How to Open & Contribute to a 529 Plan

Video Transcript

"Ok so how to open and contribute to a 529 plan. First thing to do when you are opening a 529 plan is to do the full research. And make sure that you've looked at all the different 529 plans that are available. And there are a lot. You want to make sure that they also cover the institution that you intend on using for the education. And when you are doing your contributions to the 529 plan you are also going to make sure that you are not putting in too much money. This is often the case when you have multiple family members. You maybe have parents and grandparents that are all independently making deposits if you contribute too much money there will be penalties involved. So you want to make sure that you don't do that and that everybody is in communication with each other and there is maybe a one point person who is tracking the contributions to the account. And that's really you know one of your biggest risks after you figured out which 529 plan to use and which institution you want to use and you've got enough money to fund that. You want to just make sure that your contributions are on track and you are maximizing them but not putting in too much. And really that is how you will open and contribute to your 529."