Greetings All,
Part of my extended family reached out to me for advice on setting up their kids 529s and they live in Washington State. While I don't live there personally, I'm happy to help but figured I would bounce my initial thoughts off this audience.
From what I can tell, Washington State has no state income tax (so no financial incentive that I can see for residents to invest in their plan) and also does not offer a traditional 529 . They do offer what they call a GET program, which appears to be some kind of "guaranteed" plan. On the surface, I don't like the way that plan sounds and a red flag goes up anytime I hear/see the word 'guaranteed' in relation to finances.
Personally, I setup my own children's 529 plans with Utah and have been very pleased with their low fees, index offerings, and overall proactive approach to keeping costs down. I see no compelling reason to suggest any other plan to them outside of Utah, while perhaps providing a few other options that they can research themselves such as New York or the Nevada plan which Vanguard uses.
Does this sound reasonable?
Washington State 529
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Washington State 529
Last edited by Valdeselad on Mon Nov 02, 2015 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Washington State 529
The NY plan has the lowest cost at 0.16%. My mom moved her 529s for my kids there at my suggestion
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Re: Washington State 529
The Vanguard 529 is low cost and in Nevada.
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Re: Washington State 529
Yes, I agree that Nevada is a reasonably good plan in terms of costs...abuss368 wrote:The Vanguard 529 is low cost and in Nevada.
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Re: Washington State 529
Yes, I personally think NY and Utah are the 2 strongest plans available. You can't go wrong either way IMO.Jack FFR1846 wrote:The NY plan has the lowest cost at 0.16%. My mom moved her 529s for my kids there at my suggestion
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Re: Washington State 529
Run far far away from the WA GET/529. I'm unfortunately a participant and they are basically closing the account and mailing the money back to me because tuition went DOWN this year and they have no way to deal with it. I honestly haven't had the time to research all the details and implications of this (if anyone knows, I'd love to hear it?).
As soon as I have my check I plan on 'rolling' into Utah 529.
http://www.get.wa.gov/5954-impacts
As soon as I have my check I plan on 'rolling' into Utah 529.
http://www.get.wa.gov/5954-impacts