FAFSA 2025-26: Reporting joint parent-student bank accounts - who claims them?

Joint accounts can be tricky on FAFSA! The general rule is that you report assets based on who ACTUALLY owns the money, not whose name is technically on the account. If the money is genuinely your daughter's (her summer job earnings, etc.), then she should report it in the student section, even if your name is on the accounts for legal/banking purposes. If some of the money is truly yours, then technically that portion would go on your section.

WAIT don't just put it all in ur daughters section!! The student's assets count WAY MORE against u than parent assets do in the FAFSA calculation!!! Student assets are assessed at 20% while parent assets are only assessed at like 5% so if you put everything in her section your gonna get WAAAY less aid!! At least thats what happened to us last year and we had to appeal!

To clarify what others have said: for the 2025-26 FAFSA, student-owned assets are assessed at 20% toward the SAI calculation, while parent assets are assessed at a maximum of 5.64% (and potentially less depending on your overall financial situation). Joint accounts should be split based on true ownership/contribution. If her summer job money makes up 100% of those accounts, they're student assets regardless of your name being on the accounts. However, if YOU opened the accounts and contributed significantly to them, with the minor contributions from her job, you could potentially justify reporting them as parent assets. Documentation is key here. If you're selected for verification, you'd need to explain and potentially document why you reported the accounts the way you did.

My son had the exact same situation last year! Honestly its not worth stressing about a couple thousand dollars in a checking account - the FAFSA cares way more about your income than it does about small bank accounts. Just put it where it belongs honestly and move on.

I had so many issues with this exact situation when filling out FAFSA. Spent HOURS trying to call Federal Student Aid to get a clear answer because their website is so vague! After getting disconnected 4 times, I found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me through to an actual FSA agent in like 20 minutes. They basically confirmed what others are saying - report based on who actually owns/uses the money, not just whose name is on the account. You can see how it works in their video demo: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent also told me to keep records of deposits showing where the money came from in case I got selected for verification.

OMG the FAFSA is RIDICULOUS with all these rules!!!! Last year they flagged my daughter's account FOR VERIFICATION over a stupid $900 checking account that I had my name on too!!! We had to send bank statements and a letter explaining where every dollar came from! I HATE this system so much!!!

just list the accounts where they should go based on whos actually using the money. my stepkid had this same issue last year and we ended up just putting most of it in her section since it was her job money. she got decent aid still.

As a practical solution, since this question comes up so frequently: For the 2025-26 FAFSA, consider these steps: 1. Look at bank statements for the past year and estimate how much money came from her employment vs. your contributions 2. If the accounts are primarily funded and used by your daughter (>50%), report them as student assets 3. Document your decision process in case of verification 4. If the amounts are significant (>$3,000), consider opening separate accounts before applying - one clearly in your name only, one clearly in hers only - to make next year's FAFSA cleaner Remember that student assets above the protection allowance are assessed at 20% in the SAI calculation, while parent assets are assessed at a maximum of 5.64%, so proper categorization does matter, especially for larger amounts.

One additional point that might help: The FAFSA does have an asset protection allowance that shields some assets from being counted in the SAI calculation. For 2025-26, students get to exclude about $7,000 from their reportable assets. So if the account balances are relatively modest, this could reduce or eliminate any impact on your aid eligibility even if reported as student assets.

As someone who just went through this exact situation with my daughter last year, I'd recommend being conservative and honest about the reporting. We had a similar setup where I was on her accounts from when she was younger, but most of the money was from her part-time job. Here's what we learned: if you're unsure about the split, err on the side of accuracy rather than trying to game the system. We estimated about 80% was hers (job earnings) and 20% was gifts/money I had deposited over the years. We reported it proportionally - put 80% as student assets and kept 20% as parent assets in our calculations. The key thing is being able to justify your decision if asked. Keep any records you have of deposits, and maybe write down your reasoning. The difference in aid calculation between student vs parent assets is real, but getting caught misreporting could be much worse than the small difference in aid eligibility. Also, like others mentioned, if the total amounts aren't huge (under $5-10K total), the impact on your SAI probably won't be dramatic either way. Focus on getting the big things right first - income reporting, number in household, etc.

