Using Your U.Plan Funds

Please note that this transcript was auto-generated. We apologize for any minor errors in spelling or grammar.

[00:00:00] Now, I'm going to try to share my screen as gracefully as possible here, probably won't be graceful enough.

All right, well, thank you so much for joining me for our Using Your UPLAN Savings webinar. This is for savers in the UPLAN program who are coming up to the time when their child is in college or children are in college and they want to use their funds, but they have accounts maturing rather and they want to use their funds.

And this is how you go about doing that. and the different issues that can come up and the different questions that do come up when people are approaching this point, uh, and how this sort of matches with what's going on. So just so you [00:01:00] know, we do have a live transcript feature. I think somebody's actually already activated it.

So you'll see a printout of what I'm saying down below. So if you, you want to do that, you just click that live transcript button. Um, the chat has been disabled so you can. And should present questions through the Q and A. So as I'm going, feel free to just add those questions in. It's easy for me to see anyways, it's much easier for me to see through the Q and A.

Uh, even if for some reason the chat isn't disabled as it should, if you can please put questions through the Q and A, uh, I will answer them as I go, unless I know we're coming to it and then, um, I'll answer that at the time. I'll also be around afterwards to talk privately if you have any questions after the fact, and my information will be given to you when the recording and the slides are emailed to you.

My name is Jonathan Hughes. I'm the [00:02:00] Associate Director of College Planning and Content Creation at MIFA. I've been at MIFA for over 20 years. I've worked with the U Plan. For about 20 years, actually, and for a very long time, all of the Upland accounts were administered. in MIFA, within MIFA, that is, internally.

So if you called up and you had questions about your Uplant funds or Uplant distributions, there's a good chance you talked to me or one of my three or four colleagues at the time, uh, whoever they may have been, uh, to, to, to get answers on these questions. So the reason I bring this up is that I'm very familiar with the U plan.

Uh, and I love the U plan and, um, I think it's a great program. So I think you've done very well to save in the U plan. And hopefully when it comes time to use your funds, it's a pleasant experience. So, um, as we always do just want to start it off. talking about MIFA. MIFA is the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority.

We're a state authority created in 1982 [00:03:00] with a public service mission to help families to plan, save, and pay for college. We do that in a variety of ways. If you're Upland customers, then you already know how we can help you save for college. Um, if you have, um, Children or students who are headed off to college soon, then we have all sorts of things that may be able to help you with any questions that you may have in that process.

So, um, we are a free resource for you to use of all questions related to planning, saving and paying for college. We do have these you plan programs and we do have. which are fixed interest rate educational loans as well. So, um, if you have questions, just don't feel shy to reach out to us on any topics related to college financing.

Um, because we're, we're more than just the U plan. Now, what we'll talk about today, you see a lot of bullet points here. We're going to talk about, I tried to sort of take this [00:04:00] chronologically and see where you might be in this process now or recently, and then kind of go through the summer and through your distribution of your U plan funds and sort of anticipate the questions that may come up or that you may have.

So the first thing that we're going to talk about is the U plan and financial aid. But So how does the U plan intersect with financial aid? Do you have to claim it on your financial aid forms? And how, um, when to use your U plan savings. So we're in that season right now, but we'll talk about the specifics of when you're notified and when those things happen, how you can actually request a U plan distribution, whether it's to a college or to yourself as, as the owner.

We'll go over the participating colleges. the value of you plan savings, how much to request, because that can vary depending on how much you may need. We'll talk about the differences between sending funds to a participating college and cashing out [00:05:00] to owners. So those have, uh, different consequences attached to them.

So we'll talk about what some of those are. We'll talk about post maturity interest as well. What that is and how that is. given to you when you use your funds. And then if you have leftover funds in your Upland account, how those are treated. So remember, if you have questions as I go through, please submit them through the Q and A.

