<p>My parents decided to invest in Life Insurance five years ago. It is a sizable life insurance, and since they've saved for many years, they thought they could go for it. </p>
<p>Since they did not know too much about finances at the time, the contract doesn't allow us to opt out. We'll be paying $60k/yr for another 5 years (we've paid for the past 5 already, so our savings will be drained by the time its over). The life insurance includes all our family members (incl. my brother, mom, dad, and me). </p>
<p>Sadly, the financial aid calculator (on Collegeboard) does not have a section for us to put this in. It's not a retirement plan, nor .
Also, there is nowhere to put in taxes - we live in Canada and the taxes here are higher than in the States. Living far away also means that my travel expenses will be higher.</p>
<p>Please help?
I applied to HYPSM, Upenn, Cornell, and I'm going to hand in my financial aid info. asap.</p>
<p>PS. Please note, I understand that my chances of getting into any of the above institutions is close to zero, but I can only dream :(</p>
<p>Investing in life insurance is a choice so schools aren’t going to give you more money simply because your parents chose an expensive plan. It sounds like you’re only working with a quick EFC estimator which doesn’t require the depth of information that the CSS Profile will. I believe Profile does ask about income taxes paid.</p>
<p>If your chances are close to zero, I sure hope you have applied to some state institutions…</p>
<p>I believe you do not report the cash value in life insurance on FAFSA so all the value of the policies is not reported, however, the annual premiums are also not considered.</p>
<p>That your parents are making payments to a life insurance policy in the amount of $60,000 a year, will NOT be taken into consideration by the colleges when calculating need based aid. It’s like any other expenditure…it is a choice.</p>
<p>Why not consider tapping into that cash value to pay for some of your college? If your parents are paying that much into a life insurance policy it likely has quite a bit of cash build up in it by now.</p>
<p>As for your taxes … that will be reflected in the income and taxes paid that you report. You have to convert those to American dollars when reporting them. The sales taxes won’t be considered, but they aren’t for Americans, either.</p>