You diligently save money for eighteen years to ensure your child can afford a university education in the United States without acquiring crippling debt. You open a 529 plan when they are in diapers and consistently funnel a portion of your monthly paycheck into the account while watching the balance grow alongside the stock market. You eventually fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and report a healthy six-figure asset balance that gives you immense peace of mind. Then a sudden economic downturn hits the global markets right before the tuition bill is due. The robust college fund you relied upon suddenly plummets in value by thirty percent or more. The financial aid office has already calculated your expected family contribution based on the older high water mark of your account.
This means you are essentially being taxed for wealth that no longer exists in reality. You are now expected to write a tuition check using funds that evaporated into thin air during the market crash. This terrifying scenario leaves thousands of families scrambling every year to figure out how to bridge the massive gap between their expected financial aid and their actual ability to pay. The system seems entirely broken when you are forced to pay tuition based on ghost money. Fortunately there is a formal avenue for relief known as the financial aid appeal process. By utilizing a mechanism called Professional Judgment you can formally request that the university financial aid administrators recalculate your aid package based on the newly depressed value of your 529 plan. This article explores the precise steps required to construct a compelling appeal letter and navigate the complex bureaucracy of university financial aid departments.
The Reality of Market Volatility in College Savings
Most families do not keep their college savings in cash under a mattress. They invest these funds in state sponsored 529 plans that are tied directly to mutual funds and equities to outpace the rising cost of tuition. This strategy works brilliantly during a prolonged bull market when compounding interest accelerates the growth of the portfolio exponentially. The downside to this aggressive growth strategy is the inherent exposure to extreme market volatility. When a recession hits or a specific sector of the economy experiences a rapid correction the value of these investment accounts can drop precipitously in a matter of days. A family holding a portfolio heavily weighted in technology stocks might see their life savings decimated just weeks before freshman orientation begins. This volatility is the double edged sword of the modern college savings landscape. You must take risks to grow the money but those same risks can leave you entirely exposed when the market turns sour. The government financial aid formulas are entirely rigid and do not automatically adjust to these daily market fluctuations. This creates a massive discrepancy between what the government believes you can afford and what your bank account actually dictates you can spend.
When the FAFSA Snapshot Fails to Capture Current Financial Truths
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid is designed to take a static snapshot of your family finances on the exact day you hit the submit button. You are required to log into your brokerage accounts and report the exact current value of your 529 plan and other investments on that specific date. The Department of Education then uses that specific number to calculate your federal aid eligibility for the entire upcoming academic year. If you submitted the application in October when the market was peaking the financial aid office will assume you have that peak amount available to spend the following August. The application does not care if the stock market crashed by forty percent in November. The formula is entirely blind to any economic events that occur after the submission date. This rigid snapshot approach forces families into a corner where they appear significantly wealthier on paper than they are in reality. The burden then falls entirely on the student and the parents to actively petition the school to update the file with the most current data available. If you simply accept the initial award letter you are agreeing to pay a tuition rate based on an obsolete financial reality.
The Time Lag in Asset Valuation
The time lag built into the federal financial aid system is one of the most frustrating elements for parents to navigate. You are often reporting asset values almost a full year before the student actually steps foot in a classroom. A 529 plan that held one hundred thousand dollars in October might only be worth seventy thousand dollars by the time the first semester bill arrives in July. The thirty thousand dollar difference is a phantom asset that the university expects you to liquidate to pay for classes. This time lag completely ignores the dynamic nature of equity investments and the reality of global economic forces. The only way to correct this massive discrepancy is to force the financial aid office to look at the current statements rather than relying on the historical data pulled from the original application.
The Mechanics of a Financial Aid Appeal
The process of appealing a financial aid award is not a casual negotiation where you simply call the billing office and ask for a discount. It is a highly formalized bureaucratic procedure that requires substantial documentation and a clear rationale based on federal guidelines. Congress specifically delegated the authority to adjust financial aid data to individual college administrators because they recognize that a rigid federal formula cannot account for every unique family tragedy or economic disaster. This delegated authority means that the decision rests entirely in the hands of the specific school your child plans to attend. You cannot appeal to the Department of Education or the federal government. You must make your case directly to the men and women sitting in the financial aid office of the university. You must submit a formal written request accompanied by incontrovertible proof that your financial situation has deteriorated significantly since the original application was filed. The burden of proof rests entirely on your shoulders. You must convince the administrator that the initial award package is fundamentally unfair due to circumstances entirely beyond your control.
