Washington State 529

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Valdeselad
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Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 1:42 pm

Washington State 529

Post by Valdeselad »

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?
Last edited by Valdeselad on Mon Nov 02, 2015 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
Jack FFR1846
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Re: Washington State 529

Post by Jack FFR1846 »

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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abuss368
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Re: Washington State 529

Post by abuss368 »

The Vanguard 529 is low cost and in Nevada.
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Topic Author
Valdeselad
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Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 1:42 pm

Re: Washington State 529

Post by Valdeselad »

abuss368 wrote:The Vanguard 529 is low cost and in Nevada.
Yes, I agree that Nevada is a reasonably good plan in terms of costs...
Topic Author
Valdeselad
Posts: 248
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 1:42 pm

Re: Washington State 529

Post by Valdeselad »

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
Yes, I personally think NY and Utah are the 2 strongest plans available. You can't go wrong either way IMO.
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Re: Washington State 529

Post by Hikes_With_Dogs »

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
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