College Funding

Aug 17, 2007 7:36 pm

I did a search and not much on here about fox college planning. So I
wanted to query? Has anyone joined her program? And does anyone have an
idea of the income college funding planners are making from this niche
market? Thanx.

Aug 17, 2007 7:42 pm

IMHO, Pursuing the college planning niche makes it virtually impossible to ever write a big ticket.

Aug 17, 2007 8:21 pm

While I tend to agree with YHWY, I do have at least two clients that at first would only talk to me about 529s. After I got that business, I guess I "proved" myself, and they then brought over the rest of their money.  One has about $350k with me, and the other has about $900k with me. 

On a side note, they were both met through door knocking (I never said door knocking doesn't work).

Aug 17, 2007 8:36 pm

now makes a good point. ANY prospecting campaign will produce positive, perhaps unintended, results. I just alway thought starting out looking for a nice ticket beats looking for small ones hoping to stumble on a big one. But, hey, he’s prospecting, so he’ll be successful. It is a contact sport.

Aug 18, 2007 9:34 pm

I don’t need to bag the big whale. I’m just wondering if you can use it to

make 75K or more in a year?

Aug 18, 2007 11:28 pm

[quote=kashanti]I don't need to bag the big whale. I'm just wondering if you can use it to
make 75K or more in a year?[/quote]

Are you a black gang member?

Aug 18, 2007 11:43 pm

kash,
 You will be fired for making $75k per year. IMHO, you need to write larger tickets to survive.

Aug 19, 2007 3:57 pm

I bet there is an opportunity on doing UGMA->529 conversions for the affluent.

Aug 20, 2007 5:26 pm

Kashantiqua-

There are SO MANY other things to prospect on.  I thing 529s are more of an ancillary item.  It's one piece in the big picture.  YHWY is right, though, you need to write large tix to survive.  Plus, $75k is not something to strive for.

Aug 20, 2007 7:10 pm

[quote=drewski803]I bet there is an opportunity on doing UGMA->529 conversions for the affluent.[/quote]

Just be careful when doing these. In most cases, moving UGMA money into a 529 (with the parent as the owner) is basically taking the money away from the child because the owner could change the beneficiary at any time. Basically, the kid could sue you and his parents later if they really wanted to.  Now, there are ways to avoid this. Call your preferred 529 fund company, they can help you out.

Aug 20, 2007 10:48 pm

[quote=now_indy]

[quote=drewski803]I bet there is an opportunity on doing UGMA->529 conversions for the affluent.[/quote]

Just be careful when doing these. In most cases, moving UGMA money into a 529 (with the parent as the owner) is basically taking the money away from the child because the owner could change the beneficiary at any time. Basically, the kid could sue you and his parents later if they really wanted to.  Now, there are ways to avoid this. Call your preferred 529 fund company, they can help you out.

[/quote]

I thought I understood that, when converting from a custodial account to a 529, the new account is basically a 'custodial 529' wherein the same properties of the UGMA apply, but now they get the tax-deferral and tax-free withdrawals for QHEE's that a 529 provides.  It's been a while since I've placed a 529 trade, so I could be way off.

Aug 20, 2007 11:53 pm

Deekay, you are correct, provided that it gets done the way that it should get done. 

Aug 21, 2007 1:47 am

Most fund families can account for which contributions were UGMA/UTMA conversions and which were for the 529.  Unless the kid knows that after reaching the age of majority, it doesn’t mean beans.

Aug 22, 2007 3:21 am

I don’t think anyone understood what I meant by 75K. I meant 75 in my

pocket, not in production. If I was not misunderstood, then I’d have to say

anyone that can’t survive on that needs to check what the heck they spend

their money on. Ok, if you have kids then, yeah, you’d need more. Ditto if

you live in insanely expensive cities like NY, LA or San Fran.

Jan 8, 2008 3:01 am

Kashanti,

  College Planning is my niche market, but I approach it as a loss leader to find clients that meet my minimum account size.  As I believe everyone has attested to here, there isn't much money to be made in 529s, but its really just the tip of the iceberg as far as college planning is concerned.  If you are interested in college planning and only college planning, I would suggest checking out www.niccp.com.  Full disclosure, I am a CCPS myself.  That being said, I don't go much beyond calculating Expected Family Contribution (EFC) for my clients and ways to lower that figure.   Brian