@BelknapPoint - Law firms have very little value without the people who generate the business. I don’t think this need to be about me. The point is that people who own businesses with others do not have access to the cash. It isn’t their cash. While it is true that they own the business that owns the cash they do not have access to the cash. They accounts receivable are not available to pay college tuition, car payments, or other household bills.
Again, this will not really affect us as our income alone will be high enough so that we do not qualify for financial aid. One of the schools my son is applying to requires the CSS Profile in order to qualify for merit aid so we filled it out. I also filled it out when my oldest applied to college (same reason).
I understand the need for colleges to assess all sources of funding when doing financial aid calculations but I do think that assuming all business assets are available to fund college can sometimes be a wrong assumption, especially when the business in question is not wholly owned. I realize that people who do not own businesses sometimes think that businesses are places where people can hold all sorts of money away from scrutiny. The truth is that whether that can be done depends on the individual situation. When running a business with a brick and mortar location and employees there needs to be cash around to run the business itself. The same is true for retail and manufacturing businesses. There needs to be cash to invest in inventory/storage.
I think it is difficult for colleges to see the entire business situation on paper.
Again, my comments aren’t really me. I do not expect to qualify for any need based aid based on income. I am simply stating the problem can be severe if income is not high but there is an ongoing business with assets. I don’t really know the answer to the problem. I just know there can be a problem.