Financial advisors who specialize in FAFSA etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question for anyone who knows:

If a family of 4 currently has a low income but a large stock portfolio abroad (a family brokerage account, not retirement account, in a parent's name and has been reported to the IRS for years), they're not eligible for aid, right?

This is our situation.

Do you have money accessible to you and under your name? If the answer is yes, then it counts. WTF. Aid is like most things when given freely, it is a sliding scale. You just need to do the application and stop whining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for anyone who knows:

If a family of 4 currently has a low income but a large stock portfolio abroad (a family brokerage account, not retirement account, in a parent's name and has been reported to the IRS for years), they're not eligible for aid, right?

This is our situation.

Do you have money accessible to you and under your name? If the answer is yes, then it counts. WTF. Aid is like most things when given freely, it is a sliding scale. You just need to do the application and stop whining.

Why are you so rude? Is asking a question "whining" now? The next time YOU ask a question, will you be fine with people excoriating you?

You guys really need to chill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Question for anyone who knows:

If a family of 4 currently has a low income but a large stock portfolio abroad (a family brokerage account, not retirement account, in a parent's name and has been reported to the IRS for years), they're not eligible for aid, right?

This is our situation.

Do you have money accessible to you and under your name? If the answer is yes, then it counts. WTF. Aid is like most things when given freely, it is a sliding scale. You just need to do the application and stop whining.

Why are you so rude? Is asking a question "whining" now? The next time YOU ask a question, will you be fine with people excoriating you?

You guys really need to chill.

FYI - there are more than one "rude" "nasty" posters here. I think you are getting posters all mixed up. I was called "nasty" but I think you were confusing me with someone else too. Above is another, different poster

[Anonymous]

"If a family of 4 currently has a low income but a large stock portfolio abroad (a family brokerage account, not retirement account, in a parent's name and has been reported to the IRS for years), they're not eligible for aid, right?"

It depends on what you mean by low. If they have a HHI of about $50K or less, then it's possible they'd qualify for a Pell Grant. Might also qualify for more of their loans to be subsidized vs. unsubsidized. At the 25-30 most elite schools that are "meets-need" it might qualify you for some school-based grants. In some states it might qualify you for public grants. The hardest part with the meets-need schools is getting in, give their extreme selectivity.

Where moving money around might make a difference for the average family that doesn't fit the profile above:

* Student assets are assessed at a higher rate than parental assets. So, don't have your kid hold money in an accessible account if you can hold it for them.
* Retirement accounts, for both parents and students, are shielded under FAFSA. So, put money in there if you can.
* Save as much as possible as soon as possible in a tax-free product like a 529. Having money set aside to pay for a school will give your kid so much more flexibility when it comes to admissions. They can choose their best fit school rather than the cheapest school. Also, schools that are not need-blind for admissions will look more favorably upon your full pay kid than one that needs a huge scholarship, so that could give them a leg up at a school they really want to attend.

Most people don't know that the main driver of your EFC, which is what determines whether you qualify for a Pell Grant or other things, is your income. Parental assets are only assessed at about 6%. So, if you want to lower your EFC, you pretty much have to lower your income. If you are an older parent and your kid is starting college when you're ready to retire, it might make sense to stop earning income IF AND ONLY IF your lower income would be about $50K or lower (like a spouse's income) or if your student is likely to have a strong shot at one of the meets-need schools. (These schools will give financial aid to students with a HHI of about $150K). But if you're going to do this, you have to stop working two years before your kid starts college, since the FAFSA is based on your prior prior year taxes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't ask "can it be done", I asked for names of people who can advise me what to do. Thanks for answering the question I didn't ask though.

I'll give you a name: LOSER

DP. Why so aggressive? Are you jealous that OP may be richer than you? It's very hard to lie on these forms. OP just wants to tinker with what they have to see whether there's anything to be done. That's WISE. The opposite of being a loser.

Why do people on this board just assume the FAFSA and CSS can be fooled? That's not really possible, unless you want to open yourself up to dire consequences. Totally not worth it. But it may be worth it to consult with a financial adviser and talk it through.