So, uh, the Upland in financial aid, if the Upland is owned by a parent, then that U plan account is treated as a parent at asset on the FAFSA. So just to back up a little bit, when you're applying for financial aid, you're going to be filing what's called a FAFSA, which is a free application for federal student aid that goes to every college that the student is applying to that form.

And it's what you [00:06:00] need in order to be eligible for federal aid, federal student aid. state based student aid, and most colleges also base their financial aid eligibility figures on what's on the FAFSA. Um, there may be additional forms, depending on the college, that you need to file. The most common of these is the CSS profile.

So, uh, that is a college based form, and it's up to the college whether or not they're going to require a CSS profile on top of the FAFSA. So, The way that those forms work, you answer parent income, student income, parent assets, and student assets. So if a parent owns a U Plan, then the U Plan is looked at as a parent asset.

And the amount that you would list on your U Plan is the amount that you have saved for this particular [00:07:00] student that you are filing. Your FAFSA for what you put in plus the interest. So not the value of your prepaid percentage, which we'll get into. Um, but I know that you, you all have percentages for your participating colleges.

Um, you don't have to try to figure that out. It's just what you put in plus the interest. Um, and again, this is only for, if you have let's say three students that you're saving for and you have one child going to college, you're filing that one FAFSA, you only have to list the value of your U plan account for that student in which you're filing the FAFSA for, which is a change this year.

It used to be that you had to list the entirety of all of your U plan accounts on every single FAFSA that you file. But right now, all they're looking for is what you put in plus the interest for the student that you're filing your FAFSA for. Um, you should also know [00:08:00] that if you have a financial aid offer already from colleges, the value of that percentage that you have saved in the U plan is not based on your remaining balance, but on the overall.

Tuition and mandatory fee figure. So let's say to make the math easy for someone like me, you put in a 10, 000 and you bought a hundred percent of tuition for the year after you get your, so that means, you know, when the time comes to go to this college and let's say it costs 40, 000, now you now have a hundred percent of that or 40, 000.

You get financial aid and your balance is only 20, 000 after the grants and scholarships and loans and whatnot is factored in. You still have 100 percent of that 40, 000 left to save. It's not the percentage of your balance due. The overall tuition and mandatory fee figures. Um, and just a reminder that, you know, [00:09:00] people sometimes say, well, what should I use first?

Should I use scholarships? Should I use the U plan first? Use all your financial aid before turning to your U plan. Um, so that's your grants and scholarships. Certainly. Your gift aid, um, and then, you know, if financial, if loans are part of that financial aid, you can make that determination, but definitely you want to use your gift aid, your grants and your scholarships before, uh, you start to dip into your savings, uh, whether it's through the U plan or through another savings vehicle.

So when can I use my Upland savings? And this is where maturity years come into it. Now, when you first set up this account for your Upland, you were asked to list an owner, a beneficiary, which is the student, the amount that you're putting in and the year or years that you [00:10:00] want to use the money in. So you selected one or more of the years that the student was going to be in college and.

You know, if you're here, I'm assuming that your maturity years are coming up this year. So your, you plan certificates mature August 1st. of their maturity year. So if you've got a 2024 certificate, that means it's maturing August 1st of 2024. Now, in anticipation of the upcoming school year, you can start to direct your funds, your maturing funds, beginning in August.

March. So you're able to tell us now where you want your maturing funds sent. So if the child is, uh, attending a participating college, you can let us know that when the fund matures, to send it to that particular college. If you're cashing out, you can let us know that when it matures, we'll send it to you.

On the 1st of August that you would like the funds cashed out. Uh, so [00:11:00] you should be notified via email if you're set up to get our email correspondence, that you have accounts maturing and that you can feel free to go ahead and tell us where you want those sent. when they mature. You may have received a paper form as well.

So if you're not set up to get electronic correspondence that way, we would mail you a distribution form and it should list your certificate, what you put in, um, and then you can just sort of fill out that form and send it back to us and let us know. You can also call us up, um, and direct those funds as well.