Professional Judgment: The Financial Aid Officer’s Secret Weapon
The mechanism that allows a financial aid officer to change your award is legally termed Professional Judgment. This is a specific provision within the Higher Education Act that gives college administrators the power to override the standard federal formula on a case by case basis. When an officer exercises Professional Judgment they are physically going into the federal database and altering the data elements you originally submitted. They might change your reported income or they might manually lower the value of your reported assets to reflect a recent market crash. This adjustment then forces the computer system to generate a new Student Aid Index which theoretically results in a larger grant package or better loan options. Financial aid officers guard this power carefully and they are audited by the federal government to ensure they are not simply handing out free money without cause. They require a mountain of paperwork to justify their decisions to federal auditors. Therefore you must provide them with the exact tools they need to build a defensible case file on your behalf.
Defining Special Circumstances in the Eyes of the Department of Education
The Department of Education issues strict guidelines regarding what qualifies as a special circumstance worthy of Professional Judgment. Job loss is the most common special circumstance but the sudden loss of asset value is also a recognized category. The key element is that the change in financial status must be significant and involuntary. You cannot appeal your financial aid simply because you decided to buy a new luxury vehicle and therefore have less cash in the bank. The loss of value in a 529 plan due to a stock market crash is the textbook definition of an involuntary financial hardship. You did not choose to lose the money and you could not have reasonably prevented the global economic downturn. You must frame your appeal strictly within this context. You are asking for relief because a macroeconomic event destroyed the college fund you responsibly built over two decades.
The Critical Role of the 529 Plan in Aid Calculations
The 529 plan occupies a very specific and somewhat complicated space within the federal financial aid formula. The government generally encourages families to save for college by offering tax free growth on these specific accounts. To ensure that families are not penalized heavily for doing the responsible thing the federal formula assesses 529 plans at a relatively low rate compared to standard checking accounts or trust funds. The specific impact of the plan on your financial aid eligibility depends entirely on whose name is on the account. The system draws a massive distinction between assets owned by the parents and assets owned by the student or a third party like a grandparent. You must know exactly how your 529 plan is categorized before you can accurately calculate how much the recent market loss actually impacts your overall financial aid picture. A massive loss in a parent owned account might only yield a minor change in aid while a similar loss in a student owned account could dramatically shift the entire award package.
How Parent-Owned vs. Student-Owned Assets Tip the Scales
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid assesses parent owned assets at a maximum rate of 5.64 percent. This means that for every one hundred dollars you have saved in a parent owned 529 plan your expected family contribution only increases by a maximum of five dollars and sixty four cents. The formula is highly protective of parent assets because it assumes parents also need to save for retirement and basic living expenses. Conversely the formula is absolutely ruthless when it comes to student owned assets. Any money held in a standard savings account or a custodial account in the student's name is assessed at a flat twenty percent. If a student has one hundred dollars in a savings account the government expects them to spend twenty dollars of it on tuition immediately. Historically student owned 529 plans were also assessed at this brutal twenty percent rate but recent legislative changes have aligned them with the parent rate for federal calculations. However many elite private universities use an alternative form called the CSS Profile which digs much deeper into family finances and often assesses assets much more aggressively than the federal formula. A market crash hitting a 529 plan evaluated under the CSS Profile will have a massive and immediate impact on institutional grant eligibility.
The Shift from EFC to SAI: What Families Need to Know
The entire vocabulary of financial aid changed recently when the federal government officially retired the term Expected Family Contribution and replaced it with the Student Aid Index. This was not merely a cosmetic name change but a fundamental overhaul of the underlying mathematical formula used to determine federal pell grant eligibility. The old Expected Family Contribution could never drop below zero even if a family was entirely destitute. The new Student Aid Index can actually drop to a negative one thousand five hundred which allows the most vulnerable students to receive maximum aid and potentially qualify for additional institutional support. When you appeal a loss of 529 value you are specifically asking the financial aid officer to recalculate your assets to generate a lower Student Aid Index. A lower Student Aid Index directly correlates to a higher probability of receiving need based grants rather than expensive federal loans. You must speak the language of the financial aid office and explicitly state that your current asset valuation demands a reassessment of your Student Aid Index.
