stressed,...

Thursday, October 20, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! Thanks to all for taking the time to visit our website again. As you may know, M&L owner and founder Maedi Tanham Carney is the founder, President, and CEO of a community building...

Thursday, October 13, 2016 United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) is an international organization that provides services and advocacy for adults and children with disabilities. UCP recently released its annual report ranking state performance on services: The Case for Inclusion...

Thursday, September 29, 2016 As interesting as it was to watch the first presidential debate between Trump and Clinton (regardless of your political affiliation), I think as parents and family members of individuals with special needs, we can all agree on one thing:...

Thursday September 22, 2016 At M&L Special Needs Planning, we fully recognized the essential role that advocacy/self advocacy can play in ensuring our family members with disabilities receive the services and supports needed to live quality lives. As parents and...

Thursday, September 15, 2016 “No doctor can write a prescription for friendship or love.” Bessel van der Kolk, MD When you build a bridge you should expect some heavy lifting. Physical or mental, what does it matter? Helping our adult children establish independent...

Friday, September 9th, 2016 Here at M&L Special Needs Planning, we know that being a parent of a child with special needs can be overwhelming and exhausting. From the very first steps of the special needs journey, parents are faced with an overload of information....

Thursday, September 1st, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! As much as it pains us to admit it, summer is winding down. And, with the end of August comes the last long weekend of the season – Labor Day. In honor of the last summer celebration...

Friday, August 26, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We are so happy that you could take the time out of your busy schedules to visit our website. Today we would like to share an exciting event that M&L's community building non-profit,...

Thursday, August 18, 2016 As parents/family members/guardians of individuals with disabilities, many of us has already or will experience the application process (and sometimes excruciating wait times) for obtaining adult supports and services for our family members...

Saturday, August 8, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! Thank you all for taking the time to visit our website. As parents of individuals with disabilities, we are all familiar with the on-going struggle to help our children be the best that...

Thursday, July 28 2016 As you are all aware, M&L’s non-profit ILO is an organization dedicated to building intentional communities for adults with disabilities – inclusive, integrated communities built on networks of support. These networks are connected to the...

Thursday, July 21, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! Thank you all so much for dropping by today – we are so happy that did you, particularly because we have exciting news to share: M&L’s community building non-profit, ILO, is now...

Thursday, July 14, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! Today we will be focusing our attention on a topic that we have discussed numerous times on this blog: the ABLE Account. We keep returning to this topic because we feel that it is vitally...

Thursday, July 7, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's blog post! Today, we are fortunate enough to be able to feature another article written by ILO Participating Family Member Barbara Goldschmidt. Barbara has written a number of pieces for M&L over...

Saturday, July 2, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome to our post! As you may all know, we usually post our weekly blog on Thursday, but today we have a very special event to share with you all – ILO board member Chris Snowber and his daugter, self-advocate Iya, are...

Thursday, June 9, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! As financial planning experts, M&L staff all agree that the Special Needs Trust (SNT) is perhaps one of the most useful and essential components of a well-rounded special needs...

Friday, June 2, 2016 Individuals with disabilities face many challenges when it comes to post-secondary education. Experts in the disability field, as well as professors, special needs educators, and students themselves, identify obstacles such as poor study skills,...

Thursday, May 26th 2016 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog this week! A few weeks ago we wrote and published a blog titled Supported Decision Making: A Discussion. In that blog, we focused on Supported Decision Making (SDM) as a newly emerging legal method of...

Thursday, May 19th, 2016 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog today! Thank you all for taking the time to visit us this week. In today’s blog post, we would like to take the opportunity to reflect on the incredible progress that Integrated Living Opportunities...

Thursday, May 12, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! Today, we are very lucky to be able to share with you another post from ILO Participating Family member Barbara Goldschmidt. Today, Barbara writes about the importance of caring for...

Thursday, April 28th, 2016 As parents, we inherit many responsibilities when we bring a child into the world. We must feed, clothe, and care for our children; provide emotional support, love, and security. We guide them through their childhood and provide them with...

Thursday April 7th, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We are happy that you have taken time out of your busy schedule to join us. As our regular visitors may be aware, a few weeks ago M&L staff wrote and published a blog on a very...

