<p>Our tax deferred Retirement accounts are all in big growth accounts and experienced alot of growth last year about 15k increase (they aren't that big) from last years amount. They are tied to stock prices and of course everything we own in stocks or markets is on a steep decline. Will this increase be a big difference for us and our EFC when I am sure we will lose more than that this year?</p>
<p>the value of the retirement account has nothing to do with the fafsa. Not sure about Profile.</p>
<p>the only thing the Fafsa cares about is how much tax deferred $$ you put into the retirement acct each year.</p>
<p>they don't care if you put 10K last year and now it's worth 8K</p>
<p>Agree with sue. They do ask about how much assets you have in retirement accounts for the Profile, both for the student and the parents. I'm afraid you're in the same boat as the rest of us. I know I made sure to take the latest figures for all of my accounts when I filed as they've been heading down since last fall. I'm not sure what the calculations are on retirement accounts, so you may have protection for a certain amount.</p>