Yeah, that’s not true.
The advice being given here is to not share post-divorce financial information. Obviously, an ex-spouse probably knows or can easily find in old records the other person’s SSN.
Edited to add: Thumper beat me to it. I was interrupted by a trick-or-treater as I was writing the post.
Well, it’s good to know that the Profile folks have the confidentiality issue taken care of. I did not get the sense from OP’s post that she was concerned about her ex taking up identity theft as a hobby or misusing any information she might give him, but, you’re right, it’s probably best to give him nothing. I tend to think a lot of the publicized concerns in this area are overblown, but that would be a topic for a different post.
Even though CSS Profile has each parent give information separately, thus does not mean that information about each other’s finances will not leak. They could, for example, use the actual financial aid offer to try to reverse engineer each other’s finances.
^ Only if you know how the college uses the income and asset numbers (which we all agree tends to be somewhat obscured). It’s more likely you’ll just get a general idea.
I agree. Unless you know the school-specific formula that the Profile numbers get plugged in to, you would only be guessing.
Some ex-spouses may be uncomfortable with the other ex-spouse being able to reverse engineer even a general idea of their finances by comparing the actual financial aid offer with test runs of the college’s net price calculator.
<<<
They could, for example, use the actual financial aid offer to try to reverse engineer each other’s finances.
[/QUOTE]
Possibly. Certainly if custodial parent has an EFC of 0 and no assets, but CSS Profile comes back saying that the family will be “full pay” it certainly lets the CP know that the other side has a strong financial situation.
I think some CSS schools actually split-out the contribution. So if Household 1 has an income $80k (minimal assets) and is told that they need to pay $10, and Household 2 is told that they have to pay $25k, it wouldn’t be hard to estimate their situation.
Interesting. Let’s say I’m Household 1 in your scenario, and the student was accepted to Amherst for the current academic year with the family contribution that you specify. What’s my estimate of Household 2’s income and assets?
There is a cost in wanting the college to give your child financial aid, and that cost might be your ex figuring out that you don’t make $30k anymore but $200k. I think there are easier ways to discover this information.
<<<
Interesting. Let’s say I’m Household 1 in your scenario, and the student was accepted to Amherst for the current academic year with the family contribution that you specify.
What’s my estimate of Household 2’s income and assets?
<<<<
Well, if you’re rather certain that Household 2 doesn’t have a lot of assets, you probably could estimate that IF the school determined that an $80k income should pay $10k, then it might be safe to estimate that Household 2’s income is around $110-130k if they’re expected to pay $25k.
That may not mean much unless child support for younger children in Household 1 was based on, say, an income of $50k.
My ex in Household 2 has remarried, and I have no idea what kind of assets they may have. So how can I use that expected contribution of $25k to estimate assets and income for Household 2?
Start plugging numbers into the college’s net price calculator until you get an estimate similar to the actual financial aid offer.
Of course, if there are two variables (income and assets of household 2), then the best you can get are estimates of pairs of (income, assets) levels, though if you know from other information about household 2 that constrains either income or assets, you can narrow the range of estimates.
I can’t imagine that the above exercise would
or
And what does it matter, filling out FA paperwork doesn’t obligate neither parent to pay anything.
But hopefully both parents will do their part in providing information so that their child can get financial aid, if they qualify, and will be able to get an affordable college education.
Nope. The ex doesn’t need to give his ccountant this information.
If the kids live with the ex wife more for the year…SHE can enter the information on the financial aid forms as custodial parent. Her former husband shouldn’t be doing this for her.
And for the record…it really doesn’t matter who claims the kids as dependent for financial aid purposes. It depends on who they love with greater than 51% of the time for the 365 days prior to filing the forms.
Again, I’ll start with the more likely presumption that both parents want to help their children more than they want to stick it to their ex-spouse. I agree that if one ex-spouse has a good reason to believe that this is not the case, they should be cautious before providing information to the other ex-spouse.
Since OP has suggested that there are 4 children involved, and that her ex-spouse earns 3x or more than she does, she might be able to plug in the numbers based on whatever FA award child is given. With a vague idea of income - she may know the ex-spouse’s occupation and might be able to get a reasonable ballpark of income, but she may not now know about ex-spouse’s new wife’s occupation (if there is one) and any of that side of the family’s assets. But the FA award might help her get a ballpark on that as well.
Too many divorced families don’t plan ahead, nor work together, to determine what simple steps they could take to maximize financial aid. From what the OP has suggested, there is no way her ex-spouse would allow the child to spend 51% of time with her, apparently in fear of having to pay child support.
One question I have, is suppose the child applies for FA this year, using the Dad’s income since she lives with him. Suppose she moves away to her state’s school, a FAFSA only school, and she spends 9 months away from home at college. Then, the following summer, she spends 3 months split between her mom and dad. Let’s suppose it works out to 46 days with her mom, and 45 days with her dad, before returning to school. The next year, could/should she then apply for FA using her mom’s income since she spent more time there than at her dad’s?
The point is, in this case, the Dad’s historical stubbornness has hurt the FA for the first year, but perhaps they can learn from the situation, and with proper planning next year, they can still maximize FA for 3 of the 4 college years.
There are 4 children in this family, so does only the eldest have to spend more time with the mom this year? Does using the mom’s income with only one child work out to less FA than using the Dad’s income with 4 children?
I realize it’s easier to say they should just plan ahead and work together to maximize the children’s FA, than it is to actually do so.
If the child is applying now, isn’t it already too late? The time spent is the 365 days before the date of filing, isn’t it? Unless the child takes a gap year, I don’t think it matters.
Under no circumstances would I hand an ex- any personal paperwork, especially a tax return. You’d have no way of knowing whether or not he created a FAFSA ID in your name and used your info. to fill it out. Claiming the children live with you more when they don’t is fraudulent. If that happened and it was discovered, I think you’d be liable for it. That means (at the very least) that you’d have to pay back any financial aid your children receive.
The way circumstances are now, he’s responsible for filling out the FAFSA with his data. At CSS profile schools, you’ll submit your part of the app directly to the school, so there’s no need for your ex to have any of your financial info. To get an estimate of what a college might cost, suggest your ex run each college’s Net Price Calculator with his info. You can run it separately with yours and add the totals together. If his income is high, just running them with his will give him an estimate of the minimum each college will cost.
Make sure your children give you access to their portals so you can keep an eye on finances. You’re responsible for any info. filed under your ID, so make sure you keep track of it.
@austinmshauri it might be too late for the 2017-18 school year that current HS seniors are applying to, but I was asking if it might not be too late for the sophomore-senior years of college, presuming the child wants to attend a 4 year school.
If the child applies to a FAFSA only school AND the ex-spouse is amenable to changing the overnight living arrangements for the rest of 2016 AND the remaining 2 months of 2016 might make it enough to allow the child to apply for FAFSA claiming living 51% of the time with the OP during the 12 months prior to filing (they can stilll file FAFSA in January, correct?) then it might not be too late for the 2017-18 school year.
I am sure that some divorced families play games, fudge the numbers and claim the child lives 51% of the time with the household that earns significantly less income. I don’t know how a school would ever verify this, but I applaud the OP for not wanting to cross that line.