Whose name it's in
changes the answer.

Most education conversations start with which account to use. That is the last question. The first is what this family will actually be asked to pay, and when.

Start with the constraint, not the vehicle

Most education conversations begin with which account to use. That is the last question, not the first. The one that matters: what is this family actually going to be asked to pay, and when?

The published price of a school is rarely the price paid. What determines the number is the aid formula, and the aid formula is where planning decisions have consequences.

How assets are treated, and why it surprises people

Not all savings count the same. Parent-owned assets are generally assessed at a much lower rate than assets held in the student's name. A well-meaning transfer into a child's account can quietly raise the expected contribution for years.

Retirement accounts generally sit outside the calculation. Home equity is treated differently by different formulas. Two families with identical net worth can face materially different expectations.

The vehicles, briefly

The dedicated education account is the default for most families: tax-free growth for qualifying costs, generally favorable aid treatment when parent-owned, and now a limited route to move unused balances into a retirement account for the beneficiary, subject to conditions.

Custodial accounts are the ones families regret. The money becomes the child's at the age of majority, with no strings, and it is assessed heavily for aid.

Simply owning it in your own name is underrated. It costs some tax efficiency and buys total flexibility, which matters when a child does not go, goes cheaply, or needs the money for something else.

The conversation nobody has early enough

How much this family is willing to pay, versus how much they are able to. Those are different numbers and the gap between them is a values discussion, not a financial one.

And the one that matters most: you can borrow for education. You cannot borrow for retirement. A parent funding education at the cost of their own security has made a decision that their child, told plainly, would usually reverse.

What to do at each stage

Early, the only real decisions are how much and in whose name. In the middle years, the account should be de-risked on a schedule rather than by instinct. In the final two years before the first bill, income matters as much as assets — a large realized gain in the wrong year raises the expected contribution.

That last point is where an advisor earns the fee, and it is invisible to any family doing this alone.