I'm going through this exact same situation right now with my son! What I ended up doing was looking back through about 6 months of bank statements to get a rough idea of the money sources. In our case, it was pretty clearly mostly his earnings from his after-school job, with maybe 15-20% being birthday money and occasional transfers I made. One thing that helped was that his bank actually shows the source of deposits (like "ACH DEPOSIT - [employer name]" vs "TRANSFER FROM [my account]"), so it was easier to track than I thought it would be. Even if your bank doesn't show that level of detail, you can probably estimate based on deposit amounts and timing. I ended up reporting about 85% as student assets and keeping 15% as parent assets in my mental calculation. The financial aid officer at his school told me that as long as you have a reasonable basis for your decision and can explain it if asked, you should be fine. The exact percentage split matters way less than making sure you're in the right ballpark and being honest about your reasoning.

Just wanted to add another perspective as someone who's helped several families navigate this exact issue. One thing I don't see mentioned much is that you should also consider the timing of when you're completing the FAFSA versus when the accounts were established and funded. Since your daughter is now 18+ and heading to college, legally those joint accounts where she's the primary user could be considered fully hers regardless of your name being on them for convenience/oversight purposes. The key question the Department of Education really cares about is: "Who has the legal right to use these funds?" If your daughter can withdraw money, write checks, use the debit card, etc. without your permission, then practically speaking, these are her assets even if you're listed as a joint owner. The fact that you occasionally deposit gift money doesn't change the fundamental ownership. My suggestion: report them as student assets but document your reasoning clearly. Write down something like "Joint accounts established for minor child, now used primarily by student for personal expenses and college preparation. Approximately 75% funded through student employment, 25% through family gifts over time." Keep this note with your FAFSA records. The honesty and documentation will serve you much better than trying to split hairs over exact percentages, especially since the total impact on aid is likely to be relatively small compared to your overall financial picture.

As a newcomer to FAFSA who just went through this process with my oldest child, I wanted to share what we learned that might help others. We had a very similar situation - joint accounts set up when my daughter was younger, with a mix of her earnings and money I had deposited over the years. What really helped us was creating a simple spreadsheet with three columns: Date, Amount, and Source (either "Student Job," "Birthday/Gift from Parent," or "Other"). We went back about a year through bank statements and categorized each major deposit. It was actually less complicated than we thought it would be! In our case, we found that about 70% was genuinely her money from work, and 30% was gifts/transfers from us. We reported it proportionally, and when we met with the financial aid counselor at her college, they said our approach was exactly what they'd recommend. One tip that saved us time: if you use mobile banking, many apps let you search transaction history by keywords. Searching for her employer's name made it really easy to identify which deposits were from her job versus other sources. The whole process seemed really intimidating at first, but breaking it down methodically made it much more manageable. Good luck to everyone navigating this for the first time!

As someone new to the FAFSA process, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's shared their experiences here! Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful. I'm in a very similar situation with my son - we have joint accounts that were set up when he was younger, and I've been stressing about how to handle them on the FAFSA. The practical advice about going through bank statements, documenting your reasoning, and being honest about the breakdown really puts my mind at ease. I especially appreciate the suggestions about using mobile banking search features and creating a simple spreadsheet to track deposit sources. These seem like manageable ways to get a clearer picture without getting overwhelmed by the complexity. One question I have: for those of you who went through this process, did your colleges' financial aid offices ever ask follow-up questions about how you categorized joint accounts, or was it pretty straightforward once you submitted the FAFSA? I'm just wondering if I should expect additional scrutiny or if most schools accept your reporting as long as it's reasonable and well-documented.

As another newcomer to this process, I wanted to thank everyone for all the detailed advice! I'm dealing with the exact same situation - joint accounts with my daughter that have a mix of her summer job earnings and occasional deposits from me for birthdays/holidays. The spreadsheet method mentioned by Ella really resonates with me, and I love the tip about searching for the employer name in mobile banking - such a simple but effective way to identify her work deposits! I think I'll follow that approach to get an accurate breakdown. One thing I'm still wondering about: if the accounts have been building up over several years (she's had summer jobs since she was 16), should I look back through all those years of statements, or is focusing on the most recent year sufficient for getting a reasonable estimate of the overall breakdown? I'm trying to balance thoroughness with not driving myself crazy going through three years of bank records! Also, for those who've been through verification - did they ask for specific documentation about joint accounts, or was it more about general income/asset verification? Just want to know what level of detail I should be prepared to provide if we get selected.