In our experience, parents are looking for solutions to reduce the out-of-pocket cost of college.  Well-informed parents know that without proper advice, they will spend more for their child’s education than necessary.  This is especially true for parents who will not qualify for need-based financial aid.

On this page we’ll share with you some of the results achieved by a few of the College Funding Resource clients.

Grandparent Helping
A grandfather wanted to help pay for his grandchildren’s college education.  For years he had purchased saving bonds through his employer.  But he had never wanted to redeem the bonds because he did not want to take the tax hit.  We suggested after consulting his tax advisor, he consider re-titling his bonds jointly with his grandchildren.  This client now has set aside more than $10,000 for each grandchild with no current tax liability.

Unintended Consequences
Parents with one child in college and one entering college in the upcoming year, were losing out on much needed financial aid.  Their income was modest ($65,000) and most of their assets were held in non-assessable assets.   We undertook a review of their income and assets to determine the impact on potential financial aid and found they were unintentionally increasing their income by taking distributions from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).  For every $10,000 IRA distribution, the client would potentially lose $4,700 in financial aid.  They now have revised their college funding strategy to enhance their ability to qualify for financial aid and plan to use their retirement assets as intended – for their own retirement!

Picking the Right School
A married couple with one daughter, a high school senior, were contemplating colleges.  Despite one parent who being disabled for a number of years, they had always lived within their means.  It resulted in a paid off home and investment property.  There are two methodologies for computing a family’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC), federal and institutional.  Once they understood the difference the two methodologies would have on their finances, they were able to direct their daughter to focus on schools using the federal methodology.  Since they were not going to qualify for need-based financial aid – this insight saved them thousands of dollars over the four years of college.

Cash Flow Problem
A couple that jointly owned a retail business were paying $35,000 a year for a public state college.  Over the next three years, they were anticipating paying $105,000 (before tuition increases) out of their cash flow to complete their oldest child’s college education. And they had another son who would be entering college in two years.  They were concerned about how they were going manage paying for both educations and their own retirement shortly thereafter. We developed a plan that allowed them to preserve more of their cash and beef up their retirement assets at the same time.  It gave them much needed peace of mind about two of the biggest expenses a family faces.

Two for One
A single parent had recently gotten divorced and sold her home.  She wanted to preserve the proceeds from the sale of the house to use to pay for her daughter’s college education.  But she was particularly concerned about saving in a way that would not hurt her daughter’s future financial aid eligibility.  She was also concerned about completion of a college fund if she should become disabled or died prematurely.  The result was to reposition the family’s investment into a vehicle that would not affect the daughter’s eligibility for financial aid.  It had the added advantage of enabling the child to attend college even if her mother become disabled or died.

Now you have a better idea of what we can provide, find out Is College Funding Consulting for You?