So you can do that over the phone. Now, after August 1st. August 1st is our, is, is when the funds mature. U Plan funds are dispersed year round. So only, but only matured certificates can be dispersed through the normal procedure. So if you have funds that have not matured yet, they don't mature till next year, they're not going to [00:12:00] be able typically to be dispersed to college.

They're not, those, those funds are not liquid until their bond matures or reaches maturity. Um, so people. Are free now to reach out to us and let us know that when the funds mature, you want them sent in a particular manner, but you don't, there's no deadline for which you have to do that. Or you miss the year as the year goes on, you can have us send funds.

You can direct funds either to colleges or cashing out as well. So, um, it's not like you're going to miss a window this summer by which you, you sort of miss directing funds this year. We are constantly. processing distributions to colleges, uh, and cash outs of matured funds. But you can start as early as March and the funds don't go anywhere until they mature.

So how you can [00:13:00] actually request funds, I mentioned this a little bit already, if you haven't set up on, you plan online access, So if you haven't gone, uh, and set up online access to your account, and I would encourage you to do that if you haven't, because you can do all sorts of things online, including distribute funds.

Um, then if you haven't done that, you'll get the mailing form and you can fill that out and mail it in back to us. You can go online if you have set up your online access, um, and just sort of indicate through your account online where you want the funds sent. Or you can call us at 888 590 5653 and speak to a UPLAN representative.

Those phone lines are recorded so you can. process those requests over the phone. So it's very, very easy to request Upland funds. I mentioned this a few times already, [00:14:00] too. You have about three choices when it comes to how you want your funds distributed. Um, and these are the three choices that, for example, are on the Upland paper forms.

You can send funds to a participating college, you can cash out to the owner or you can hold. So, um, going over those options a little bit, If your child or your student is attending a participating UPLan college or university, it's typically worth more to have those funds sent to that college because it is worth a whatever percentage of tuition and mandatory fees.

That you purchased, uh, in, in the U plan. So you may have those U plan tuition percentages reports in front of you. That shows what you put in and the value of the percentage that you have purchased at each [00:15:00] participating college or university. Um, so as your. As, as the rate of tuition has increased, the value of your percentage has increased as well, and typically that, that outpaces, um, inflation, so it's typically worth more sent out that way.

The other option, especially attractive if the student is not attending or participating college or university, you can cash out. And if you cash out, you don't get paid. A percentage of tuition. You get what you put in plus the interest that has accrued on it. So, um, and that accrues at CPI. And so essentially that's what you get.

Um, and, or, as I said, you can choose to hold. the funds. And so you can hold if the child's, if the student's plans are not final, or if the student is [00:16:00] taking a year off, or if they're, they're not going to college, but you think they may change plans later on and actually use the funds at a participating college, you can hold onto the funds and see what happens.

And you're able to hold onto these funds until six years after maturity. So remember you set the date of maturity when you open the account. You can hold on to these until about six years after they mature. Eventually, you will have to do something with them. You'll have to either cash them out or send them to a college.

And here is a listing of the participating colleges and universities in the Uplant. It's a large network of private and public colleges. Um, so I'll leave it up here for just a minute so you can scan it and see if any of your students prospective colleges are part of the participating colleges and universities list.

Um, somebody had a question about Fidelity. They have an account through Fidelity. [00:17:00] Um, I will say that that is not a Uplan account. What you may be referring to is a U Fund account, which we have two savings programs that meet for the U Plan and the U Fund. The U Plan is our prepaid tuition program. The U Fund is a 529.

Now you may have both as well. So you may have one or the other or both. Um, but this presentation itself is about the plan and not the U fund. If you do have a U fund using those funds is pretty easy. You can call up fidelity. and have those funds either sent to the college or cashed out to you as the owner as well.

