529 plans owned by the grandparents do not have to be listed on the FAFSA, however, FAFSA does require students to report distributions from those plans. Worse, the penalties do not occur until the student’s second year in college, often blindsiding the parents with a reduced financial aid award. If your family has the benefit [...]
Your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) will be lowered on each child’s FAFSA report when more than one of your children attend college at the same time. The EFC for each child is calculated by dividing a family's EFC by the number of children attending college at the same time, even if they attend different colleges. [...]
It Depends. The value of retirement accounts do not count against you on FAFSA, although the contributions in a given year are added to the EFC. Non-retirement accounts (non-qualified) are assessed on FAFSA for all children and after a certain threshold level for parents. If you have assets that count against you on FAFSA it [...]
YES, if you want to receive financial aid for college. It is a long form with over 100 questions and about that many pages of instructions. The majority of FAFSA forms are filled out incorrectly. In many respects the FAFSA is similar to the IRS 1040 long form. It’s wise to have your FAFSA reviewed [...]
One of the biggest penalties (and usually not discussed by people selling these plans) is that these plans may significantly increase a family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The EFC is what the Federal government determines to be a family’s minimum responsibility to pay for college. In many cases the amount a family saves in taxes [...]