<p>my 3 kids have ugma accounts with my husbands and each of their names on their respective accounts.</p>
<p>When filling out the fafsa do we add this as our Ugma accounts (adding all 3 kids together) or do we not count it as our student account?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>i was told by fafsa that those are included under investments. however if you fill out the css profile siblings' ugma/utma accts are not included.</p>
<p>UGMA accounts are owned by the student; the parents are the trustees. They are listed under the student's assets. The siblings' UGMA accounts do not count.</p>
<p>Thanks Chedva, that's what makes sense to me. I have to do a correction for the FAFSA. I didn't do it right the first time.</p>
<p>If you convert UGMA accounts to student-owned 529 accounts, then they are not counted in this year's FAFSA due to the loophole in the law which ignores student-owned 529s. This is a 529 account that is in the student's name, NOT a more common 529 which is in the parent's name with the student as a beneficiary. The student-owned 529 will be included next year (2009-2010) though because the loophole was closed. Conversion needs to be done in cash, so if liquidating the UGMA funds creates capital gains, then this might not be beneficial to you after all.</p>
<p>in the fafsa "investments category" it lists ugma/utma accounts---this has been written about in other threads too. I called fafsa twice and they stated it should be included...</p>
<p>when I called CSS Profile--they stated they are not included for their purposes.</p>
<p>The student's UGMA account is an asset of the student and should be reported as a student asset for FAFSA. The UGMA accounts of the student's 2 siblings are not reportable on the first student's FAFSA. I think that was the original poster's question.</p>
<p>From FinAid</a> | Financial Aid Applications | Maximizing Your Aid Eligibility
[quote]
The assets of other children are not considered by the need analysis formula. So putting parent assets in the name of a younger (or older) sibling can help shelter them from the need analysis. On the other hand, when that child enrolls in college, his or her assets will be assessed at the usual rate for students.</p>
<p>Assuming that the family follows a policy of spending the student's assets first, putting assets in the name of a younger child might yield a small increase in the family's overall eligibility for financial aid. The calculations are so complicated, however, and require so many questionable assumptions that this strategy is probably not worthwhile. The only case in which this strategy might work is when the younger sibling will never attend college, as might happen with a severely disabled child. On the other hand, many schools now ask for the assets owned by the student's siblings, so this strategy may affect the awarding of institutional funds.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>thank you all. I fixed it by subtracting the total ugma as parents assets and adding those that belonged to the child I was filling it out for.</p>
<p>What Chedva says is factually correct, but it's not what the FAFSA instructions direct you to do. Page 5 of the FAFSA specifically says to include UGMAs and UTMAs under the parents' investments.</p>
<p>how confusing is that gadad!</p>
<p>it really is confusing---I went with what they told me---for my s most schools are also using the profile--they look at everything differently and they don't include them-- good luck</p>
<p>I found this:</p>
<p>FinAid</a> | Saving for College | UGMA & UTMA Custodial Accounts</p>
<p>The law on UGMA/UTMA accounts is clear; these assets belong to the student. </p>
<p>gadad's point is well taken in that page 5 (parents' assets, in purple) defines "investment" as including UGMA/UTMAs. However, this same definition of "investment" is used in the student assets section of FAFSA. There should be no double-counting of assets. My reading is that UGMAs that belong to the student for whom the FAFSA is being filed should be listed as the student's asset (and assessed at 20%), not the parents' asset. </p>
<p>This still doesn't answer the question of how to handle sibling UGMAs: declare them as parent assets (assessed at 5.6%) or ignore them completely for FAFSA, as Chedva asserts? I vote for the latter! But it would be nice to get a definitive answer for those of us who have more than one child with a UGMA/UTMA.</p>
<p>Ignore the UGMA accounts of the siblings.</p>
<p>Thanks lurkie - can you give your source for this information?</p>
<p>Yeah, FAFSA uses the same definition of "investment" in both the parent and student section. So they're intent wasn't necessarily to say that UGMA's are always considered parent's investments, just that UGMA's are included among the types of investments that are reportable.</p>
<p>UGMA's belong to the student.</p>
<p>I agree with lurkie and Chevda-- sibling's assets and investments (including their UGMA) aren't included in FAFSA. Source? The source, I guess, is the FAFSA-- where they don't ask for the sibling's income, assets, or investments.</p>
<p>Section</a> 529: A Good Plan Just Got Better : published at CarolinaNewswire.com - Stay on top of the day's business & technology news also indicates what vballmom said above: that student-owned 529 plans do not count in the 2008-2009 year but will count as a student asset for the 2009-2010 FAFSA and thereon after.</p>
<p>As a parent going thru thr FAFSA for the first time, I find this thread useful (but complicated). But I have a question that I don't think has been addressed. When I set up 529 accounts for my kids, I followed the standard approach at the time, and made myself the owner and the kids the beneficiaries.</p>
<p>Now my older son is applying for colleges and I will fill out FAFSA. I haven't seen this specific case covered here: Should I list the 529 assets under the kids (so my older son's would be in his asset list, anf my younger son's would not show up at all), or since the accounts are in my name shpuld I list both their accounts as parents' assets?</p>
<p>529 should be listed as parent assets. This is much better because your assets are assessed at a lower rate than your child's.</p>
<p>any idea on this?</p>
<p>How would you document an UTMA nonqualified annuity account? Would it be listed as a parent or student asset?</p>
<p>This is all so confusing!</p>