This will be our first year filling out the FAFSA/CSS profiles. Do they require a year’s worth of bank statements/mortgage statements, etc. to be turned in or maintained with the paperwork? Or just the statement on the day you fill it out?
We are thinking about changing banks and I want to make sure that I don’t somehow lose access to something that I will need later.
Asking that any bank or mortgage statements be provided, let alone a year’s worth, would be an unusual request. But, in distributing institutional funds, schools have lots of leeway in what kind of supporting documents they ask for.
OK, great. I just assumed it was like a mortgage application and you needed backup for everything!
The FAFSA has an automatic connection to the IRS where your income will be automatically reported. But besides that, FAFSA has not asked for any paperwork. I think when we filled out CSS forms last year for our son who was applying to a school that used CSS - we were asked for our W2s; but no other verification. your situation may vary though!
They could ask for backup. But it’s been as of the day you filed the forms.
If you look at finaid advice sites, they often mention organizing your details to be ready for that filing date. Eg, paying off a car, to reflect lower available cash in a bank account.
As worrisome as all this is, remember they aren’t forensic accountants. I always felt that, as long as we could reasonably explain something, within rules, policy, and individual colleges’ expectations, we were ok.
But also remember, not all colleges can afford to be generous with their aid.
I suggest printing the online banking page that shows your balance the day you file your FAFSA. The likelihood of being asked for that documentation is slim, but it is good (and not difficult) to be prepared.
As others have said, what is the single most important thing about bank and other financial asset statements for FAFSA purposes is to verify your assets as of the date you filed. That snapshot number is what appears on FAFSA. FAFSA asks for the value of your bank accounts, brokerage accounts, all asset accounts as if that date, and if you are selected for verification, it is possible that you and your parents are asked to provide that information.
Well, no, not all asset accounts.
We’ve been selected for verification several times. That was the actual verbiage. “All asset Accounts”. They/we did. then identify those that were qualified retirement and other accounts that are not included for FAFSA.
The one year we were selected for verification from a CSS PROFILE school, the request were even more invasive. They stopped short of checking our mouths for gold teeth.
However, most of the time, the info requests were not as pervasive. Several timeS, we were simply asked for copies of our filed task forms which was puzzling as we used the retrieval tool.
We were selected for verification even though we got nothing other than unsubsidized loans in all but one scenario. The PROFILE school required completion of that form AND FaFSA for some merit money, the first year.
What I initially responded to was your statement that “FAFSA asks for the value of… all asset accounts…” This is not true. I obviously have no idea what you were or were not asked to provide as part of a verification process, but responding to a verification request is not the same thing as completing FAFSA.