Inheritance affecting FAFSA and $$

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm new to this website and hope someone can help me. I am a father of two children in college - one will be 4th year Temple and one will be 3rd year at Drexel. Every year, we fill out the FAFSA, go through the paperwork and each kid has received PHEAA Grants, Federal Work Study, Scholarships from their colleges, Sub and Unsubsidized loans and university grants.</p>

<p>We are middle class folks, and our "yearly financial numbers" have not changed, and so the FAFSA for each kid looks pretty identical year after year. Several weeks ago, my father passed away and left me some stock. The approximate value is in the neighborhood of $60k. There could also be additional money coming from his estate, but I won't know that for a while. </p>

<p>My question is, will these additional assets hurt my kid's chances of obtaining the grants, scholarships, loans, etc. when we fill out the FAFSA for the next school year? The FAFSA is complete for the '13-'14 school year, so I guess I'm looking at the '14-'15 school year.</p>

<p>I've looked on-line and haven't found any place to "hide" the money, short of spending it or putting it in an IRA (I think). Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Even if it IS viewed as an asset for you (the parent) it will only be assessed at 5.6% of its value for use. So the WHOLE thing isn’t going to be used up at all. Not even after two or three years. </p>

<p>The on,y other option is to see if getting the estate settlement to be delayed…and thus your inheritance delayed.</p>

<p>We were in exactly the same situation when my mom died, and we viewed her inheritance as a college gift to our kids…well…5.6% of it each year!</p>

<p>Thanks for the info. Good point on delaying the estate settlement, but I have a sister and don’t want to burden her with a delay. </p>

<p>Just a quick clarification… not sure what is assessed at 5.6%. Are you saying that the FAFSA assesses my total assets at 5.6% when it crunches the numbers? </p>

<p>Looking at a '13-'14 FAFSA, question 88 wants total current balances of cash, savings and checking. Question 89 wants net worth of investments. Where does the 5.6% come into play? </p>

<p>In any event, thanks again! I do like the 5.6% number, but I don’t quite know what it means.</p>

<p>The FAFSA asks for your total asset amounts. Parent assets have an asset protection allowance too. After that asset protection allowance is applied…the remaining parent assets are assessed at approximately 5.6% in the FAFSA calculation.</p>

<p>Assets held in the student name are assessed at 20%…so try to have this be YOUR asset…if possible.</p>

<p>This is for the calculation of the FAFSA EFC only.</p>

<p>If your school uses the figures to calculate the awarding of institutional aid, you will need to contact them to determine if they use a higher %age of your assets in the calculation for need based institutional aid. But the FAFSA calculation does not.</p>

<p>Good deal. Thanks. I’ll contact the schools. So in the timeline of things, am I correct in assuming that I don’t need to do anything for the upcoming '13-'14 school year? The FAFSA for each kid was done months ago using real 2012 tax info. </p>

<p>If so, this means my daughter will be out of school since she will be in her senior year for '13-'14. Which means I only need to deal with my son/Drexel since he will be entering his 3rd year for '13-'14.</p>

<p>Your financial aid for 2013-2 014 was based on 2012 income, and your assets as of the date of the initial FAFSA filing this year.</p>

<p>Next year is when you will have to deal with this if the money is actually disbursed to you in 2013, and remains in your accounts.</p>

<p>Here is the 2013-14 fafsa formula guide:</p>

<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/091312EFCFormulaGuide1314.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You can browse the calculations and see where the 5.6% is figured. Table A5 has the asset allowance numbers. </p>

<p>But yeah, that is for federal aid only, how it affects state or the school’s aid may be different.</p>

<p>Thanks for the website. For the “Federal Aid”, is that the qualification for the sub- and unsubsidized loans?</p>

<p>It would be qualification for sub loans - everyone is eligible for unsub, regardless of EFC. The way it works is Cost of Attendance - EFC - grants/scholarships (if any) - work study (if any) = eligibility for sub loans (up to the max for year in school). If the student is a sophomore, the max eligibility for sub is $4500 & the max eligibility for sub+unsub = $6500. So if the EFC rises, you might not be eligible for the full $4500 sub … but you WOULD still be eligible for the full $6500 sub+unsub.</p>