And, and, you know, that's a little bit different because that's just an investment vehicle. It doesn't prepay tuition. So it really doesn't make a difference in terms of the amount of it sent to the college or cashed out to you. Um, but if, if you are having it cashed out to you, You just want to make sure that you, um, keep a record of that.[00:18:00]

Uh, somebody else has a question as, uh, if there's a fourth option, can you take a distribution directly into a 529? You can't, that would be a cash out. Um, but the good thing is, and I think we talk about this later on, cashing out carries no tax consequences. So you can get what you put in plus the interest.

And then if you want to make that deposit into a 529, you can do that too.

It's a good point to stop and, and, uh, answer questions. So thank you. Who does?

Okay,

so this is about determining the value of your U plan savings. Um, because the value, the actual final value of these savings probably won't be known in many cases until it's ready to go [00:19:00] out. Now, remember I said that there are two different distribution types that you can take, you can send a distribution to a college and get what you put in, I'm sorry, and get the Percentage of tuition that you purchased, or you can cash out and get what you put in plus the interest.

So for school distributions, this is especially tricky sometimes because we know that many parents or many families have bills from colleges, so they may have gotten their financial aid offers from colleges already and seen a balance due and have a due date. Now they know that they have you plans. that they have ready to go to help pay that balance.

And they want to know how much they can expect from the U plan. So they need to know, you know, how much they might need to borrow or may need to come up with on their own. And so it can be difficult to figure [00:20:00] this out because certificates that mature August 1st will be worth a percentage of the upcoming year's tuition and mandatory fees.

So sometimes. colleges are, well, let me back up here. Colleges will be updating us with their tuition and mandatory fee figures for the upcoming year throughout the summer. So we send an initial email out to all of our participating colleges, asking them what their upcoming tuitions will be so that we can calculate the value of these U plan certificates that are going and U plan payments that are going to be sent to them, uh, on students behalf.

So many, those emails incidentally have already been sent out to colleges. Most colleges have responded to us, um, but not all of them have. So you can check the website and sort of try to see if you can [00:21:00] calculate if the colleges have updated us with their tuition and fee figures for next year. You're able to figure out the dollar value of your you plan payment to a college.

Um, if you don't see it there, you can call us up again at 888 560 5953. I think I may have gotten that wrong. Um, excuse me, at no 888 590 5653. And if that college has Um, got us their tuition and fee figures that we may be able to calculate the value or an estimate of that value because those things are subject to change if they're not finalized yet.

Um, so you can continue to call us up if we don't have the most recent figure, if we don't have the upcoming tuition and mandatory fee figure for the upcoming year. From the college [00:22:00] yet. Um, we're not going to be able to estimate for you, but keep contacting us if we don't have yet, because we are sort of sending out reminder emails to the colleges that haven't responded to us yet with their tuition fee figures.

Um, so once they do get that updated in the system, we'll be able to tell you the dollar value of what your, you plan payment will be to the college. So, you know, how much. you have to finance after that. Um, same thing in a sense with the cash out distribution. So what you get when you cash out is what you put in plus the interest.

Uh, so owners receive that. Um, but the interest is added to the investments every August 1st. So obviously we don't know what the CPI is going to be until it's added in August 1st. So you won't know your final Um, cash out amount until that point, you are able to see what has accrued on it up until then.

So, [00:23:00] you know, it's at least. what it is now and should be a bit more, but the exact amount won't be known until August 1st.

Someone wants to know if any colleges have stopped participating in the U plan in the last year. No, I don't believe there has been any in the last year that have stopped participating in the U plan. Uh, there have been a few. Colleges in years past that have dropped off our list, but not because they stopped participating.

It's because they, um, Have perhaps closed or merged with other colleges or there's one that became a for profit college. So we're not able to to be part of the program. You should know that, um, if colleges do leave the program, they are Obligated there to, to honor the certificates that were purchased when they were [00:24:00] part of the program.

Good questions. Thank you. Okay. So how much can you request from me? You plan as well. Um, when you're telling us your distribution plans, you can tell us more than just where you're sending the funds. So if you're sending funds to a college, you can tell us, To send all the available you plan funds. So if you want to use everything, let's say you have.