DP: Are you OP in disguise? Maybe not b/c you said OP wants to tinker, but the eyeroll PP/OP snubbed their nose at useful tinkering advice and said name only, so PP gave them an (albeit curt) name!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't ask "can it be done", I asked for names of people who can advise me what to do. Thanks for answering the question I didn't ask though.

Wow you're rude. I and others were trying to be helpful. My post about paying for planned expenditures is for other folks then. Honestly, this probably opened the door for any "nastiness." Something like "I would still love some FA recommendations" would have more than sufficed.

[Anonymous]

OP, did you try just calling a financial advisor? I would think any could give you general advice, like keep a 529 in the parent’s name, not the child’s name. If you have catch up retirement savings to do, do even you can to do it prior to the reporting year, not while your DC is in college when it counts as earnings. These are things everyone should check in on and they aren’t cheats. The point of the FAFSA is while you have a child in school, your resources go towards that in a way that’s identical to other families that file. What everyone does when their kid is not in college can and should be different.

[Anonymous]

Last year our child's high school posted about a webinar being offered by this group that promised to help you complete the FAFSA and get the maximum amount of aid. We listened to it and they talked all about how families just didn't understand the form so they didn't complete it correctly so it cost them in the long run.

We really thought that there was some way of doing it that they knew that would really make a difference. They charged a few thousand dollars. Before signing on the dotted line I did one more google to see if I could find any negative info on the group and though I did not, I did uncover an old article that talked about groups like this who help parents and some of the ways involved purchasing life insurance and annuities. We weren't interested in pursing that kind of thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, did you try just calling a financial advisor? I would think any could give you general advice, like keep a 529 in the parent’s name, not the child’s name. If you have catch up retirement savings to do, do even you can to do it prior to the reporting year, not while your DC is in college when it counts as earnings. These are things everyone should check in on and they aren’t cheats. The point of the FAFSA is while you have a child in school, your resources go towards that in a way that’s identical to other families that file. What everyone does when their kid is not in college can and should be different.

How is a 529 held in trust counted? 5 percent like a regular 529 or 25 like an utma?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year our child's high school posted about a webinar being offered by this group that promised to help you complete the FAFSA and get the maximum amount of aid. We listened to it and they talked all about how families just didn't understand the form so they didn't complete it correctly so it cost them in the long run.

We really thought that there was some way of doing it that they knew that would really make a difference. They charged a few thousand dollars. Before signing on the dotted line I did one more google to see if I could find any negative info on the group and though I did not, I did uncover an old article that talked about groups like this who help parents and some of the ways involved purchasing life insurance and annuities. We weren't interested in pursing that kind of thing.

Ugh, I really hate how there are always scams ready to prey on folks just trying to get by.

Also, if it is too good to be true it is too good to be true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't ask "can it be done", I asked for names of people who can advise me what to do. Thanks for answering the question I didn't ask though.

I'll give you a name: LOSER

Right??? There's a reason why OP has turned to an anonymous boarding seeking this info - b/c no one in OP's life is willing to answer questions given the rudeness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't ask "can it be done", I asked for names of people who can advise me what to do. Thanks for answering the question I didn't ask though.

Wow you're rude. I and others were trying to be helpful. My post about paying for planned expenditures is for other folks then. Honestly, this probably opened the door for any "nastiness." Something like "I would still love some FA recommendations" would have more than sufficed.

+1 I'm sure you're going to get lots of great help with your approach. Maybe that poster will share the name of the several thousand dollar fee group that wants to sell you life insurance annuities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, OP is willing to spend thousands on a financial advisor but not willing to pay what she owes for her kid's education.

"What you owe" is so completely arbitrary and the process is so opaque that the concept is meaningless. Two people with the same income and assets can end up with wildly different aid offers for reasons that neither party will ever know. If your kid gets a free ride because this year they want female flute players but my kid has to pay full price because they already have enough male Eagle Scouts, does that mean you didn't "pay what you owe" but I did?

