Unlike last year, when the Asset Protection Allowance in the FAFSA formula plummeted, adding thousands of dollars of family education savings back into the formula, this year’s numbers are generally modest changes from the 2016-2017 formula. The big ones that change annually are the Income and Asset Protection Allowances. Here are some examples of updated numbers:
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FAFSA
There appears to be a fair amount of confusion around the upcoming FAFSA. To recap, there has been one big change for the 2017-2018 school year: the FAFSA will be available Oct. 1, 2016, instead of Jan. 1, 2017. That results in another big change: going forward, the FAFSA will use “prior-prior” year income data. For example,
One question I get a lot in my financial planning practice is “How should I help with my grandchildren’s college costs?” There are many options: opening a 529 account on your own, gifting into the parents’ 529 accounts, UTMAs, direct payment of tuition, just to name a few. The answer, as is so often the case, is It Depends.
What happens when PLUS loans are part of a student’s aid package but the parents don’t qualify for the loans? (Unlike direct student loans, PLUS loans have an approval process much like most other forms of loans.) In such a case, it’s likely that the parents will have problems qualifying for any other “good” loans,
For most people, college is not affordable, even with an aid package. If the aid package at your dream school is insufficient, you might be thinking of trying to negotiate a better one. While aid adjustments are generally infrequent, the worst that can happen if you ask is that they say no; the school won’t rescind the original offer. Colleges…