How to Ask for Gifts to a 529 Account

Sending my son off to college has been on my mind lately. I have a 16 year old son and like most parents of 16 year old boys, I am trying to get him to think farther ahead than his next video game.

As his parent, I realize that these next two years are critical to getting him on the right track for college and then the rest of his working life.

My son is very much into computer programming and wants to go into video game design. He and I have been having the weighty discussion about what schools are best, how much does it pay per year in this job, where are the jobs, what are the requirements to get the job and how many openings are there in this field.

His first thought was I don't need college because I can write a great app and make a million. I popped that bubble when I pointed out why wait go ahead and write it in high school. Easier said than done and making $100K+ playing video games didn't work out too well either.

As a financial advisor, at least, I have been listening to my own advice and I have both a 529 and an coverdell account for him. He doesn't know anything about the accounts and I did that intentionally, in part because I am stressing he look for merit based scholarships. I want him to be an active participant in his education because I feel it will mean more to him if he can provide for part of it, even if that does mean he has to write tons of essays.

I set up those accounts for the boys before they were in first grade and they have been actively managed since then. There was one thing I didn't do though and I really think I messed up with this one. I didn't ask any of the family to contribute to the accounts. I knew they could and I tell clients that their family can but the light bulb never came on for me on this. I was reading a a post by Fidelity and it was literally on asking for 529 gifts and I had to ask myself why did I never do this. Truth is, I really don't have a good answer. If I had, maybe we would have enough for MIT. He mentioned that the school the other day and Dad did the quick math in his head and that price tag alone can make you have a headache.

I am going to include the Fidelity article link and, in addition, I am going to encourage you, if you want to discuss if this is something you should be doing for you children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, call me at 940-781-6053 or email me at fwilson@iscgroup.com 

Below here are the key takeaways and the link to the full article.

Your friends and family are going to give gifts anyway—why not give the gift of education?

Key Takeaways

Frank E. Wilson

Financial Advisor ISC Group, Inc.