Documenting the Decline: Evidence Needed for a Successful Appeal
You cannot simply write a heartfelt email to the financial aid office complaining that the stock market is terrible right now. You must provide concrete numerical evidence that proves your specific account suffered a catastrophic loss. Financial aid officers are accountants at heart and they require hard data to justify any changes they make to a federal database. You must build a dossier of financial documents that clearly illustrates the timeline of the loss and the exact dollar amount that evaporated from your portfolio. This documentation is the absolute foundation of your appeal. If you fail to provide clear and unambiguous proof your request will be summarily denied regardless of how eloquently you describe your financial distress. The university needs to see exactly how much poorer you are today compared to the day you originally filed your application.
Comparing Account Statements: Before and After the Loss
The most crucial pieces of evidence you can provide are the official monthly or quarterly statements from your 529 plan administrator. You must provide the exact statement that corresponds to the date you originally submitted your application. This statement proves that you did not lie or misrepresent your assets on the initial form. You must then provide the most recent current statement showing the depressed value of the account. The financial aid officer will physically compare these two documents to verify the exact percentage drop in the portfolio. If your account held eighty thousand dollars in October and now holds only fifty thousand dollars in April the statements will provide irrefutable proof of the thirty thousand dollar disappearance. You should highlight the ending balances on both statements to make it as easy as possible for the administrator to see the drastic change. You want to remove any friction from their review process by presenting the data clearly and logically.
Proving the Loss was Involuntary and Sustained
Financial aid officers are trained to look for families attempting to game the system by temporarily hiding assets. You must prove that the loss in your 529 plan was involuntary and not the result of a deliberate withdrawal to fund a vacation or purchase a secondary home. The account statements will show the market losses as negative investment returns rather than cash distributions. You should also be prepared to show that the market loss is sustained and not just a brief one day dip that immediately recovered the following week. It is often helpful to include a brief printout of a major market index chart from a reputable financial news source to contextualize your personal loss within the broader macroeconomic environment. If the entire technology sector crashed by thirty percent and your 529 plan was heavily invested in growth mutual funds the broader market data provides excellent supporting evidence that your personal financial disaster is part of a larger systemic issue that warrants special consideration.
Crafting the Perfect Appeal Letter for Asset Devaluation
The appeal letter is your one opportunity to synthesize all the raw financial data into a compelling human narrative. The financial aid officer reads hundreds of these letters every semester and they are exceptionally skilled at spotting embellishments and emotional manipulation. Your letter must strike a delicate balance between professional detachment and personal urgency. You must clearly outline the specific mathematical changes you are requesting while simultaneously reminding the reader that there is a real student depending on this money to achieve their academic dreams. A poorly structured letter that rambles about general economic anxiety will be pushed to the bottom of the pile. A concise well documented letter that explicitly references federal Professional Judgment guidelines will command immediate respect and attention.
Balancing Professionalism with Personal Narrative
You should begin the letter by explicitly stating your childs name and their student identification number to ensure the document is attached to the correct file immediately. You must thank the university for the initial award package to establish a tone of gratitude rather than entitlement. You then need to pivot quickly to the core issue by stating that you are formally requesting a Professional Judgment review due to a severe and involuntary loss of asset value since the original application date. You should briefly explain your previous strategy of aggressively funding a 529 plan to avoid student debt and how the recent market crash decimated those responsible efforts. You want to present yourself as a responsible parent who did everything right but was derailed by circumstances entirely beyond human control. This narrative framing is crucial because financial aid officers are much more likely to bend the rules for a family that demonstrates a history of fiscal responsibility. You must remain polite and professional throughout the entire document and entirely avoid angry or demanding language. You are asking a bureaucratic gatekeeper for a massive favor and politeness is your most valuable currency.
The Importance of Specificity in Dollar Amounts
A vague letter is a rejected letter. You cannot say that your account lost a lot of money or that you are struggling right now. You must use exact dollar amounts to quantify the damage. You must explicitly state that the 529 plan was valued at exactly eighty two thousand four hundred dollars on the date of application and is now valued at exactly fifty one thousand two hundred dollars as of the attached current statement. You should then calculate the exact difference for the officer and state clearly that thirty one thousand two hundred dollars in expected college funding has vanished due to market volatility. You are doing the math for them to ensure there is zero ambiguity regarding the severity of your situation. You should then explicitly ask the officer to adjust the reported asset value on the federal application to reflect the current lower amount and recalculate the Student Aid Index accordingly. By providing the exact numbers and the specific requested action you leave the officer with a clear roadmap of exactly what needs to be done to fix your file.
