How Grandparents Can Help Grandchildren With College (2024)

As the cost of a college education continues to climb, many grandparents are stepping in to help. This trend has accelerated as baby boomers, many of whom went to college, are now grandparents and have started gifting what’s predicted to be trillions of dollars over the coming decades.

Helping to pay for a grandchild’s college education can bring great personal satisfaction and is a way grandparents can pass on wealth. The following are a few education-related wealth transfer strategies.

Outright Cash Gifts

A common way grandparents can help grandchildren with college costs is to make an outright gift of cash or securities. But this method has a couple of drawbacks. A gift of more than $18,000 for individual gifts and $36,000 made by a married couple in 2024, as indexed for inflation,¹might have gift tax and generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax consequences. GST tax is an additional gift tax imposed on gifts made to someone who is more than one generation below you. A drawback is that a cash gift to a student will be considered untaxed income by the federal government’s aid application, the FAFSA, and may impact the student’s financial aid eligibility.

Grandparents can give the cash gift to the parent instead of the grandchild, because gifts to parents do not need to be reported as income on the FAFSA. Another solution is to wait until your grandchild graduates college and then give a cash gift that can be used to pay off student loans.

Pay Tuition Directly to the College

Under federal law, tuition payments made directly to a college aren’t considered taxable gifts, no matter how large the payment. So grandparents don’t have to worry about exceeding the annual federal gift tax exemption. But payments can only be made for tuition. Room and board, books, fees, equipment and other similar expenses don’t qualify. Paying tuition directly to the school helps to ensure your money will be used for the educational purpose you intended. A grandparent can still give a grandchild a separate tax-free gift each year.

A college may often reduce a student’s institutional financial aid by the amount of the grandparent’s payment. So before sending a check, ask the college how it will affect your grandchild’s eligibility for need-based aid.

529 Plans

A 529 plan can be another option for grandparents to contribute to a grandchild’s college education. Contributions to a 529 plan grow tax deferred.

Withdrawals used for the beneficiary’s qualified education expenses are tax free at the federal level. There are two types of 529 plans: college savings plans and prepaid tuition plans. College savings plans are individual investment-type accounts offered by nearly all states and managed by financial institutions. Funds can be used at any accredited college in the United States or abroad.

Prepaid tuition plans allow prepayment of tuition at today’s prices for the limited group of colleges, typically in-state public colleges, that participate in the plan.

Grandparents can open a 529 account and name a grandchild as beneficiary (only one person can be listed as account owner, though) or they can contribute to an existing 529 account. Grandparents can contribute a lump sum, with certain restrictions, to a grandchild’s 529 account, or they can contribute smaller amounts regularly.

If grandparents want to open a 529 account for their grandchild, there are a few things to keep in mind. If you need to withdraw the money in the 529 account for something other than your grandchild’s college expenses, for example, for personal medical expenses or emergency purposes, there is a double consequence: the earnings portion of the withdrawal is subject to a 10% penalty and will be taxed at your ordinary income tax rate.

Colleges treat 529 plans differently for purposes of distributing their own financial aid. Generally, parent-owned and grandparent-owned 529 accounts are treated equally because colleges simply require a student to list all 529 plans for which he or she is the named beneficiary.

An additional consideration is that any withdrawals from a grandparent-owned 529 plan will count as income to the student when filing for financial aid. However, if the 529 plan account is used in the final year of college, the income rule does not generally apply.

Private Elementary/Secondary School

If you’re interested in contributing to your grandchild’s private elementary or secondary school education, you have two options. First, you may withdraw up to $10,000 annually per beneficiary from a 529 plan. Example: Parents and grandparents both have a 529 plan for the same beneficiary.

They could not both take out $10,000 for the same beneficiary, but $5,000 from each would be fine.

The second option is a Coverdell education savings account (ESA). You can contribute up to $2,000 per beneficiary each year to a Coverdell ESA.²Like funds in a 529 plan, money in a Coverdell ESA grows tax deferred and is tax free at the federal and state level if used to pay the beneficiary’s qualified education expenses, which includes college, along with private elementary and secondary school. However, there are income limits on who can contribute to a Coverdell ESA; married couples with a modified adjusted gross income over $220,000 ($110,000 for individuals) can’t contribute.²

For more on this topic, check outour podcast on how to keep your kids financially literate.

Sources:

¹“What’s New-Estate and Gift Tax”

²“Topic No. 310, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts”

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses associated with 529 plans before investing. More information about specific 529 plans is available in each issuer’s official statement, which should be read carefully before investing.

The availability of tax or other benefits may be conditioned on meeting certain requirements, such as residency, purpose for or timing of distributions, or other factors as applicable.

This piece is limited to the dissemination of general information pertaining to Mariner Wealth Advisors’ investment advisory services. The views expressed are for commentary purposes only and do not take into account any individual personal, financial, or tax considerations. As such, the information contained herein is not intended to be personal legal, investment or tax advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any security or engage in a particular investment strategy. Nothing herein should be relied upon as such, and there is no guarantee that any claims made will come to pass.

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