<p>I have a some-what complex question for the forum. I will start with the details. My fiance is 22 and is currently applying to med school in Ohio for the 2010-2011 school year. She will be 23 in April (if that matters). Our wedding is on June 20th, 2010. My fiance has about 35,000 of taxable assets and will have a 2009 w2 income of 13k.</p>
<p>We are pondering moving her assets into my name prior to her filing her Fafsa application in January 2010. We will be able to avoid the taxation of the gift over 13k because we will be considered married for our 2010 tax return (she could just use a piece of her lifetime unified credit but I don't think we will need to). This will only work for 2010-11 because we will be considered married for the filing of that application. Both of us are fine with transfer of the funds (we have no worries about our relationship or the wedding).</p>
<p>I did read before that she might not even qualify as an independent because she is under 24. She will not be receiving any support from her parents and the two of us are responsible for our own living expenses. I am not even sure if her status as a dependent or independent will even matter for the strategy we are exploring.</p>
<p>Please let me know what you all think about this. Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, as she won’t be an undergrad, it may not make a big difference. Federal and state aid, other than loans, generally doesn’t extend to grad students and Stafford loan limits are not determined by EFC. What type of aid is she expecting to get?</p>
<p>In that case, she would probably lower her EFC by transferring assets or she could put them in a 529 account and have them assessed at a lower rate. But, if she’s still considered a dependent, her parent’s portion of the EFC will still be a factor and that could be considerable. She likely knows what her and her parent’s contributions to the EFC were for this year, or can use an EFC calculator online to run some scenarios. Aid availability and criteria can usually be found on the school’s website.</p>
<p>Right now, you are very much in love and positive that you will be married on X date. However, many things can happen between now and then. Good stuff, bad stuff, indifferent stuff. Transferring assets between fiances before the wedding is something that I would not recommend to anyone.</p>
<p>Transferring money into a 529 would make more sense. It would set that money aside for her further education, and essentially free other money that the two of you could eventually have as a married couple for other items.</p>
<p>If the money is absolutely to be saved for something other than her education, and she needs to stash it securely for some time, she needs to meet with a financial advisor. Certain kinds of retirement accounts (annuities come to mind here) are invisible to FAFSA. She would need to determine how soon she might need that money for other purposes. Some might begin to pay out immediately resulting in a small annual income, but others might tie it up for an extended period of time.</p>
<p>Your future wife will be considered an independent student for financial aid purposes if she has her undergrad degree (which I’m assuming she has considering it’s medical school she plans to attend).</p>
<p>HOWEVER, you need to check with the specific medical schools. SOME of these schools require that the parent income and assets be listed regardless of the age or other independent status reasons for the applicant. </p>
<p>As others have noted…there isn’t really need based aid for medical school. Any aid offered really is based on merit.</p>
<p>True that any aid offered is based on merit.</p>
<p>Ok…now…a grad who’s going to med school is considered an independant, right? But, isn’t he applying for loans for med school during his senior year as an undergrad? </p>
<p>Also, for kids who are in those accelerated med school programs…do they actually “graduate” with an undergrad degree at some point making them “independent” for loan purposes?</p>
<p>Actually I have read that some schools do provide need-based grant aid BUT that is based on the EFC including PARENT info. Check the formula and see whether it is worth your time to transfer her assets if she needs her parents info anyway… Warn her parents to be ready to complete the forms, too.</p>
<p>She might want to use some of her assets to prepay things she plans to pay any way- pay off a car? pay off wedding stuff? etc</p>
<p>My daughter was thinking about med school for a while. When I looked into the financial side I found that, even though a student is independent for FAFSA once they have a bachelors, most medical schools ask for parent financial information and financial aid is based on parent and student financial info.</p>
<p>
I know the combined pharmacist programs the students become ‘professional’ students at some point during the program which means they lose eligibility for federal grants such as the Pell. Kind of a bummer as it is usually much earlier than the 4 years they would have been in undergrad. There have been a couple of low income pharm students that have posted here in the past quite distressed to lose their federal grants. I would imagine the accelerated med programs are the same.</p>
<p>The loans will be used for medical school, not the senior year of undergrad school. It doesn’t matter WHEN you are applying. It matters when you will be USING the money.</p>
<p>My son applied to grad school as a senior in college and he also filed a FAFSA (so he could get the stafford loans as an independent student for GRAD school). It didn’t matter that he was FILING when he was an undergrad and still a dependent for finaid purposes…what mattered was that he was applying for these for GRAD SCHOOL when he WAS an independent for finaid purposes.</p>
<p>Med (and pharmacy) students are eligible for the Health Professions Student Loans, which are more attractive than Staffords, but seem to require parent info be submitted. Some states have additional grants/loans for health professions and these may or may not be need based. My experience (with pharm schools) is that need based institutional aid usually is scarce and also requires the family info. So, technically students are independent and file FAFSA that way but failing to provide “optional” parent info essentially guarantees no need based aid.</p>
All financial aid applications ask for education status/plans for the school year you are applying for aid for. For instance a HS senior completing the 2010-2011 FAFSA is saying they *will *have completed HS and they *will *be in a degree seeking program in the 2010–2011 school year. They don’t answer with their current status - that they haven’t completed high school and that they aren’t in a degree seeking program - or they would be ineligible for aid. Same with a prospective medical student. They are answering that they will have completed an undergrad degree and that they will be in professional school in 2010-2011. That is the year they are applying for aid for. Not the current year.</p>