<p>A parent called me yesterday who was concerned about her daughter's FA award. What it came down to, of course, was that she felt the college expected too much money from them.</p>
<p>(Her daughter received a need-based grant from a private school. At first the school gave her one amount, but then reduced the amount upon review of the family's IDOC materials.)</p>
<p>She has a small business, and she had a question I didn't have a clue about. Maybe someone else here will. She has some real estate and also gets some rental income, and she was wondering if she created an LLC for her business, and transferred the real estate to the LLC, would those assets and the income they produce then stop showing up as assets and/or income on her CSS Profile?</p>
<p>I think as long as she owns her own business, that she will have to fill out a “Business Farm Supplement” through the CSS PROFILE. That supplement does ask about what type of business it is, like “Sole Proprietorship” “LLC” etc.</p>
<p>I found this thread to be interesting, and git me thinking.</p>
<p>Can anyone comment on how the value of a family business factors into the EFC calculation as compared to a “regular” parental asset?</p>
<p>Also, as I understand things, you only use the CSS Profile upon application to schools, and that in subsequent years the Profile is not used. But the school will use it’s own supplemental form to get at similar info. Is that correct?</p>
<p>A Profile school will probably require the Profile for all 4 years, depends on the school. </p>
<p>Some schools don’t require the Profile, but may have their own FA form which asks all “Profile type” questions like ages of the applicant’s siblings, what you owe on your home, market value of your home, value of your business etc. </p>
<p>Buy “Paying for College Without Going Broke” by Kalman Chany, Princeton Review. </p>
<p>Try and buy the 2010 Edition as the IM (Institutional Methodology) is discussed & how your EFC would be calculated. The 2011 Edition does not have the IM & how it is calculated. The Collegeboard refused to give Kalman Chany the information for his 2011 Edition. You might be able to find the 2010 Edition on Amazon.</p>
<p>I agree that you should get as much info as possible and ask for help from individual PROFILE financial aid offices on an off time. However, bear in mind that schools can look at this sort of thing differntly even within the same school. There is a thread here with an article as to how Occidental looks at financial aid appeals, and you can see some of this variance and the scenarios are less complex than yours.</p>
<p>A friend of mine is still fuming about how Harvard unfairly denied his son a dime during his stint there do to the way his business and investments are configured. It was their call, and that was it. Some years later, Kenyon, gave it a favorable outlook and their D got fina aid. And no one would consider the latter school more generous than the former.</p>
<p>It all depends. Our kids BOTH attended Profile schools. For DS’s school…students were required to file both FAFSA and Profile ANNUALLY FOR NEED BASED AID…but they did NOT have to do Profile after the first year for renewal of MERIT aid.</p>
<p>DD’s school required both the Profile AND FAFSA annually for any kind of aid renewal…merit or need based.</p>
<p>You need to check YOUR school’s requirements for financial aid renewal forms. This varies from place to place.</p>
<p>Thank you for the feedback. I have very simple finances, and most of the kids I help do to, so I was clueless about this woman’s questions about her business and a possible LLC, etc.</p>
<p>I’ve never had to work directly with anything other than wage income and some very small amounts of 1099 income.</p>
<p>It didn’t seem to me that creating an LLC and putting her real estate holdings there would really help much… but I don’t know. I’m pretty sure the income she receives from the rentals would still show up as income, because the income would flow through to her anyway. I didn’t know, though, if there was a question on the Profile businesss supplement about real estate holdings in an LLC.</p>