After a decade of lobbying Congress, advocates for people with disabilities and special needs are abuzz about new tax-advantaged savings accounts established by law under the ABLE Act (it stands for “Achieving a Better Life Experience.”) But reactions are lukewarm from advisors who concentrate on the community of the handicapped and people with mental or psychological disabilities.

“The special needs community is desperate for tools we can use,” says Cynthia Haddad, a director at Special Needs Financial Planning, a division of Winchester, Mass.-based Shepherd Financial Partners. “Emotionally, this is very exciting. Will we let our clients know they can open up an account? Absolutely. Will we encourage them to hurry up and try to fund them? No. We’ll work on a case-by-case basis and look at the abilities and needs of the families we’re working with.”

Passed in December 2014, the ABLE Act establishes a “529A” plan—modeled on 529 education savings plans—that allows tax-free growth and disbursements for families whose members have disabilities or other special needs.

“The law is going to allow parents to have an account in a special needs person’s name,” says H. Mark Friese, senior vice president at the Washington, D.C.-based Menick-Friese Group of Merrill Lynch. “A lot of families are going to treat it like a checking account, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”

For approximately 6 million disabled Americans, ABLE accounts may provide dignity. Means testing for Medicaid and the Supplemental Security Income programs limit individuals with disabilities to $2,000 in assets. If that total is exceeded, they lose their benefits.

“People with disabilities cannot save for themselves, but not all of them are unemployable,” says John Nadworny, another director at Special Needs Financial Planning. “If individuals can’t save money in their own bank accounts because of this $2,000 asset tax, they’re almost forced into dependence.”

ABLE accounts, like special needs trusts, shelter assets from Medicaid’s calculations. Families can save up to $14,000 annually, the current gift exclusion amount, and accrue a total of $100,000 before federal benefits are affected. Unlike most special needs trusts, the accounts are controlled by the beneficiary.

Distributions for as-yet-undefined qualified disability expenses, including education, transportation, health care, training, financial management, employment and certain housing costs, are tax-free. If ABLE funds are disbursed for non-qualified expenses, they’re subject to a 10 percent tax.

Unlike education 529s, where account holders report qualified expenses when filing their taxes, the ABLE Act asks states to make that determination, which could require another level of bureaucracy.

“That leads to another problem: I think there will be a lot of very small accounts,” says Stuart Flaum, managing director of New York-based Special Needs Family Planning. “With all of the requirements for reporting, they’re going to be expensive to maintain.”

As of September 23, 40 states had ABLE Act legislation passed or pending, with most expecting to roll out the accounts in 2016.

“Someone has to set up these accounts and make them cost-effective,” says Jamie Canup, a partner at Richmond, Va.-based law firm Hirschler Fleischer. “I wonder how much the states will charge people for the benefit of tax-free growth, and whether those fees will eat up any benefits the tax protection might provide.”

Another thing that might make families think twice before opening an ABLE account: Any money left over after a beneficiary’s death is used to reimburse Medicaid for his or her lifetime expenses.

“That is probably going to have a chilling effect on the amount of money people put into these accounts,” Canup says. “The accounts might be used to buy a car or house or special equipment, but I can’t see families leaving money in them for any extended period of time.”

“They took away a major advantage of these accounts when they added a payback provision,” Nadworny says. “With an IRA, any other beneficiary would get the money. From a cynical view, you could almost look at this as a loan where the government has first lien on the assets. If I’m under the income limits of a Roth IRA, I would put money into the Roth: It gives all the tax advantages, and the beneficiary would be the child or a special needs trust. I don’t see the benefits of the ABLE account over the Roth account.”

The alternative to an ABLE account are special needs trusts. These can shelter more assets, and the disbursements are not limited to “qualified expenses.” But there are steep legal costs that come with establishing and maintaining them. ABLE accounts are something of an equalizer because they offer an alternative for middle- and lower-income families unable to fund a trust.

“This account comes in at a time when there’s never been a tax-advantaged savings opportunity for the special needs community,” says Mike Walther, president of Deerfield, Ill.-based Oak Wealth Advisors. “In some of the high-tax states, this could be an additional benefit as a planning tool because you could put less tax-efficient assets into an ABLE account.”

Families may compromise between the two approaches—using ABLE accounts for day-to-day needs and special needs trusts for larger, long-term assets.

Unlike traditional 529s, whose time lines generally hinge on a beneficiary’s college education, ABLE accounts can last a lifetime. Beneficiaries can take frequent, regular disbursements—though that kind of use would neuter the accounts’ tax benefits.

“When a family realizes that they have a special needs child, they aren’t going to wait 20 years for their assets to grow,” says Flaum. “These people generally need that money now. They need services now because early intervention is so important. I think the accounts missed how families are allocating their resources, especially in the middle class.”

Congress may also have failed to consider the potential unintended consequences of the act, Flaum says.

“I’m concerned that people will see this as a middle class special needs financial plan,” Flaum says. “It might enable people postponing planning to postpone more because they are more confused, or because they don’t think that planning can be done at a lower entry level or inexpensively. You might have people who fail to craft an estate plan. I see potential problems down the road.”