Real-World Decision Examples: Navigating the Storm
Abstract discussions of federal policy rarely capture the sheer panic a family experiences when the tuition bill arrives and the bank account is empty. The decisions you make in the immediate aftermath of a massive market correction will alter the financial trajectory of your family for decades. You are forced to choose between terrible options while under immense emotional distress. Examining how real families navigate this specific crisis provides practical insight into the mechanics of the appeal process and the harsh realities of funding higher education during an economic downturn. The trade offs are never simple and they always involve sacrificing long term financial security for immediate educational needs.
Case Study One: The Mid-Income Family and the Tech Bubble Burst
Consider the theoretical case of a family earning one hundred and ten thousand dollars annually with a single child entering a private university. They aggressively invested their seventy thousand dollar 529 plan in a heavy technology mutual fund to maximize growth during the high school years. A sudden crash in the technology sector erases twenty five thousand dollars of value in a single month right before the fall semester begins. The university originally offered a modest ten thousand dollar grant based on the higher asset value and expected the family to cover the remaining forty thousand dollar tuition bill using the 529 plan and current income. The family is now facing a massive shortfall. They must decide whether to file an immediate appeal to try and secure more grant money or simply apply for a high interest Parent PLUS loan to cover the newly created gap. If they choose the loan they are preserving the depressed assets in the 529 plan hoping the market recovers over the next four years. If they file the appeal they must submit all their documentation and wait several weeks in agonizing limbo while the university reviews the case. The family decides to file the appeal while simultaneously preparing the loan application as a backup plan. The financial aid office eventually reviews the appeal and agrees to lower the asset value resulting in an additional four thousand dollars in institutional grant money. This small victory reduces their reliance on the expensive loan but still forces them to liquidate some of the 529 assets at a massive loss to cover the remaining balance. The trade off is brutal but necessary to keep the child enrolled.
Case Study Two: Grandparent 529s and the Third-Party Asset Trap
A different scenario involves a student whose wealthy grandparents established a massive one hundred and fifty thousand dollar 529 plan in their own names with the student listed as the beneficiary. Under the new federal simplification rules this grandparent owned account does not appear anywhere on the federal application and does not immediately impact the Student Aid Index. However the student is attending an elite private college that requires the CSS Profile which strictly mandates the reporting of all third party 529 plans. The grandfather aggressively invested the funds in speculative equities and the account lost fifty thousand dollars during a market correction. The college originally reduced the students institutional grant package significantly because they expected the grandparents to contribute heavily from the massive account. The family must now coordinate a complex appeal. The parents must draft a letter to the private college explaining that the grandfather's account suffered a catastrophic loss and can no longer provide the expected level of support. The grandparents must provide their personal financial statements to the university to prove the loss. The trade off here involves exposing the grandparents private financial mistakes to a university bureaucracy to secure aid for the grandchild. Many grandparents refuse to share this sensitive data which severely hamstrings the parents ability to mount a successful appeal. If the grandparents cooperate the university might restore a portion of the institutional grant but if they refuse the parents are forced to shoulder the entire burden of the phantom wealth.
Beyond the Appeal: Alternative Funding Sources When Savings Shrink
You must prepare for the very real possibility that the financial aid office will simply deny your appeal. Universities have limited budgets for institutional grants and they cannot always rescue every family that suffers a market loss. If the appeal fails or if the resulting adjustment is insufficient to cover the massive hole in your college savings you must immediately pivot to alternative funding sources. You are now in crisis management mode and you must evaluate the long term consequences of borrowing money to replace the evaporated wealth. The choices you make at this juncture require a cold and calculating assessment of interest rates and repayment terms to ensure you do not permanently destroy your own retirement security to fund a bachelor's degree.
Evaluating the True Cost of Parent PLUS Loans
The federal Parent PLUS loan is the most common safety net for families who experience a sudden loss in college savings. The government allows parents to borrow up to the total cost of attendance minus any other financial aid received regardless of their actual ability to repay the debt. The approval process is based on a very rudimentary credit check that only looks for recent bankruptcies or severe defaults. This easy access to massive amounts of capital is incredibly dangerous for desperate families. You must understand that these loans carry exceptionally high origination fees and interest rates that begin accruing immediately upon disbursement. If you borrow thirty thousand dollars to replace the money lost in your 529 plan you are essentially locking yourself into a decade of high monthly payments that will severely impact your daily cash flow. You must carefully calculate the true cost of this loan over ten years and seriously consider whether a less expensive state school or community college is a more viable option given the new financial reality. You cannot let the emotional desire to keep your child at a dream school blind you to the catastrophic long term math of high interest federal debt.