You know, a 20, 000 balance and you want to use all of your matured certificates or maturing certificates to pay that. That's an option. You can select either on the paper form or online. Send all available funds and we'll send everything that's that's matured and available to go. If you don't want to send if you have more than what is owed to the [00:25:00] college.

Uh, or for any other reason, if you don't want to send the entire Upland amount that you have available to go, you can send a portion of that money. So you can either send a certain percentage of what you have, let's say, you know, you want to only want to send 50 percent of what you have available to go.

You can tell us only send 50 percent of what I have. Or if you're looking at a certain dollar balance. that you have to pay and your available funds in the U plan far exceed that amount, you can tell us only send this dollar amount and we'll calculate the amount to hit to take out of your certificate.

to pay that dollar amount. If you are requesting a cash out, but you don't want to cash out your entire certificate, that's fine too. You can just give us a dollar amount. So you can either say, send me [00:26:00] all available. You plan funds or send me this much. Um, and we'll send you that and you'll have the remaining amount as a leftover.

Now timing is often at the forefront of people's minds as well. Um, as I mentioned earlier, the first year plan payments made to a college are typically made in the first Friday in August. So, uh, August 1st or when the funds mature, we have presumably, you know, we have been receiving requests from parents with their distribution plans since March, April, May, June, July, throughout the summer, they're letting us know where they want their U plan funds to go.

So we're keeping track of that. And we're sort of signaling to the colleges that they're getting these U plan [00:27:00] funds. And the distributions, though, don't go up typically until the first Friday in August to colleges because U plan distributions go to colleges on Friday. Um, that being said, there are some colleges that have set it up so that they're distributions don't come in the first Friday in August.

Maybe it's a little later in October, for example, at certain colleges. Um, so there may be a little bit, uh, of variation there, but generally speaking, they go out to most colleges for what we have received first Friday in August. Um, now we know that many colleges have payment deadlines or bill due dates before the first Friday in August.

So people get very anxious, understandably about that. They said, well, they say it's due in July, but you're not going to pay them until August. What happens? Um, what happens is as we are getting those distribution requests from parents or from owners, [00:28:00] let's say in the U plan for their students, as I said, we are processing those forms.

And adding those to predisbursement rosters for colleges. And these are available on the U Plan site. There is an administrator section on the U Plan site for college administrators where they can go and log in and see their roster for who should be getting a U Plan distribution in August. So as we're getting those, we're noting those, adding those to the roster.

Schools can look that up. So you can call your financial aid office and say, I have a U Plan distribution that should be coming in August, and if they can go ahead and look that up, they'll be able to see that the student is there and what they have coming to them in August. So, um, colleges are periodically notified by the U Plan to check their roster for upcoming student disbursement, so they'll, they won't have to wait for you to notify them, [00:29:00] we'll be notifying them to check their rosters as well.

Colleges who aren't participating in the plan, so non participating colleges, out of state colleges, they don't have access to that, right? So they can't verify upcoming distribution. So if you're planning to cash out because your child is or your student is attending a non participating college, There's really nothing that we can do to speed up that process because the funds just don't mature until August 1st.

So we'll be getting you that, that disbursement as early as possible, but you'll just have to contact the financial aid office to let them know that you have this plan, that they'll be cutting you a check and, and, you know, letting them know of the timeline, uh, so that they can hopefully make any adjustments that they're able to make.

Another question about, um, distributions, if you decide to hold, That is not cash out to yourself or sent to a college. Do you [00:30:00] continue to earn interest at the CPI rate? You do continue to add, uh, to earn interest, but not at the CPI rate. It's at a money market interest rate. That is what is called post maturity interest, and that's going to, we're going to talk about that near the end of the presentation.

So, college distribution splits. So you notify us where to send the funds. If your child is going to, or if your student is going to participate in college, you notify us. Of what college and the amount and, um, you know, whether that's the full, uh, all, all the available funds or not, uh, this could have an impact where they go could have an impact on the distributions of that.

