It's College Savings Month, Do You Have a Plan?
September 12, 2019 | sponsored by Achieve Montana
It’s not a holiday that shows up on your phone’s calendar, but September is College Savings Month. What a perfect time to start planning for your child’s education, and how you will pay for it. The cost of higher education is a large expense for many Montana families. But that doesn’t mean it is unaffordable, it just means you need a plan. Achieve Montana can help get you started.
As the official 529 plan for Montana, Achieve Montana strives to make saving for a college education simple. Parents, grandparents, and others can use an Achieve Montana account as an affordable and effective way to save for the future education of their children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Since there is no single strategy that meets everyone’s needs, Achieve Montana accounts have generous contribution limits and a range of attractive investment options. Investments have immediate tax benefits, and accounts can be opened with as little as $25 ($15 with payroll direct deposit, where available). And, since being a parent doesn’t happen during 9-5 business hours, neither does your ability to manage your account. You can do almost everything online, including making contributions, reallocations, qualified withdrawals, update account information, and more.
The Ugift® program is an easy, free-to-use service that lets family and friends give financial gifts toward your child’s future education. Gift contributions can be made online or by check, and gift-givers don’t have to join, register, or pay a service fee. What a simple way to give a meaningful gift for birthdays, Christmas, or just because.
Not sure what your child wants to be when they grow up? Not a problem. An Achieve Montana account is flexible, providing benefits for a variety of your child’s educational needs. The assets in your 529 account can help pay for tuition, fees, books, supplies, equipment, and certain room and board costs, at any eligible 2- or 4-year college, vocational/technical school, qualified career-retraining schools, or graduate school anywhere in the country.
A recent survey by Sallie Mae showed that 92% of parents believe education is an investment in their child’s future (How America Values Collage 2018). Why not take a break from raking the leaves and celebrate College Savings Month by taking the first steps toward helping pay for your child’s higher education? Visit AchieveMontana.com to sign up or call 1-877-486-9271 for more information.
Disclaimer:
Investing in Achieve Montana is an important decision for you and your family. Please carefully review and consider the Enrollment Kit available at AchieveMontana.com before making an investment decision. It includes a Program Description that discusses investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other information that are important for you to consider.
If you are not a Montana taxpayer, before investing in Achieve Montana, you should consider the benefits of your home state’s qualified tuition program. It may provide taxpayers with state tax and other benefits such as financial aid, scholarship funds, and protection from creditors, that are only available through your home state’s qualified tuition program.
Tax and other benefits are contingent on meeting other requirements and certain withdrawals are subject to federal, state, and local taxes.
Achieve Montana is sponsored by the State of Montana and administered by the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education, as sole trustee of the Montana Family Education Savings Trust (Trust). Ascensus College Savings Recordkeeping Services, LLC provides program management, recordkeeping and administrative support services for Achieve Montana. The Vanguard Group, Inc. and Dimensional Fund Advisors LP each serve as investment managers for the underlying mutual funds comprising Achieve Montana’s portfolios. New York Life Insurance Company serves as manager of Achieve Montana’s Capital Preservation Portfolio. Except to the extent of the New York Life Insurance Company guarantee that is available for the Capital Preservation Portfolio, investment returns are not guaranteed, and you could lose money by investing in Achieve Montana. Ugift® is a registered service mark of Ascensus Broker Dealer Services. LLC., an affiliate of Ascensus College Savings Recordkeeping Services, LLC.
