My DD is a HS senior and I just completed drafts of 2021-22 FAFSA and CSS Profile. I thought that the CSS required disclosure of 401K and IRA assets, but I did not see where to input that info. Can someone point me to where I missed that question? Or is CSS no longer counting retirement funds?
Unless CSS/Profile changed recently, there should be a question that asks for the “current value of the parent’s tax-deferred retirement, pension, annuity, and savings plans. Include IRS, SRA Keogh, SEP, 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), 408, 457, 501© plans, etc.” or something similar. The last time I actually completed the form, it was asked in question PD-270A in the “Parent’s Data (PD)” section, although Profile seems to change things around every year, so I have no idea if this is still correct, and I don’t have access to the 2021-2022 version of the form.
I was in the Parents Asset section. “Investments do not include the parents’ home, business, farm, real estate, or retirement plans.”
Parent Asset Details : “Investments include stocks and stock options, bonds, savings bonds, mutual funds, money market funds, certificates of deposit, 529 college savings or pre-paid tuition plans, other college savings plans, non-qualified (non-retirement) annuities, trust funds, commodities, precious and strategic metals, installment and land sale contracts (including seller-financed mortgages), and other valuables.”
No other section that I see asks about retirement funds.
I hope this is correct. It would be great not to have my retirement funds count against my daughter’s calculation of financial need. It just doesn’t jive with what I thought the CSS would ask.
Is there still a “Parents’ Data (PD)” section? When I last completed Profile, that’s where the question was that asked for the value of qualified retirement accounts. The question was not in the “Parents’ Assets ¶” section.
Thank you! “Parents’ Data” is where I found it.
Even though the Profile asks for the balances in your retirement accounts, these is little to no evidence that this money amount is included in the financial aid calculations. So…just complete the sections.
It is thought that this question is asked to see if the amount aligns with other financial data provided. For example, if your income is $30,000 a year, and you have $1,000,000 in your retirement account, someone might question how that happened.
CSS Profile is worse then being audited by the IRS. The schools that use it will squeeze every last penny out of you. CSS has nothing to do with Financial Aid. It has everything to do with Merit Aid and school scholarships.
The CSS Profile has NOTHING to do with merit aid and scholarships (merit based). The data is used to compute the awarding of institutional need based aid.
@FriendoftheDevil where did you get your information?
@Thumper1 son went to a CSS university. Based on my experience, the CSS profile was used for institutional aid in the forms of Merit (very negotiable), scholarships and other school grants. Had ZERO to do with financial aid.
Merit aid is one type of financial aid. What school are you referring to? I have not heard of a school that requires or uses Profile to award merit scholarships…this info would be helpful to others.
This is malarkey. A true merit award has nothing to do with anything that is reported on Profile. When FAFSA is required to be eligible for merit awards, the purpose is to make sure that a student is not leaving any government aid (Pell grant, etc.) on the table, but Profile is in no way connected to eligibility for government aid. The sole purpose of Profile is to establish eligibility for institutional need-based aid.
P.S. Merit aid is a type of financial aid, so even if Profile was used for merit scholarships, by definition it would not “have ZERO to do with financial aid.”
@thumper1 No worries I have every intention of providing the info asked for regardless of whether it is used for financial need or merit awards. At least one of the schools on my daughter’s list requires the CSS Profile.
I was just expecting to see the 401k/IRA questions to be asked in the Parents Assets section and when I didn’t see it there I panicked. It turns out I already provided the info in the Parents Detail section but didn’t review that part closely.
@BelknapPoint “Profile is in no way connected to eligibility for government aid.” Exactly my point
Trust me when I tell you the CSS Profile is used to make sure a college does not give you a penny more then they have to.
I’ll define financial aid as federal aid, not institutional.
Good Luck
You have a serious misunderstanding as to what the purpose of Profile is.
Grants from colleges (institutional dollars) that help less financially advantaged students attend college most certainly do count as financial aid.
I don’t have to trust you because a) I’m a parent who has been through this before; and b) I am 100% certain that a number of statements you have made here are wrong.
@BelknapPoint, maybe wrong to your situation. All I can speak of is ours. The CSS profile was used as a tool by the school not to see how MUCH they could give us, but rather to make sure not to give us a penny more then they had to.
Peace 
And with what school is your CSS Profile experience? If your definition of how much the school “had” to provide in financial aid is just enough, and not a penny more, to equal the difference between the school’s cost of attendance and your student’s EFC (as calculated by the school), then I would say your definition is correct. I hope you were not expecting the school to give you more than that difference.
Profile isn’t used to determine how much a school CAN give a student; it’s purpose is to determine, using the school’s own formula and Profile data, what each student’s EFC is. Some Profile schools will use an institutionally determined EFC to meet the student’s full need by rounding up enough financial aid, from multiple sources (Pell grant, federal direct loans, institutional grants, etc.), to bridge the gap between that EFC and the school’s COA. Contrary to one of your earlier claims, Profile is never used to distribute merit aid. How could it be used that way? There are no student merit qualifiers reported on Profile.
@BelknapPoint I’m not going to go tit for tat. I know for a fact, after sitting with the colleges financial aid officers that my sons merit aid was increased when I proved that my income was reduced due to the fact I had to start paying for health care at my place of employment. In layman’s terms, my sons merit aid was increased, when my income decreased.
It sounds like your misunderstanding lies with the definition of “merit aid.” Financial aid tied to a family’s income or assets is not merit aid. Merit aid is awarded based on a student’s academic achievements, athletic or artistic ability, or some other student characteristic that is not related to how much a family can afford to spend on college. None of the things just mentioned are reflected in any way on Profile (or on FAFSA, for that matter). Some awards or scholarships that have both a financial and a merit component are not true merit awards.
Well, not for the sake of argument but out of true curiosity, I’m wondering how a family’s change in financial circumstances can have an impact on a merit award.
There are also non-need based grants and scholarships that consider merit rather than financial need. These awards are granted by the college or university as well as outside organizations. Merit-based scholarships are typically awarded for outstanding academic achievements and maximum SAT or ACT scores. However, some scholarships may be awarded due to special talents like athletic scholarships, leadership potential, and other personal characteristics. In order to be considered for such awards some institutions require an additional application process while others automatically consider all admitted students for their merit-based scholarships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_financial_aid_(United_States)