So some colleges. choose to get all of their U plan distributions for the year [00:31:00] up front. So if you have a hundred percent of tuition paid, let's say it's 50, 000 and you're going to a college that has selected to get all of that up front and you say send all the available funds to that college, they're going to get that for the whole year up front.

Some colleges want to split their disbursements. So if you've got the same amount and you're going to a college that again, you have a hundred percent at 50, 000, let's say, and they get two disbursements, one in the fall and one in the spring, then you would get 25, 000, let's say in August, and let's say 25, 000 in, in January.

And so that, because that is how the college has chosen to accept those funds, not in one disbursement per year, but in two. Now, further complicating that, um, can be at those colleges that have [00:32:00] chosen to get two disbursements. How much do you get in each disbursement? That will depend usually on how much money you have saved.

So it breaks down this way. If a customer, let's say most of those colleges that get two disbursements per year or set up to get a disbursement per semester. Most of those colleges are public colleges or universities in Massachusetts, though not all, not all. Um, but let's say you have a child who or a student who was attending one of those colleges that choose to split their disbursements.

Well, the amount that is defaulted to go each semester depends upon what percentage of tuition you have. So if a customer has a hundred percent of tuition and fees paid, we're sending all of it Then it's going to be split evenly 50 [00:33:00] percent per semester. Easy, right? If you have less than 50 percent purchased, then the entire amount, unless you specify otherwise, and this is important to say, you can always specify that this is not how you want it done.

You want it done a different way and we'll follow those directions. But if you don't, this is how it's going to default. If you have a less than 50 percent purchase, then all of it is going to go to the first semester. If you have between 50 and a hundred percent, that means you have enough for one full semester, but not for the full year.

The way it works out is we spent, we send 50 percent of tuition and fees for the year to completely pay that first semester. And then whatever is left over goes in the second semester. So if you have, you know, 70 percent of tuition purchased, We're not going to split your savings [00:34:00] exactly 50 50 and send 50, uh, half of it in the first semester and half of it in the second semester.

We're going to send 50 percent of tuition and fees for the year in the first semester, again, to completely pay that first semester, and then whatever's left, or 20 percent of tuition and fees for the year, uh, in the second semester. So they're not going to be equal disbursements. unless you want equal disbursements and you let us know.

And just finally, a point to mention here, the U plan cannot send more than 100 percent of tuition and mandatory fees to a college for the current academic year. So sometimes happens that people have more than a hundred percent saved, right? They have 110, 150, 200 percent of tuition and fees for the year saved.

Um, that's great, but we can only send. 100 percent of tuition and fees for the year in one year. Even if you have other costs, uh, that are not covered by the U plan, we can't send those to a college for, um, [00:35:00] in the same academic year. So with that remaining funds, you can either hold or cash out. And we'll talk a little bit about that later on.

So after you do all this, after you choose your U plan distributions, You let us know, the school is notified, the money gets sent, right? So for college distributions, again, colleges can either choose to receive funds via wire or by paper check. So they have to go up and set up wire capability if they want the funds wired to them, otherwise they get paper check.

And those college distributions are sent on Fridays. to notified recipients in the financial aid office at the college. So they would get a roster notice of distribution, uh, and be able to see what students got distributions this week at their college. So even if they, let's say if they get a paper check, they haven't received it yet, they have [00:36:00] the, the email, um, rosters that they know what students are getting U plans.

this week and how much it's for. For cash out distributions, uh, these can be sent via mail check or deposited electronically into the owner's bank account if the owner has added their banking information, uh, to their online, um, account. And these do not have to be Fridays only. These are sent throughout the week.

Sometimes we get questions about tax notifications. Um, As in answering to the question before, certificates that have matured do continue to accrue interest. And so, uh, any post maturity interest is always cashed out to the owner, even if the owner elects the certificates to go to college. So, [00:37:00] um, what that means is let's say that you have, uh, an account, a certificate that matured in a previous year, the child didn't end up going to college that year.

