It wasn't tainted research. It wasn't late trading. It wasn't even good for a lot of headlines. But it was another ugly moment for investment advisors when, in mid-2004, politicians and regulators began looking into 529 college savings plan sales...
For the little commissions they generate, 529 plans have required quite a lot of effort on the part of financial advisors. When the business got started nearly a decade ago, states contracted with money managers to administer the tax-free...
Investments in 529 plans are not as popular as they could be and that's saying something because they are pretty popular right now. They are, in fact, the fastest growing product in financial planning, with the only real rival in terms of...
When qualified college savings accounts burst on the scene in the late 1990s, the initial growth exceeded most expectations. Assets in state-sponsored plans continue to soar rising 49 percent last year, according to the Financial Research Corp. At...
To virtually no one's surprise, regulators have begun scrutinizing how 529 plans are peddled. In December, the SEC and NASD sent a letter of inquiry to Edward Jones and American Funds, requesting information on how those firms sell the college...
College savings plans are getting the hairy eyeball from regulators: It's one of those things that was so easy to predict, it could hardly have surprised anyone. Indeed, the way scandals have piled up over the last year or so, it seems, at times...
If saving for college were a race, it'd be a marathon, and even those 26-mile races culminate in a hard push for the finish line. So it is that college saving does not end when the kid enrolls as a freshman at State U. In fact, in the years that...
The military genius Sun Tzu said, Every battle is won before it is ever fought. I'm not sure how many kids Sun and the missus sent off to State U., but his wisdom is easily applied to the process of paying for college. The key to helping clients...
