{"id":3743,"date":"2014-04-17T06:17:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T13:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging-prblog.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/?p=3743"},"modified":"2017-09-13T09:52:58","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T16:52:58","slug":"529-college-savings-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/newsroom\/529-plans-questions-and-answers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">529 college savings plans<\/a><\/span> are a great investment vehicle for college savings, and they have some interesting features that can make them very advantageous.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some of the benefits of 529 college savings plans<b>:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are no income or age restrictions for contributing<\/li>\n<li>High limits on contribution amounts \u2013 you can put away as much as $300,000+, which is especially helpful for those who\u00a0have multiple children attending college in the future (whereas <strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/taxtopics\/tc310.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Coverdell Education Savings Accounts<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>ONLY allow $2,000 in contributions per year per beneficiary)<\/li>\n<li>You are NOT limited to just your in-state plan, so you can pick the best 529 college savings plan available for your college savings needs<\/li>\n<li>You are NOT limited to only in-state colleges\/schools if you use that specific state plan<\/li>\n<li>There are 2 types of 529 college savings plans \u2013 investment plans &amp; prepaid tuition plans \u2013 to choose from, depending on your needs<\/li>\n<li>Tax advantages include tax-deferred growth, state resident 529 contribution tax incentives (need to check those for each specific state plan), annual gift tax exclusion of $13,000, 5-year lump contribution exception to avoid gift tax, and qualified withdrawals for school use are FREE from federal income tax<\/li>\n<li>If the parent is the account owner, the 529 account is factored less heavily in the financial aid calculation formula (quite complex) than if it were in the student\u2019s\/child\u2019s name (grandparent 529 assets are NOT considered in the financial aid calculation formula)<\/li>\n<li>Beneficiaries can be changed easily if needed to other family members who will use the $ for higher education expenses<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are also some possible disadvantages with 529 college savings plans though:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sometimes these plans\u00a0can carry high expenses in the form of administration fees, commissions, distribution fees, etc., so be mindful of those costs with each specific plan<\/li>\n<li>You are limited to the investment choices your plan offers, and state prepaid plans offer no investment choices<\/li>\n<li>Withdrawals that are not for qualified education expenses are not only subject to taxes, but also a 10% federal penalty on the earnings amount<\/li>\n<li>Prepaid tuition plans are usually limited to your state of residence (there are exceptions to this)<\/li>\n<li>You have a limited amount of allowed investment changes (1 or 2 per year for most plans)<\/li>\n<li>All\/some of your investment\u00a0is subject to risk \u2013 there are no guaranteed returns<span style=\"line-height: 1.5em;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Find an experienced financial advisor who often deals with 529 college savings plans,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/ebooks\/why-you-need-independent-financial-advice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>works for an RIA firm<\/strong><\/a><\/span>, earns his\/her money from fees (NOT commissions), believes in having an abundance of investment choices for clients, and has the heart &amp; demeanor of a teacher, NOT a salesman, and chances are you\u2019ve found the right financial advisor to help you prepare and plan for your college savings.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about Martin Federici, view his <strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/financial-advisor\/dallas-pennsylvania\/Martin.Federici.Jr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paladin Registry profile<\/a><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings, and they have some interesting features that can make them very advantageous. Here are some of the benefits of 529 college savings plans: There are no income or age restrictions for contributing High limits on contribution amounts \u2013 you can put away as much as $300,000+, which is especially helpful for those who\u00a0have multiple children attending college in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":8681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings. Learn about the benefits and possible disadvantages of investing.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings. Learn about the benefits and possible disadvantages of investing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paladin Registry Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/marty.federici\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-17T13:17:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-13T16:52:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"688\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Martin Federici, Jr.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mfadvisers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PaladinRegistry\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Martin Federici, Jr.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/\",\"name\":\"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-17T13:17:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-13T16:52:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cb07bbd1f4f1e3dda452fe9bc8abe85e\"},\"description\":\"529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings. Learn about the benefits and possible disadvantages of investing.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":688,\"caption\":\"529 college savings plan\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Investing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/category\/investing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Paladin Registry Blog\",\"description\":\"Helping You Make Better Financial Decisions\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cb07bbd1f4f1e3dda452fe9bc8abe85e\",\"name\":\"Martin Federici, Jr.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/martin-federici-bio-pic-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/martin-federici-bio-pic-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Martin Federici, Jr.\"},\"description\":\"Martin Federici is happily married to his beautiful wife since 1999, have 3 young active children, is an avid sports enthusiast (especially basketball), healthy eater, regular exerciser, CEO of 2 practices with a fantastic friend and business partner, practicing financial advisor\/planner since 2005, and loves his clients - life is good!\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.mfadvisers.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/marty.federici\",\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/martinfederici\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/mfadvisers\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/author\/martin-federici\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?","description":"529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings. Learn about the benefits and possible disadvantages of investing.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?","og_description":"529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings. Learn about the benefits and possible disadvantages of investing.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/","og_site_name":"Paladin Registry Blog","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/marty.federici","article_published_time":"2014-04-17T13:17:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-13T16:52:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1100,"height":688,"url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Martin Federici, Jr.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@mfadvisers","twitter_site":"@PaladinRegistry","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Martin Federici, Jr.","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/","url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/","name":"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg","datePublished":"2014-04-17T13:17:31+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-13T16:52:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cb07bbd1f4f1e3dda452fe9bc8abe85e"},"description":"529 college savings plans are a great investment vehicle for college savings. Learn about the benefits and possible disadvantages of investing.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/529-college-savings-plan.jpg","width":1100,"height":688,"caption":"529 college savings plan"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/investing\/529-college-savings-plans\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Investing","item":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/category\/investing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"529 College Savings Plans \u2013 Are They For You?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/","name":"Paladin Registry Blog","description":"Helping You Make Better Financial Decisions","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cb07bbd1f4f1e3dda452fe9bc8abe85e","name":"Martin Federici, Jr.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/martin-federici-bio-pic-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/martin-federici-bio-pic-96x96.png","caption":"Martin Federici, Jr."},"description":"Martin Federici is happily married to his beautiful wife since 1999, have 3 young active children, is an avid sports enthusiast (especially basketball), healthy eater, regular exerciser, CEO of 2 practices with a fantastic friend and business partner, practicing financial advisor\/planner since 2005, and loves his clients - life is good!","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mfadvisers.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/marty.federici","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/martinfederici","https:\/\/x.com\/mfadvisers"],"url":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/author\/martin-federici\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3743"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8682,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3743\/revisions\/8682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paladinregistry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}