Thursday, March 24th 2016 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog today! We hope you are all enjoying these early days of spring – we certainly are. A few weeks ago, ILO Participating Family member Barbara Goldschmidt wrote a blog titled What it Takes to Weave...

Friday, March 18, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We are so happy that you could join us today, as we are going to focus on a very important report that was recently released by United Cerebral Palsy: The Case for Inclusion 2015. This...

Thursday, February 25, 2016 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog this week! Today, we have something a little different to share with you - in advance of the official launch of Integrated Living Opportunities' website, we have decided to post a blog that was...

Thursday, February 11th, 2016 Here at M&L, we know that working is important. Employment provides us with the means of supporting ourselves, and allows us to becoming contributing members of society. In addition to being financially essential (for most people),...

Friday, February 5th, 2016 Good evening everyone, and welcome back to the blog today! As I’m sure you are all aware, this past week has been a busy one in the world of US politics. Like every American, the staff of M&L are closely following the progress of each...

Life Sharing: A Discussion Thursday, January 28th, 2016 Good evening everyone, and welcome back to the blog today! We hope that you have all had a productive week and, as always, we would like to thank you for taking the time to visit our website. Here at M&L, as...

Friday, January 22nd, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back this week! As you all know, the staff at M&L wear many hats; we are professionals in the special needs financial and life planning fields, president & participating family members of our community...

Thursday, January 14th, 2016 Good morning everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! Thanks for visiting us again today – we really appreciate that you take the time out of your busy schedule to drop by. Those of you that have been visiting our website and...

Friday, Jan 8th, 2015 Good morning everyone, and welcome to our first blog post of 2016! On behalf of everyone here at M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC, we would like to wish you a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year. We would also like to thank you for your...

Thursday, December 31st, 2015 Hello everyone, and welcome back to our blog this week! We hope that you have having an excellent holiday, surrounded by family, friends, happiness and joy. From all of us here at M&L we would also like to wish all our clients,...

Thursday, December 17th, 2015 As special needs planning professionals and parents of children with special needs, the staff at M&L receives and reads many articles, studies and reports related to special needs parenting/planning issues. We make it our priority to...

Saturday, December 12th, 2015 On Thursday, February 19th of this year the staff of M&L published a blog titled, “Adult Children with Disabilities: Who will care for them after we are gone?” The blog, inspired by an article in the Chicago Tribune, took a look at...

December 3rd, 2016 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We hope that you all had a happy and a healthy Thanksgiving break. We almost can’t believe how fast this year has been going – it is amazing that we are a couple of short weeks away from the...

Thursday, November 26th 2015 Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog this week! We hope that you are all having a fabulous fall, and are spending this holiday weekend celebrating with family and friends. From all of us here at M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC,...

Thursday, October 15th, 2015 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog today!! We hope that you are all having an excellent week. A few weeks ago, we wrote and published a blog about the latest progress with ILO, and our community building work in Maryland and...

Thursday September 10, 2015 As parents of children with special needs, we spend a fair amount of time worrying and wondering about how we can ensure that our children have successful, happy and productive futures. At M&L, as parents of children with special needs...

Thursday, August 20th, 2015 As many of our regular readers know, M&L and a group of committed individuals have banded together to create Integrated Living Opportunities (ILO), a 501c3 certified non-profit organization. ILO facilitates the creation of communities...

Integrated Living Opportunities: Building Long Term Communities for Individuals with Special Needs Friday, August 7th, 2015 Making the decision to help your family member with special needs achieve independent living is not an easy task. Although we all want our...

Thursday, July 16th, 2015 It is our hope that most (if not all) families with special needs have become familiar with the recently passed ABLE act, and are aware of the financial benefits that this act may provide for individuals with disability. Here at M&L, we...

Health economists have for the first time projected the total costs of caring for all people with autism spectrum disorder in the United States for the current calendar year and in 10 years if effective interventions and preventive treatments for the condition are not...

Health economists have for the first time projected the total costs of caring for all people with autism spectrum disorder in the United States for the current calendar year and in 10 years if effective interventions and preventive treatments for the condition are not...