You are really stretching it. OP is talking about strategically rearranging or reporting/not reporting her true assets so she can transfer the burden of paying to some other families. It's also know as "gaming" the system. If that doesn't bother you, then you have a deeper issue.

Not PP you replied to, but the point is that you can't really hide your assets.
You can rearrange your assets only on the edges, and it likely won't make much a difference.

I commend OP for confirming this with a financial advisor, because it's better to KNOW, than to read the jealous stupidity and aggression on DCUM. Moreover, OP might indeed fall into the minuscule number of cases where LEGAL re-arrangement might make a difference - and that would be ethically fine. It would be silly not to try. Anyone of you would surely try to minimize college costs if you could legally do so!!!

So stop being so nasty. Good Lord.

Highly unlikely. People like that already have a financial planning team and lawyers working with them for years; they don't need to ask internet advice for an advisor "specializing" in paying for college. This is not how it works, you have to be looking at the whole financial picture long term.

What a stupid comment. I'm not the OP but I am a single parent with some financial struggles and a very complicated financial situation due to my divorce. It's unlikely that that financial advisor could advise me to do something that could really help me???? Plenty of people would benefit from this who no, do not have a financial planning team and lawyers. FFS. Not everyone is you. I know a housekeeper who got to the point where she wanted to invest and opened a brokerage account-- not a retirement account. She has HS kids and that money will be fair game. It's not a miniscule number of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, OP is willing to spend thousands on a financial advisor but not willing to pay what she owes for her kid's education.

"What you owe" is so completely arbitrary and the process is so opaque that the concept is meaningless. Two people with the same income and assets can end up with wildly different aid offers for reasons that neither party will ever know. If your kid gets a free ride because this year they want female flute players but my kid has to pay full price because they already have enough male Eagle Scouts, does that mean you didn't "pay what you owe" but I did?

You are really stretching it. OP is talking about strategically rearranging or reporting/not reporting her true assets so she can transfer the burden of paying to some other families. It's also know as "gaming" the system. If that doesn't bother you, then you have a deeper issue.

Not PP you replied to, but the point is that you can't really hide your assets.
You can rearrange your assets only on the edges, and it likely won't make much a difference.

I commend OP for confirming this with a financial advisor, because it's better to KNOW, than to read the jealous stupidity and aggression on DCUM. Moreover, OP might indeed fall into the minuscule number of cases where LEGAL re-arrangement might make a difference - and that would be ethically fine. It would be silly not to try. Anyone of you would surely try to minimize college costs if you could legally do so!!!

So stop being so nasty. Good Lord.

Highly unlikely. People like that already have a financial planning team and lawyers working with them for years; they don't need to ask internet advice for an advisor "specializing" in paying for college. This is not how it works, you have to be looking at the whole financial picture long term.

What a stupid comment. I'm not the OP but I am a single parent with some financial struggles and a very complicated financial situation due to my divorce. It's unlikely that that financial advisor could advise me to do something that could really help me???? Plenty of people would benefit from this who no, do not have a financial planning team and lawyers. FFS. Not everyone is you. I know a housekeeper who got to the point where she wanted to invest and opened a brokerage account-- not a retirement account. She has HS kids and that money will be fair game. It's not a miniscule number of people.

what are you babbling about?

[Anonymous]

OP's rudeness rankles, but, as someone who attended college on near total FA (grants, merit, + loans), I'm annoyed when someone has enough money to pay an advisor to figure out how to save more money. Just feels like if you have the ability to pay, you should pay. I am now fortunate to be full pay for our DCs and we are going to pay. One got a modest merit award, so congrats to that DC. But I'm not going to pay someone to figure out how to game the system.

And the folks who come on here with their modest incomes in addition to trust funds - they want aid to preserve their inheritance. I kinda get it, but you are really a minority when most folks with modest incomes don't have two nickels to their name. Strongly suggest you not share your hardship because it is gonna go over like a lead balloon.

GL to everyone else trying to figure it out.