<p>Stop hating your life. You’re in good shape.</p>
<p>If something can be done with your parents’ savings, you’d be in better shape.</p>
<p>I’d recommend the following…</p>
<p>1st - your parents need to determine their asset protection allowance. It’s based on age. This will give them the amount which they can keep in the savings account with no penalty towards financial aid.</p>
<p>2nd - look at sheltering their retirement savings beyond the asset protection allowance. Put as much as they can into Roth IRAs (one for each), then look at annuities. If they are saving that money for retirement, the annuity will be taxed the same as a traditional IRA.</p>
<p>However, if your parent’s qualify for simplified needs, then the above is moot anyway.</p>