529 plan accounts are frequently used as tax-efficient and cost-effective vehicles for these education funding purposes. But some parents and grandparents remain reluctant to use them, or to contribute to them as much as they could, out of fear that these accounts may become overfunded.
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act also contained provisions affecting 529 plans, tax planning, and employee benefits. Let's take a look at some of these other new rules:
In the last installment of Articles on Wealth Management Topics, we discussed academic research on different ways to estimate the magnitude of future stock market returns. As a refresher, the worst of the ways studied was to extrapolate future returns from past returns. Nearly as ineffective is to base estimates of future returns on surveys of individual and institutional investors.
The Tax Policy Center estimates that recent changes to the tax code in the form of last year's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) "... will cut individual income taxes for 65 percent of households overall, but raise taxes for about 6 percent of households." Even so, why not resolve to improve your financial situation even more in the New Year. Depending on your circumstances, there may be a variety of moves to make to reduce your tax bills (or to offset them by saving money in other ways).
Getting good grades can dramatically reduce total college expenses in a number of ways. Beyond bribing your kids and grandchildren in return for academic performance, here are some other tips and tools to keep college expenses under control:
Education is an ongoing hot-button issue in Utah. One aspect of education funding that we should be able to come together on, however, is that we are lucky to have one of the best 529 plans in the country here in the Beehive state.
Under the Federal financial aid formula, financial aid is reduced 35 cents for every dollar of student assets, but only 5.6 cents for every dollar of parental assets. In this regard, UGMA and UTMA accounts, considered an asset of the student, are less attractive as college funding vehicles than parental 529 accounts.
Families have a tendency to underestimate their eligibility for need-based financial aid for college. Many wealthy parents, in particular, wonder whether it's worthwhile to apply for financial aid.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the annual form that determines a family's eligibility for need-based grants, loans, and work-study funds. Starting with the current application for the 2017-18 college school year, the process for filing this form has changed.