<p>My D has a 529 Fund in the amount of about $130K in additon, she has a savings account totaling $20+K, she is denied FA from all schools she had applied to, even though right now we do not have high income. Any suggestions to get FA in the future? She will attend U of Chicago and it costs roughly $60K/year...</p>
<p>Can you explain what the dilemma is, in your eyes? (not being snarky, just need more info)</p>
<p>Your daughter’s savings account is assessed at a higher percentage (20%) than her 529 (5.6%) by the FAFSA formula. So savings adds $4000 to her EFC, while the 529 account adds $7280. One approach would be to spend the entire savings account on her first year of college, which will reduce her EFC next year by $4000. Without more details on your income and other assets, it’s hard to know what else to suggest. Does Chicago have their own EFC calculator on their website that you can use to run various other scenarios through?</p>
<p>Usually 529s are parent-owned with a child as beneficiary, and are counted as parental assets, which are not assessed as heavily as student assets in FA calculations. Did you correctly indicate the owner?</p>
<p>On SA-170A we had $136,000, that is the total amount of her 529 fund.</p>
<p>I am sure with our savings and others (no real estate), we are not qualified for any need based FA. I, however, would like to plan a future FA possibility as she is attending freshmen this year. Should I use up all the 529 and her own savings in the first two years of attending and get FA afterwards?</p>
<p>My income is not stable, one year I could make a lot of money, none for another. My wife’s income is around $65K.</p>
<p>It seems a bit risky to burn through all your D’s savings in the first 2 years without having a plan for years 3 and 4. As I pointed out above, the $130K in the 529 account only adds about $7300 to your daughter’s calculated expected family contribution (EFC). If that $130K and the $20K in savings are gone, as they would mostly be in year 3, your EFC would only be reduced by $11,300 ($7300 + $4000). Do you know what your current EFC is? Even if Chicago comes up with $11,300 in need-based aid, how will you come up with the additional $49K you need to pay in years 3 and 4?</p>
<p>–</p>
<h2>What is the description of SA-170, by the way?</h2>
<p>edited to look it up:</p>
<p>Enter the total amount of all the trusts of which you are a beneficiary. If you do not or will not benefit from a trust, enter zero (0) and skip the next two questions. (SA-170)</p>
<p>This is the wrong place to enter your daughter’s 529 amount! All parent-owned and child-owned 529s are reported as parent assets on the FAFSA. You need to correct this as it’s probably the cause of your high EFC.</p>
<p>^^^That was my thought as well. </p>
<p>But it sounds like perhaps current parental income and assets will preclude need based FA this year even with correctly reporting the 529 under parental assets.</p>
<p>Jacwan…as noted above…check to see that the 529 was noted in the proper place on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>There seems to be some very important missing information here. You say your daughter was “denied aid” everywhere but you only mention the 529 and her savings. You don’t mention your family INCOME which is a very big item in the financial aid calculations. Your (the parent’s) family income from 2009 is what would have been used to calculate your FAFSA EFC…and in the case of Profile schools, that income would also have been used to calculate the schools awarding of institutional aid.</p>
<p>Just your daughter’s 529 would have made her ineligible for federally funded need based aid. BUT your income very well could be the reason the schools “denied” the awarding of institutional need based aid.</p>
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<p>So…what was YOUR income in 2009? What was the total you and your wife earned in 2009?</p>
<p>If you entered your daughter’s 529 in a field on FAFSA that’s meant for student assets rather than parent assets, it would have incorrectly added $19,584 to your EFC, all other things being equal.</p>
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<p>Agreed…but even adding that to the EFC above would NOT equal the cost of attendance at UChi. It sounds like the family income in 2009 was sufficiently high that this student didn’t qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>Also…the OP says HIS income fluctuates from NOTHING to a LOT from year to year. If this OP is self employed (is that possible?) then the assets of the “business” might also be considered by some schools using the Profile.</p>
<p>To the OP…if you don’t think you will be able to afford U of Chicago for the four years, perhaps you should also be considering more affordable options.</p>
<p>^ agreed … the only thing I would add since we have so little background … if the student does not have immedaite plans for grad school then the fmaily already has about 2 1/2 years of UC covered with the 529 and the student’s saving … I understand they would like to get some FA but I’d think the money in an education fund would be used for education … so the financial question seems to be can the parents (or will the parents cover) about 1 1/2 years of UC … pursuing FA is a worthy quest but if they can not get any can they afford the $90k?</p>
<p>rathole question from the FAFSA naive … if there is a 529 plan account in the student’s name does that go into the FAFSA EFC calcualtion? … does it assume 1/4 of the 529 will be used each year (or something similar)?</p>
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<p>Yes, it is reported as a parent asset.</p>
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<p>No, only student assets are assessed at 20%/year. Parent assets, including 529s in the parents’ or student’s names, are assesed at a rate of 5.6%/year by FAFSA.</p>
<p>^ thanks … I’m surprised they are treated the same as other assets … I would have guessed they would be treated more harshly</p>
<p>^Because they are parent -owned, and the child is the benefactor. I have heard that there are relatively few that are child-owned, and they would have to be declared as student assets. And if a grandparent owns a 529, there’s no impact on FA.</p>
<p>My kids both have child-owned 529s, funded with money transferred from their UTMAs. This is the only legal way to convert UTMA money to a 529; a direct transfer to a child-owned 529, with the accounts titled in the same name. The child is both the owner and the beneficiary, with the parent as custodian. The money cannot be transferred to other children, as is possible with parent-owned 529s. Child-owned 529s are declared as parent assets on FAFSA.</p>
<p>^^^thanks for the correction vbm! I had heard otherwise in the past, so this is good to know from someone who actually HAS a child owned 529.</p>
<p>You’re welcome! I know it’s pretty uncommon, and I only learned about child-owned 529s myself after reading about them on this forum a couple of years ago. :)</p>