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• Asset Development is buying a home, investing in a business, learning a new skill or putting aside money in a savings account for emergencies.
• Provides long term benefits.
• Assets are usually thought of as economic resources: Assets are anything that can be turned into cash(minus the debt).
• A home, a business, a car, a computer or a saving account is an asset.
• Assets can also be human resources: Skills or education can be considered assets though in this presentation we will focus on the economic type.

Asset development is:
“Saving money and making investments that increase in value over time”.
“As individuals develop assets, they and their families will be more able to move out of poverty”.
Task Force on Financial Literacy, 2010 http://www.disability.gov/community_life/independent
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1. Increases your chances to stay where you live
2. Helps you think positively about your future
3. Enables you to stick to a career choice
4. Helps you get better terms from the bank
5. Provides a foundation for risk taking
6. Increases your ability to make choices
7. Improves the wellbeing of children
8. Increases community connections
9. Increases political participation
(Michael Sherraden, 2005).
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1. Social Security
– Social Security Work Incentives
– Plans for Achieve in Self-Support (PASS)
– Property Essential to Self-Support (PESS)
2. Internal Revenue Service
– Earned Income Tax Credits
3. Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority
– Individual Development Accounts (IDA’s)
4. Trust funds
– Private Trusts
– ARC Master Trust
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• Homestead Acts (not good for everyone)
• G.I. Bills
• Home interest mortgage deduction
• Tax shelters for retirement savings
• Individual Tax deductions
• Business Tax deductions
• Trusts

Currently existing programs that can help individuals with disabilities such as Social Security Work Incentives, Individual
Development Accounts (IDA’s) and the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC) are highly underutilized.
“Asset building is an anti-poverty strategy that helps low-income people move toward greater self-sufficiency by accumulating savings and purchasing long-term assets. Helping people purchase an asset, as opposed to simply increasing their income, provides stability that may allow them to escape the cycle of poverty.”
Assets for Independence/Administration for Children and Families

Financial Literacy is a large body of information about finances. One of the parts is Asset
Development.
Asset Development
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• Contact your local Indiana United Way
(317) 923-2377
• Contact your local Community Action Program (CAP)
(317) 638.4232 or 1.800.382.9895
• Contact the local Purdue Extension office
(765) 494-8491
 Contact the Indiana Housing and Community
Development Authority
(800) 872-0371
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•
Indiana Institute on Disability and Community-Benefits Management http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/index.php?pageId=18
• Individual Development Accounts (IDA’s)
Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority http://www.in.gov/ihcda/
•
National Disability Institute http://www.realeconomicimpact.org/
Self Sufficiency Programs
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) local offices Development http://www.hud.gov/local/index.cfm?topic=offices&state=in
• Social Security http://www.ssa.gov/disabilityresearch/wi/detailedinfo.htm
•
Southern Indiana WIPA http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/disabilitybenefitsandwork/workincentivescoordinators.htm