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Treasurer announces expansion
of College Savings program
By BILL RICHMOND
City editor
State Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R-Darmstadt), Chairman of the Indiana Education Savings Authority (IESA), was recently in Randolph County to announce that Indiana's CollegeChoice college savings program has been relaunched with a number of enhancements to help Indiana residents save for college more effectively.
"One of the reasons for relaunching and expanding this program is last year, the state offered a tremendous tax credit for education and we saw tremendous growth in the program," Mourdock said. "Now we would like to include more middle and lower income students. These plans can be started for as little as $25.
"We're really encouraging grandparents to help their grandkids by giving a great gift at Christmas. A newborn today will pay up to $200 thousand for a 4-year degree. We realize people are worried about the economy but now is the right time to start saving for education. It's a great time to start buying stocks. I'm confident the market will rebound. In 10 years, the average education level of retirees will be higher than the level of the average member of the workforce. That will mean greater opportunities for people with higher education."
The program includes two plans to help families save in a way that best meets their needs: CollegeChoice 529 Direct Savings Plan (CollegeChoice 529) for individuals saving on their own and CollegeChoice Advisor 529 Savings Plan (CollegeChoice Advisor) for those investing with the assistance of a financial advisor.
"Every Hoosier deserves to go to college," Mourdock said. "This can become a reality with the new CollegeChoice 529 Savings Plans. With these recent enhancements Hoosiers have a smart, easier way to save for their loved ones' futures.”
Both plans have lower average costs, new and expanded investment options, program management from a 529 expert, and offer account owners the opportunity to increase their savings through two innovative programs: UgiftSM - Give College Savings and the Upromise rewards service. With Ugift, account owners can invite family and friends to celebrate a child's milestones with a gift contribution to a CollegeChoice 529 or CollegeChoice Advisor account. Upromise rewards is a free service that helps families earn money for college with everyday spending at hundreds of America's leading companies. Other enhancements to both plans include redesigned websites offering more functionality.
"Upromise Investments is honored to be working with the IESA to provide enhanced CollegeChoice 529 plans that offer diversified, tax-advantaged investments specially designed to help Indiana families save for college," said Mark Chapleau, President of Upromise Investments, program manager for the plans.
Indiana taxpayers are still eligible for a state income tax credit of 20 percent of contributions to CollegeChoice 529 or CollegeChoice Advisor plan accounts (up to $1,000 credit per year).
Mourdock said additional features of the plan include:
If a child decides not to go to college the plan can be transferred from one child to another and remains tax free.
If a student goes to an out of state college the program is still 100 percent usable for that purpose.
It can be used to attend a technical school, beauty college or pilot school - for any certified post high school education.
Additional information is available at the state treasurer's website: www.collegechoiceplan.com.
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of winchesternewsgazette.com.
bballkid wrote on Feb 5, 2010 2:53 PM:
" hinshaw is a joke. he's going to kill someone with his ease on weather alerts!!! it's going to take someone dieing for him to cancel anything "
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