<p>I have never seen my daughter's 529 that was set up by her grandparents I am divorced from their son and they're still mad. I have no idea how much money is in the 529. She does receive money for college in small increments that the grandparent pays to the school. I have included this on the CSS form as student income. Do I have to ask them for the amount this is in the 529 and report that too? If so, I doubt they would even tell me. It's like pulling teeth to get any information regarding this account. Thanks.</p>
<p>Your daughter who is an adult now has to take responsibility for this. Though in reality, most parents are the ones who fill out the FAFSA and PROFIle when it comes to the parental data, it is set up for the student to do so and many students do, when parents are not able for any number of reasons. In a family situation like this your DD needs to step up. </p>
<p>The 529 should be put in the father’s name so that it is not included as income. Here is some info on this: [Time</a> bomb: Grandparents’ 529 college contributions - CBS News](<a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57547868/time-bomb-grandparents-529-college-contributions/]Time”>http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-57547868/time-bomb-grandparents-529-college-contributions/) Your DD needs to work with her father and her grandparents about this. You can prep her and give her this site and other info but she has to deal with them since they will not deal with you.</p>
<p>That’s a great idea! I think she does need to do this. When/if I do find out how much money is in the 529, does this get filled in on the CSS? Or, is the money that is used from the 529 included just in her income? Thank you.</p>
<p>If the Section 529 is owned by the grandparents, then it is not included in the FAFSA or CSS assets. The distributions are reported as the student’s nontaxable income.</p>
<p>Any 529s with the student as beneficiary are reported on Profile. This includes grandparent-owned 529s as well as non-custodial parent-owned 529s. Only parent-owned and student-owned 529s are reported on FAFSA.</p>
<p>Transferring ownership of a 529 from grandparents to a non-custodial parent won’t resolve the issue. Any non-tax income from a third party would need to be reported on FAFSA, whether from the grandparent or the non-custodial parent. Additionally, some states make it difficult to transfer ownership of 529s from one custodian to another (this is different from changing beneficiaries, which is generally fairly easy to do).</p>
<p>vballmom – I figure you must be right about the CSS Profile and grandparent-owned 529s, but I can’t find where it asks about them. Question PA-120WF is asking about parent assets. What am I missing?</p>
<p>washmother it’s been several years since I filled out a Profile form (needed for one of my son’s Early Action schools) so I’m not sure where the current form asks for grandparent-owned 529s. It’s my understanding that all 529 plans that name the student as a beneficiary are reported as assets. So a grandparent-owned 529 plan will be reported as an asset on the form.</p>
<p>I just filled out the profile last year and don’t recall seeing where to report a grandparent owned 529
We will report any monies we use from the 529 as student untaxed income. Since we weren’t going to use the money for year one, we did not report any. We will use some of the funds for the upcoming academic year and we will report it as untaxed income</p>
<p>I looked through the current Profile and could not find a question that asked about 529s that were not owned by the parents or students. Since a grandparent-owned 529 could be transferred to the beneficiary’s cousin at any time, I don’t think they should be included as assets. My guess is that the Profile form changed several years ago when the rules regarding 529s changed.</p>
<p>Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the CSS Profile does require reporting a 529 plan owned by a grandparent. The question is SR-165A: “Enter the total amount you expect to receive from your relatives and all other sources. (List sources and amounts in Explanations/Special Circumstance (ES).)”</p>
<p>I called CSS Profile to get this information.</p>
<p>Since the question refers to how much the student will receive in the 2013-14 academic year, you only list the amount expected to be disbursed for that year. Generally, this would be one-fifth the total 529.</p>
<p>Well, that’s what Momof2sons and I are saying – the distributions are income. The value of the 529 wouldn’t be included under Student’s Assets; it wouldn’t be included under Parents’ Assets. But disbursements are reported as untaxed income and, perhaps, expected resources, if you know that the student will receive a distribution in the coming year.</p>
<p>There’s another point that’s being missed here…some schools have supplemental questions on the CSSProfile that you won’t see until you fill out the Profile for that school. I know that UChicago had a supplemental question that asked specifically about Grandparent-owned 529’s in the student’s name.</p>