Federal Student Loans vs. Private Options in a Tight Market
The student should always maximize their own federal direct loans before the parents assume any debt. The federal direct loans offered in the initial award package carry much lower interest rates and provide robust consumer protections including income driven repayment plans and potential forgiveness options. Unfortunately the federal limits for dependent undergraduate students are strictly capped and rarely cover the full cost of a private university. Once the federal options are exhausted families often turn to private student loans issued by massive corporate banks. You must exercise extreme caution when navigating the private loan market. These loans often require a parent cosigner which makes you legally responsible for the debt if the student fails to find lucrative employment after graduation. Private loans rarely offer the flexible repayment terms found in the federal system. If you are replacing lost 529 assets with private debt you are essentially taking the risk that was previously held by the stock market and transferring it directly onto your personal credit report. This is a massive escalation of financial risk that requires careful deliberation and a realistic assessment of the students future earning potential in their chosen career field.
Maximizing Remaining 529 Value Through Strategic Rebalancing
If your 529 plan suffers a massive loss you must resist the emotional urge to panic sell the remaining assets and lock in the destruction. You must instead objectively evaluate the remaining portfolio and implement a defensive strategy to protect whatever capital is left. You are now playing a game of capital preservation rather than aggressive growth. The timeline for college is no longer eighteen years away it is happening right now. You cannot afford another twenty percent drop in the market because you no longer have the luxury of time to wait for a recovery. You must actively manage the damaged account to ensure the remaining funds are available to pay the tuition bills over the next four years.
Moving to Age-Based Portfolios to Mitigate Further Risk
The most effective way to protect the remaining value in a battered 529 plan is to immediately shift the assets into an age based portfolio track. These tracks are designed by professional fund managers to automatically rebalance the investments as the child approaches college age. They slowly move money out of volatile equities and into stable bonds and cash equivalents over time. If you were managing your own aggressive portfolio and got burned by a market crash moving to an age based track removes the emotional decision making from the process. The fund will lock your remaining money into a highly conservative mix that prioritizes stability over growth. You might miss out on a massive market rally but you also guarantee that the remaining funds will not disappear in a secondary crash. This strategic retreat allows you to accurately forecast exactly how much money you will have available for the remaining semesters which is essential for planning any necessary loans or future financial aid appeals.
| Funding Strategy | Primary Benefit | Primary Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Aggressive 529 Equity Portfolio | Maximum long term growth potential | Severe exposure to sudden market crashes |
| Conservative Age-Based 529 | Capital preservation near enrollment date | Fails to outpace severe tuition inflation |
| Federal Parent PLUS Loans | Immediate access to massive capital | High interest rates and origination fees |
| Private Student Loans | Fills gaps left by federal limits | Requires cosigner and lacks flexible repayment |
The Psychological Toll of Losing College Savings
The financial mechanics of an appeal letter are complex but the psychological devastation of losing a college fund is profound. Parents spend decades sacrificing personal luxuries and vacations to build a nest egg for their children. Watching a massive portion of that wealth vanish on a computer screen due to macroeconomic forces feels like a profound personal failure even though it is entirely out of your control. You are suddenly forced to have agonizing conversations with your teenager about the reality of student debt and the potential need to transfer to a less expensive institution. The stress of drafting an appeal letter and begging a university bureaucrat for financial mercy is humiliating and exhausting. You must recognize this emotional toll and approach the situation with logic rather than panic. The money is gone and you cannot magically wish it back into existence. You must focus entirely on the actionable steps of the appeal process and the strategic management of the remaining funds. Wallowing in regret regarding past investment choices will not pay the tuition bill. You must compartmentalize the emotional pain and execute a rigid financial recovery plan to keep your child enrolled.