So they held for one year, and then you get those funds distributed to the college in the following year. So what those accounts are worth in terms of a percentage of tuition at the college is what they were worth in the prior year. Because once you plan certificates have matured, they're worth a percentage of that maturity year's tuition.

As tuition continues to rise at colleges, once a certificate has matured, it doesn't continue, it doesn't keep rising, uh, with the tuition costs. So it's sort of frozen at the value of that maturity year. But, There is interest in the form of post maturity interest that continues to accrue [00:38:00] on it. The certificate value gets sent to the college, but by law, the post maturity interest has to be cashed out to the owner.

So if you're cashing out, you get what you put in plus the interest, plus the PMI. If you're having funds sent to a college, That goes to a college, but the PMI has to go in a check to the owner. So it's not unusual to get calls from confused savers who say, I wanted this to go to the college. How come I'm getting a check for 25 or whatever the post maturity interest may be.

Um, the reason is because by law, we have to send post maturity and interest out to the owner. in the case of any type of distribution. You should know, though, that U plan distributions of any kind don't trigger any tax forms. So, um, cashing funds out, no matter what you use it on, it is, uh, Commonwealth of Massachusetts tax free, and it's our bond [00:39:00] council's opinion that it is also federally tax free.

They don't generate any kind of tax paperwork. There is, uh, tax paperwork that is generated, though, for post maturity interest. That accrues over 10 in a calendar year. Um, whether or not you use those funds, whether or not you cash those funds out, it doesn't matter if there's over 10 of post maturity interest that is generated in a year, a 1099 DIV will be sent to you the following year.

Uh, whether or not that will affect your taxes is, uh, between you and your tax preparer. So we're not qualified to give tax advice. So you want to check with your tax preparer on whether or not this, um, post maturity interest is reflected in this 1099 DIV, uh, will affect your taxes or not. So if you have leftover funds, if you have held funds, or if you have [00:40:00] money left over that you have not used for college, whether it's cashing out or sending to a college, you have a few options.

So you can hold the rest of the money and use it in the following year. Um, if you are cashing out or if you, if you have other expenses that you want to use but are not covered by the U plan, you can cash out and get what you put into plus the interest that's remaining. You can do that. Or you can transfer these funds over to another beneficiary within the family.

That's always an option. So you can transfer the, the, any remaining funds left over. There is still that six year, um, window. by which you have to use the funds the six years after maturity. So if there's a really big age difference between beneficiaries, it may not work out because you do have to access those funds in some way, uh, within six years after maturity.

Um, but if there's a small age difference, [00:41:00] you can do that. And again, um, if used at a college, these certificates are worth the dollar value of what they were worth in the maturity year. So they don't continue to keep pace with tuition after they mature. Um, but again, I think it's still usually worth it to send those funds out because the gains that they have made through maturity.

That brings us to our, the end of our presentation. So, um, here's our social media channels. If you have any questions, you can contact us either through our social media channels or here. Uh, through the phone 800 449 MIFA or email at collegeplanningatmifa. org.

Looks like we have one more question here. For FAFSA and CSS, do I need to report the value of all certificates I have, even if some have not matured yet? [00:42:00] Uh, yes, that's a great question. And so, um, the guidelines that I have is that you're to list the value of the entire plan for that student plus the interest.

But that's something that you can always let the college know about that you don't have access to all of these funds and they can choose if they want to to make adjustments to the formula based on that. I'll also say too that in general parent assets typically, I mean, they have a minimal impact on financial aid eligibility anyways, but so it's likely that it won't make that much of a difference, but it's um, but it's a good question and that's something that you can do if you want to reach out to the college and see if they'll make adjustments to the formula based on the fact that not all of those funds are at your fingertips due to not being matured yet.

Right. Anybody else?[00:43:00]

Well, if you have any questions, definitely call us up. Um, and, um, other than that, good luck with everything. Have a good summer. And, um, I hope your students all enjoy school.