Thursday, July 23rd, 2015 Over the last few decades in the United States, disability advocates have been working tirelessly to protect and advance the rights of individuals with disabilities. Two examples of this work include 1973’s Rehabilitation Act, which states,...

Thursday, July 16th, 2015 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We hope that last week’s post, Can My Family Member with Disability Afford Independent Living, proved informative, and inspired you and your family member with special needs to consider...

Sunday, July 12th, 2015 Hello everyone! We hope that you are all having a fantastic weekend! Today, we would like to publish a special post to let you all know about an incredible conference happening this September, in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore metropolitan...

Thursday, July 9th, 2015 There is no question about it: independent living is expensive. It is no surprise that when many families begin thinking about helping their family member with disability achieve independent living, their first question is, “can we afford...

Thursday, June 25th, 2015 Hello everyone, and thanks for visiting our blog this week! Regular readers may have noticed that over the last couple of months, we have been using our blog to write about updates that are occurring with our non-profit, Integrated Living...

Thursday, June 11th, 2015 Here at M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC, we make it our goal to help our clients, family members and friends with disability build successful, happy, fulfilling futures for themselves and their family members. We aim to accomplish this...

Thursday, May 28th, 2015 It is no secret that housing for Americans with disability is in a crisis mode; as more and more individuals with disabilities age into adulthood (more than 500,000 individuals with ASD in the next decade alone), the already scarce housing...

Thursday, April 23rd 2015 At M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC, we are both professionals in the special needs community and parents of children with disability. We have been the advice-givers as well as the decision makers; we have watched parents struggle with...

Thursday, April 2nd 2015 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We hope that you are all heading into this holiday weekend happy, healthy, and with the company of family and friends. Regular readers of our blog will have noticed that Thursday past we...

March 26th, 2015 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! We love writing and publishing these weekly posts, and we hope that each time you visit us you take away some valuable information relevant to special needs financial and life planning. If at any...

Thursday, March 19th 2015 Over the last few weeks, we have spent a lot of time discussing independent living for individuals with special needs. Last week, for example, we focused on some incredible intentional communities that are being developed in Florida – these...

Thursday, March 12th, 2015 If you are a parent of a child with special needs, you have no doubt thought of what will happen to your child when they age into adulthood, i.e. “Where will my child live? Where will he/she work? Will there be happiness and fulfillment in...

Thursday, March 5th 2015 At M&L Special Needs Planning, LLC, we understand the importance of securing government benefits for your family member with special needs. We know that these benefits and the accompanying health care services are essential to the...

Thursday, February 26th, 2015 Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog this week! Today, we would like to revisit our most recent New Futures Initiative™ training session, and focus on our progress to date with the housing development projects taking place in...

Thursday, February 19th, 2015 Recently, the staff of M&L was made aware of a terrible tragedy that took place in West Elmhurst, Chicago. On August 30th, 2014, 82-year-old Frank Stack shot and killed his wife (who was also 82 and suffering from cancer) and his two...

Last week, M&L founder/owner Maedi Tanham Carney CFP®, CWIC and a group of 9 families travelled to Evanston, Illinois to take part in the New Futures Initiative™ training with Center for Independent Futures (CIF). As those of you who are familiar with our housing...

Thursday, February 5th, 2015 Today, we are going to talk about something that is very near and dear to the hearts of parents of children with disabilities – services and supports. Without the valuable help of medical professionals, special needs educators, respite...

September 11th, 2014 Every day, M&L staff comb through Internet news sites, press releases, media alerts and government websites to look for articles to share with our readers, clients, friends, and family. Those of you who subscribe to our social media feeds will...

September 4th, 2014 Hello everyone! Welcome to back to school week! Over the last few weeks, as the media and retailers begin their inevitable “back to school” coverage and campaigns, the staff of M&L has had some time to reflect on how this time of year can...

Friday, August 29th, 2014 Over the last year or so, readers of this blog, friends, family and clients have surely heard M&L discuss (often in great detail) the special needs housing crisis. As anyone who works in the housing industry, or has a child/loved one with...