529 Plan Financial Advisor in MD (suburbs) or D.C.?

[Anonymous]

I am interested in the D.C. 529 Plan. Anyone have a contact for an advisor that you would recommend? Tx!

[Anonymous]

We have worked with Christina Frangou of Fleet Street Financial Corp. Although she is in Maryland, she would be able to advise you on DC 529's.

Her direct telephone is 301-637-2562 and e-mail is [e-mail]. Street address is 11140 Rockville Pike, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20852
301-468-0100.

[Anonymous]

Don't buy dc 529 plan thru an advisor! You pay an extra % (like 5?) that you can easily avoid and really its pretty straightforward. what's your question? You can do most everything online now. If you are married, you can deduct up to $8000 off your DC taxes. Single is $4000.

[Anonymous]

I am a Maryland resident and am wondering the same thing. Would you recommend the Maryland College Investment Plan, or any other ones?

[Anonymous]

The Maryland College Investment Plan is OK - with the tax breaks it can make sense to do it if you are in state. Fees are pretty low. It isn't one that you would pick if you didn't live there.

The DC one is atrocious. VA is very good.

I would be very skeptical of financial advisors. In my experience the only thing they are good at is getting between you and your money; they generally can't tell you anything you couldn't find out yourself with a few minutes' research on the internet.

[Anonymous]

I think MD is a good plan for MD residents. IIRC VA's plan has good returns but requires you to go through an adviser with more fees.

[Anonymous]

Maryland has a great plan (not talking about the pre-paid). Its administered by T Rowe Price and their fees are very reasonable.

Dont even think of going through a advisor - that will cost you upfront or through higher fees.

[Anonymous]

With the Maryland plans, you are probably better off going with the investment plan instead of the pre-paid, as a PP said.

Prepaid plans in most states, including Maryland, assume a fairly low rate of return on your investment. This is so the state university system doesn't assume a lot of stock market risk. But generally you can get a higher rate of return investing through T Rowe Price and have more assets when DC is ready to go to college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With the Maryland plans, you are probably better off going with the investment plan instead of the pre-paid, as a PP said.

Prepaid plans in most states, including Maryland, assume a fairly low rate of return on your investment. This is so the state university system doesn't assume a lot of stock market risk. But generally you can get a higher rate of return investing through T Rowe Price and have more assets when DC is ready to go to college.

I am pretty sure this is incorrect. With MD's prepaid plan if you buy a year's worth of tuition and you don't go to a state school the plan will pay you whatever they are charging for a year's tuition at College Park that year (well, technically, they will give you the average of what every student at a state school is paying, but since most of them are at College Park that is more or less what you will get). Roughly speaking (leaving out interest charges if you finance your prepaid plan purchase), I think if College Park tuition goes up faster than the stock market then there's a good chance you'll do better in the prepaid plan than the savings plan. I there's a good argument at least for investing in both (now if it turns out to be too good a deal, that causes problems for the state and some states have had to take steps like closing enrollment but that's another issue).

[Anonymous]

this is a good reference IMO:
http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/category/7/76/215/381/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have worked with Christina Frangou of Fleet Street Financial Corp. Although she is in Maryland, she would be able to advise you on DC 529's.

Her direct telephone is 301-442-6815 and e-mail is [e-mail] - OR Street address is 11140 Rockville Pike, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20852
301-468-0100.

[Anonymous]

You don't need a 529 plan "advisor." You just set up the plan and put money in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:this is a good reference IMO:
http://clarkhoward.com/liveweb/shownotes/category/7/76/215/381/

I noticed that California is on his honor roll list. How can this possibly be given the states dire financial straits?

[Anonymous]

We bought the MD prepaid tuition plan for DC's about 7 years ago. DCs are now rising 7th and 10th graders. We paid over $9000 per school year for these plans. At the time the tuition was about $7500 year. I just checked the UMD website and the tuition for next year is only $8415/year. WTF! I should have invested the money. My guess is that it won't be much over that in 4 years. Of course, it was all just a gamble. We were assuming tuition would go up a $1000 a year indefinitely.