Long-Term Impacts on Graduation Timelines and Career Choices
A sudden loss of college savings rarely results in a child dropping out of school entirely but it almost always alters their academic trajectory. When the 529 plan evaporates the student often takes on part time employment to help cover living expenses. Working twenty hours a week while attempting to maintain a rigorous academic schedule inevitably leads to dropped classes and lower grades. A standard four year degree quickly stretches into a five or six year marathon which dramatically increases the total cost of the education. The reliance on loans to bridge the gap also alters the students post graduation career choices. A student graduating with forty thousand dollars in high interest debt cannot afford to take a low paying internship in their dream industry or pursue a passion project. They are forced to immediately seek high salary corporate positions simply to service the monthly loan payments. The market crash that destroyed the 529 plan effectively dictates the parameters of the students early adult life. This long term reality makes the financial aid appeal process absolutely critical. Every single dollar you can extract from the university through a successful Professional Judgment review is a dollar of debt the student does not have to carry into their professional career.
Frequently Asked Questions About the 529 Value Loss Appeal Process
Does a market loss guarantee my appeal will be approved by the university?
No appeal is ever guaranteed. The financial aid administrators have complete discretion regarding Professional Judgment. They will review your documentation but they might decide that your remaining income and assets are still sufficient to cover the expected family contribution. The success of the appeal depends entirely on the specific policies of the university and the severity of your documented loss.
How long does the financial aid appeal process typically take?
The timeline varies wildly depending on the specific university and the time of year. If you submit an appeal in late July right before the fall semester begins the office is likely overwhelmed and it might take several weeks to receive a decision. You should submit the appeal the moment you have the necessary documentation and follow up politely via email if you do not hear back within fourteen days.
Can I appeal the financial aid package every single year if the market stays down?
Yes you must submit a new federal application every single year and the financial aid office calculates a new package annually. If the market does not recover and your assets remain depressed you must file a new appeal every single year to ensure the school is using the most current valuations. They do not automatically carry over a Professional Judgment decision from one academic year to the next.
Will an appeal reduce my federal student loan eligibility?
A successful appeal that lowers your Student Aid Index will generally increase your eligibility for need based grants. It will not reduce your access to standard federal direct loans. In fact lowering your Student Aid Index might convert some of your unsubsidized federal loans into subsidized federal loans which saves you a massive amount of money because the government pays the interest while the student is enrolled.
Should I hire a professional consultant to write my appeal letter?
While there are many expensive consultants who offer this service you can entirely navigate this process yourself. The financial aid office does not care about fancy letterhead or legal jargon. They only care about the raw numbers and the official account statements. If you can write a clear paragraph and attach a PDF of your bank statement you do not need to pay a third party to manage your appeal.
Final Thoughts
Reflecting on the entire college funding apparatus I am constantly struck by how aggressively the system punishes families who attempt to do the right thing. I look at the current landscape and see parents who skipped vacations and drove old cars to fund a 529 plan only to have the federal formula demand they liquidate those assets at the exact worst possible moment in economic history. It feels deeply unfair that a responsible family can be derailed by a sudden market correction while a family that saved nothing is often rewarded with massive Pell Grants. I have watched parents weep over these forms because they feel they have failed their children despite doing everything the financial experts advised them to do. The financial aid system is a rigid unfeeling machine that only understands numbers on a specific date.
My advice to anyone caught in this specific nightmare is to fight relentlessly for every single dollar. You cannot accept the initial award letter as a final verdict. You must view the financial aid office not as an adversary but as a gatekeeper that requires a very specific type of key. That key is immaculate documentation and a polite but persistent demand for a Professional Judgment review. You are entirely your own advocate in this process. Nobody at the university is going to volunteer to lower your tuition bill out of the goodness of their hearts. You must force the issue by presenting an airtight case of involuntary financial hardship. The process is exhausting and often degrading but the reward of securing a few thousand extra dollars in grant money can entirely alter the financial future of your family.
Legal Disclaimers
The information provided in this article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal tax or financial advice. The strategies discussed regarding federal financial aid appeals Professional Judgment and 529 plan management are based on current Department of Education guidelines which are subject to change by legislative action or administrative interpretation. Individual financial circumstances vary drastically and the success of any financial aid appeal depends entirely on the discretion of individual university administrators. Readers are strongly encouraged to consult with a certified financial planner a qualified tax professional or a licensed attorney before making any significant decisions regarding college funding investment liquidation or student loan assumption. The author and publisher disclaim any liability for actions taken based on the information provided herein and past market performance of any investment vehicle is never a guarantee of future results.