In this eye-opening session, college planning experts Beth Walker and Joe Messinger will show financial advisors how even high-income, high-asset families — including business owners — can implement sophisticated strategies to optimize financial aid outcomes. Using real-world case studies, they will demonstrate how strategic income timing, asset positioning, and business planning decisions can meaningfully reduce out-of-pocket college costs, even for clients who assume they won’t qualify for aid.
Jonathan Sparling of Private 529 Plan will join Beth and Joe to present sophisticated 529 plan strategies many advisors overlook. Jonathan’s review will include the power of grandparent-owned 529 plans, how funding 529 accounts during low-income years can create meaningful state tax arbitrage opportunities, how ownership structuring can position 529s as a powerful financial aid asset strategy for divorced or remarried families, and how deliberate beneficiary “generation shifting” can extend tax-free compounding across decades. Jonathan will also explore he unique value of private 529 plans — including the ability to lock in tuition at participating private colleges, hedge tuition inflation risk, reduce reported parental assets (depending on structure), and potentially improve financial aid positioning.