Where are parent-owned 529 accounts entered on the 2025-2026 FAFSA?
I've been filling out the 2025-2026 FAFSA for my daughter (first college student in our family!) and I cannot for the life of me figure out where to report our 529 college savings accounts. I've gone through the parent section about six times now and there's no clear place to enter these investments. Is it included somewhere with other assets? Are 529 plans even supposed to be reported by parents on FAFSA? We've been saving since she was little and have about $43,000 in her 529, and I don't want to mess up the application by putting this in the wrong place or forgetting it completely. I've checked YouTube tutorials and they all seem to skip over this part. Any help would be really appreciated!
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Klaus Schmidt
For the 2025-2026 FAFSA, parent-owned 529 accounts are reported in the "Assets" section under the parent contribution portion. When you get to the question about "Current balance of cash, savings, and checking accounts," there should be a separate question immediately following that asks about the "Net worth of current investments." That's where you report the 529 plans. The Direct FAFSA has streamlined this quite a bit from previous years. Just make sure you're only reporting the current market value of the 529 plan. And remember that parent-owned 529 plans are counted as parental assets, which is actually good since they're assessed at a maximum rate of 5.64% in the SAI calculation.
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Esmeralda Gómez
•Thank you! I think I found it now. I was expecting a specific line item or checkbox just for 529s, but I see it's just part of that broader investments question. Do you know if I need to separate out different 529 accounts? We have one in my name and another smaller one from her grandparents.
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Aisha Patel
u need to add up ALL 529 $ and put it in investments!! They dont ask specificaly for 529s but there grouped w/ all investments. i made same mistake last yr
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LilMama23
•This is mostly correct, but there's an important distinction to make: you only include 529 plans owned by the parents. If the grandparents own a 529 plan for the student's benefit, it is NOT reported on the FAFSA at all. The 2025-2026 FAFSA treats non-parent 529 plans more favorably than the old system did.
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Dmitri Volkov
When I was struggling with this exact same issue last month, I kept getting disconnected when calling the Federal Student Aid helpline. After trying for THREE DAYS, I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get through to a real person. They have this service that holds your place in line and calls you when an agent is available. Saved me hours of frustration! There's a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The agent explained that 529 plans go under investments in the parent assets section, not as separate entries. They also confirmed that only parent-owned 529s count - not grandparent-owned ones.
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Gabrielle Dubois
•does this service actually work? the FSA phone line is absolutely useless, i cant ever get through and my son's verification is due next week!!!
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Dmitri Volkov
•It worked for me! Took about 40 minutes instead of the hours I spent trying on my own. The agent was able to answer all my 529 reporting questions and also helped with my daughter's verification issues.
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Tyrone Johnson
The FAFSA is SO RIDICULOUS this year!!! Why can't they just have a separate line for 529 plans?!? I have the same problem and ended up calling my financial advisor who told me to add it with other investments. But then my daughter's college financial aid office told me something different! The whole system is designed to confuse parents and make students get LESS AID. I'm convinced of it.
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Klaus Schmidt
•While I understand your frustration, the current FAFSA actually provides a more favorable treatment of 529 plans than previous versions. They're assessed at a maximum of 5.64% of their value (as parent assets) rather than being treated as student income when distributions are made. What did the financial aid office tell you that was different?
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Tyrone Johnson
•They told me I needed to report distributions from the 529 as additional income, which made no sense! I think whoever I talked to was confused or using old rules. The whole system is just so inconsistent.
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Ingrid Larsson
I just went through this last week! The 2025-26 FAFSA actually has a hover/info button next to the investment question that specifically mentions 529 plans. When you hover over it, it lists examples of what counts as investments, including "college savings plans, Coverdell savings accounts, 529 plans" etc. Easy to miss if you're not looking for it!
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Esmeralda Gómez
•Oh my gosh, you're right! I completely missed that hover text. Just went back and checked and it's definitely there. Thank you for pointing that out!
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Gabrielle Dubois
im confused now... my kid has a 529 that his GRANDMA opened and puts money in. my name isnt on it at all. do i still have to report that on fafsa????
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LilMama23
•No, you don't report that on the FAFSA. Under the new FAFSA rules (starting with 2024-2025 and continuing for 2025-2026), 529 plans owned by grandparents or other non-parents are NOT reported as assets on the FAFSA. Additionally, distributions from these accounts are no longer reported as student income either. This is actually a significant improvement from the old FAFSA rules.
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Gabrielle Dubois
•thats a relief!! thanks so much!!
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Dmitri Volkov
One thing nobody mentioned yet - make sure you're looking at the current market value of the 529 when you report it. Don't just report what you've contributed over time. Log into your 529 account and check the current value, especially if the market has been volatile lately.
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Esmeralda Gómez
Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! I went back and found the investment section and included our 529 value there. It's such a relief to know I'm doing this correctly now. I was worried because we've been saving for so long, and I didn't want a mistake to affect my daughter's aid eligibility. I appreciate all the insights about how 529s are treated in the formula too - that 5.64% assessment rate is much better than I feared!
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Amina Toure
Great to hear you got it sorted out! Just wanted to add one more tip for anyone else reading this - if you have multiple 529 accounts (like one you own and maybe another from grandparents), make sure you ONLY report the ones where YOU are the account owner. I made this mistake initially and reported everything, which would have inflated our assets unnecessarily. The key is looking at who's name is on the account ownership, not who the beneficiary is. Also, don't forget to update this value if the market changes significantly between when you file and when schools request verification!
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QuantumQuest
•This is such valuable advice! I'm just starting to navigate this whole FAFSA process for the first time and it's honestly overwhelming. The distinction between account ownership vs beneficiary is really helpful - I probably would have made the same mistake you did initially. Quick question though - when you mention updating the value if the market changes significantly, do you mean we should go back and amend the FAFSA if our 529 balance changes a lot after we submit it? Or is this more about being prepared for verification? I want to make sure I understand the timeline correctly since I'm still figuring out all these deadlines!
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