<p>We're filling out our D's FAFSA and were wondering if we needed to report the sibling's UTMA and 529 plans on line 88 under Parent's net worth. Sibling is a minor and we are the owner's of both accounts with him as beneficiary.</p>
<p>My understanding:
529: Yes, because you can change the beneficiary. The money is yours.
UTMA: No, because you cannot change the beneficiary. You are simply custodians of the minor's money. The minor owns it.</p>
<p>Thanks for confirming. That is what I thought.</p>
<p>Chedva - Where FAFSA asks under "Parent Asset Information" about parents' investments it says "Investments include real estate (don't include the family home), trust funds, UGMA and UTMA accounts, money market funds, mutual funds . . . etc." It doesn't say this under the section in which it asks for "Student Asset Information." This is contrary to what I'd expect, but there it is in black-and-white.</p>
<p>I'd research this one more; I went to a financial aid lecture by the FA director of a New York college on how to fill the FAFSA out and he said NOT to include siblings 529 accounts (owned by parent but sib as beneficiary) on line 88. I even raised my hand and asked him to confirm this because I have a lot of kids so it makes a difference! </p>
<p>Maybe he meant "don't include it, we'll never find out?"</p>
<p>UTMA is definitely sibs asset not parent's and shouldn't be included.</p>
<p>Muffy - I was at a similar lecture by an FA director and she said the same thing. It sounded odd to a bunch of us in the audience because it is the parent's asset, not the childs, and it can be used for anything (granted, with a penalty). When I filled out PROFILE I called the board to ask and they said include sibling beneficiary 529 accounts as parent investment, I thought it would be odd to have different numbers on FAFSA so I plan to include it there too.</p>
<p>I went web-surfing to a lot of self proclaimed financial aid gurus -unfortunately couldn't find any source I could crow about as authoritative- who seem to say that the sibs 529 accounts don't get included on FAFSA but do on CSS. So I guess my FA lecturer was correct but should have added, "but include them if you're filing CSS"</p>
<p>they said EXCLUDE 529s for siblings</p>
<p>Darn - We included siblings 529 - now I know better for next year! Didn't hurt as our assets are below the protected allowance but it brought it close! What do people do who don't know about CC to learn this stuff!</p>
<p>I wondered about this too, and came across this conversation. I called FAFSA today and got the message that for our type of 529 (owned by the parent with the child as the beneficiary) that any sibling 529 IS included as part of the parents' assests.</p>
<p>I think asking FAFSA seems to be a lottery for the answer. One person asks do you include it and is told no, another asks and they are told yes. On another thread someone asked if schools see the other schools listed and was told no - but a poster I really trust who works in a financial aid office says they do. Not sure I trust the FAFSA phone line too much!!</p>
<p>I called fafsa twice--both times was told to includes sib's utma and 529---as the documentation says</p>
<p>however on profile ?# pa-105 parent assets in sib's name--I initially included it --after reading this called profile and they said DO NOT include on Profile as it is not a parent asset.</p>
<p>As illogical as it sounds, it look as though you need to enter both the students and their minor-aged younger siblings 529, UTMA, etc funds under the parent’s investments. Then when the student accounts for their finances the aforementioned investments have already been accounted for under the parents and should not be counted twice.</p>
<p>I searched on CC before asking my question and came up with this thread- in figuring parent assets, do you include 529 plans of siblings? Does anyone have a more current answer for this? Both threads that came up did not give a definitive answer. Anyone currently filling out FAFSA have an answer for me? Of course the answer will have a big impact on the amount of our assets. Thank you!</p>
<p>Yes, you must include for all kids in household. The rules changed for 08-09, so some here may have heard not to include siblings because that was how it worked prior to the change. In the past, the account was included as an asset of the student … and distributions of prepaid tuition counted against need in financial aid packaging. I wasn’t working in the field then, so not sure exactly how it worked. However, now the parent must report values of these accounts as parent assets for all kids in family … and they are not counted as a resource for financial aid (that is, distributions do not reduce need). The parents have a better asset protection allowance than the kids, so often it is better with the new rules.</p>
<p>Here is the handbook link: <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/0910AVG.html[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/0910AVG.html</a>. Click on Expected Family Contribution. Page AVG-18 is relevant.</p>
<p>Here is a really good link with an explanation: <a href=“http://finaid.msu.edu/saveplan.asp[/url]”>http://finaid.msu.edu/saveplan.asp</a></p>
<p>Kelsmom, thank you for your reply. I did go to the EFC chapter but it starts with AVG-41.
There is no AVG-18. I guess I don’t think it’s right that they want the total of all our kids’ 529 plans. We have 5 kids to put through college. But I know I can’t argue with them about it!</p>
<p>Sorry … it’s the Filling out the FAFSA chapter. THAT one has AVG-18!</p>
<p>Kelsmom, I don’t think the guide for filling out the FAFSA is that clear. The info from MSU is very clear. Do you think some people don’t list the amount of sibling 529s? I wonder if I was to call today what I would be told? It looks like in 2008 some people were told to include all 529s and some were told only that of the student. It can make a big difference. With one student you might have $25,000 to list but with 5 you could have 5X that!</p>
<p>I am sure some don’t list what they are supposed to be listing, and I don’t disagree with the fact that it is pretty much clear as mud. I will also say that it is possible that the rules were not official yet in 2008 when folks started filing FAFSAs. I wasn’t back in the field until September 2008, so I don’t know when the final rules were finally in place. The sad fact is that many rules are not finalized until AFTER everything begins (including awarding). We often have to operate on “it will probably be like this,” and then go back & regroup when we gets things in place & suddenly the feds say, “We’ve decided it will be like that, instead.”</p>