<p>I bought a book called How to Pay for College Without Going Broke by Reecy Aresty. It says that money placed in tax-deferred annuities do not raise your EFC for both CSS Profile and FAFSA. However, the CSS Profile has a question that asks what the total value of investments is, so wouldn't a tax-deferred annuity be included in that? The book also mentions something called a modified endowment contract - is that considered an investment?</p>
<p>The total value of your investments does not include investments in retirement accounts (tax deferred annuities are for retirement). If you save money for retirement with pre tax income, however, the income that was used to fund retirement accounts in that year is reported on the Profile.</p>
<p>Modified endowment contracts are not something I know about. I think there are some on this forum who do know, though.</p>
<p>There is a question on the Profile that asks for the value of retirement accounts. But I have not yet heard of anyone who knows exactly how or if the schools use that information. It used to be an optional question used by some schools. Is it now on the Profile for all filers?</p>
<p>I dug out the copy of our Profile, and YES, it does ask about value of retirement accounts as one of the general questions. I guess schools <em>could</em> use it for awarding institutional aid. Obviously, any federal aid would be awarded without consideration of retirement accounts. Individual schools can do what they want with their own funds ... but I don't know how much they take that value into consideration.</p>
<p>lgellar, thanks for buying my book! If you print out the 10 page FAFSA, you'll see in the Notes that neither annuities nor life insurance, a modified endowment contract in particular, are considered investments. Please send me an email to continue this discussion.</p>
<p>FAFSA does not take those assets into consideration. Though most schools that use PROFILE and other fin aid apps do not usually use those vehicles in their financial aid formula, they do ask for the information, and many of these schools will take those numbers into account if they are very high. A lot of discretion is given to fin aid officers of schools and those that are using their own apps or PROFILE do look at the whole picture. Some schools like BC openly say that they take these things into account. At this time, the core formulas of most schools do not use those numbers to come up with awards, but, yes, they do eyeball the figures.</p>
<p>Reecy, these tax sheltered annuities are NOT considered investments....but the amount contributed to these accounts in the year used for filing info (e.g. for the 2009 FAFSA, the year would be 2008) is added back in as income for that year. In other words, if I contribute $20,000 to my TSA in 2008, it will be added back in as income on my 2009 FAFSA (and Profile). Therefore, your CONTRIBUTIONS are not ignored and can actually raise your EFC because your income is reflects the contributions you made.</p>
<p>The amount of money IN the accounts is not considered as an asset on either form (as an asset or investment). BUT the Profile DOES ask for balances in retirement accounts.</p>
<p>Tax deductible contributions WILL be added back to the AGI and assessed accordingly. While parent annuity and life insurance questions are asked by some private schools on the CSS, there are NO questions regarding student owned (UGMA/UTMA) annuities or life insurance.</p>
<p>It won't raise your income for FA purposes. Your income will be the same regardless of whether you put your money in a tax shelter, a 401K, Ira,etc, etc, so they will not increase your EFC. It's just that such contributions will not reduce your income as they do for tax purposes.</p>
<p>Two kids will be going to college (2014 and 2015). Great kids, potential for Ivy schools. Looking for ways to maximize grant/scholarship opportunities for them via financial planning for us (parents).</p>
<p>Hi - I recognize that you are a new poster - so if I may clarify. You should start a new thread. You will see a New Thread button towards the left above the individual threads on the Financial Aid page. It doesn’t work well to ask a new question on a thread that is over three years old and was on a specific topic.</p>
<p>Agree, please start a new thread, closing this one.</p>